Sunderland's SAS Who Dares Wins star Chris Oliver helps people get fit for 2024

Sunderland born SAS Who Dares Wins star Chris Oliver has teamed up with national keep fit enterprise, The Gym Group, to launch a motivational support service to help people stick to their New Year's resolutions to get fit and healthy for 2024.

The initiative, which is running from Thursday January 18 until Wednesday January 31, will provide a dial up hotline for people to get advice and motivation to get fit for 2024.

Chris, whose family still lives in Sunderland, joined the popular Channel 4 show in January 2023.

Before joining the show he served for 16 years in the military as a Special Forces Operator and Royal Marine Mountain Leader where he was was deployed on operations to Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland, Oman, Iraq and Afghanistan.

With fitness having always been an important part of Chris's life, his Wearside accent will be the first voice any callers to the service will hear as he gives would be gym goers a "no nonsense" rallying call to encourage them to get active and stick to their goals.

Chris, 41, said: "We often start the year with good intentions and goals we want to hit, but it’s easy for that motivation to wane as the weeks go on.

"While I favour a no-nonsense approach to keep myself accountable, not everyone is receptive to the same style - so I’m buzzing to be working with The Gym Group on this hotline that’ will help everyone stay motivated to hit their fitness goals.”

After hearing from Chris, callers then get to hear from other fitness experts about the benefits of getting fit and how to become the "strongest and best version of yourself".

The last person callers will hear from on the hotline is Gym Group's Master Trainer, Jenni Tardiff, who will offer advice on how people can achieve their goals.

She said: "Sometimes, all you need is a little reminder of the fitness journey you have embarked on. At The Gym Group we have always tried to break down barriers to fitness and help motivate more people to exercise for their physical and mental health.

"This hotline will hopefully help meet the needs of every type of gym goer and is sure to help support more members from the couch to the class.”

The launch of the hotline follows research conducted by The Gym Group, among 1,250 Brits who currently have a gym membership, revealing that lack of time (41%) and lack of motivation (35%) ranked highest as the reasons people are most likely to put off going to the gym.

The findings also showed that 77% find it hard to motivate themselves to go to the gym and 82% admitted they’d like to feel more motivated, with 79% of those claiming someone else pushing them to do so would help. 

The Gym Group has 233 gyms nationally including in Ryhope. People can call the Dial a PT hotline on 020 3996 2804.