Lesley Dempsey is the founder and managing director of Fusion Fitness Carlow. She qualified as a Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer in 1994 and she has been teaching fitness classes ever since. Her passion for fitness came at a young age when she competed at championship level in squash. She went on to further her studies and became a qualified Coach in Rugby, Squash and Soccer. Due to reoccurring knee injuries she no longer plays these sports but she remains an avid fan from the side lines.
Most people would allow an injury to tarnish their career or in some cases finish it completely but not Lesley… Driven by a thirst for knowledge and the willpower and determination to self-heal, she went on to study and qualify as a Neuromuscular Therapist (NMT) in 2000. She began treating clients regularly and this became her main income for many years. She has some very high profile sports personalities on her books as well as some high profile television personalities. Her proudest achievement to date was travelling as an NMT for the Irish Paralympic Team to Beijing in 2007 and then again for the World Games in Canada in 2007 where many bronze, silver and gold medals were brought back to Ireland by these amazing athletes. It was a gruelling schedule but Lesley loved every minute of it.
Her skills in the NMT world do not just include Humans!!! As a young child, Lesley has had a love and a bond with Horses that is indescribable. She has ridden from a very early age and has owned her own horses over the years. However, her real love comes from being able to treat these majestic animals to give them relief from sports injuries, muscle soreness, and/or behavioural issues. These animals are sports professionals in their own right and they need just as much maintenance and attention as their fellow human athletes. Lesley qualified as an Equine NMT and has treated hundreds, if not thousands of horses over the last 15 years with major effect. She is never fazed by their size or nature as she knows that once she puts her hands on the horse to help, they respond with absolute honesty and loyalty. Some well-known horse yards Lesley had worked in are Charlie Swans Racing Yard, Corries Cross (Eventing Stables), Temple Stables and Pilswoth Stud to mention a few.
Lesley has a passion for helping people, she is an educator in every sense of the word. While studying for her own Fitness Instructing and NMT courses, she was hand-picked to become an educator/facilitator on these courses. She has taught fitness instructors how to be fitness instructors for over 10 years. She absolutely loved this work and in 2010 she took a role as the Making Connections Manager under the Carlow County Development Partnership. This job involved working with people, on a one to one basis, from different walks of life who all came from substance misuse backgrounds. Lesley’s main goal was to help to educate her students with the basic Junior Cert Level skills and also fitness, home cooking, literacy and numeracy skills amongst many other life skills. Many of her clients have gone on to pursue their Leaving Certificates with some progressing to Higher Education. Lesley loved this role but it was through this job that her fitness career re-emerged. She had been asked to teach on behalf of the Carlow VEC for different groups. She began teaching them Zumba® and other Aerobic type classes. She had been out of the group fitness teaching for a couple of years but the buzz of it left her wanting more……
The demand for her group classes was becoming over whelming and after 3 – 4 years of trying to juggle her separate roles she felt it was time to pursue her passion for teaching fitness class and having a huge impact on people’s physical, emotional and mental health.
She put on her own public Zumba® Classes in Tullow and Carlow Town. They were a huge success. She was renting different halls such as the Presentation College, The Carlow Rugby Club, St. Fiacc’s Hall etc… Her real goal was to find her own premises where she could introduce her many other classes that she had qualified in so that she could offer lots of variety to her very loyal customer base. In November 2014 she found her own premises on the Portlaoise Road in Graiguecullen, Carlow. The unit had previously been a car show room so it was wide open and perfect to house group fitness classes. With a few tweaks (and lots of sweat!!!) the studio was ready to launch on December 1st 2014. Having her own base allowed her to offer so much more and to appeal to a much wider market. And as they say the rest is history…….
Fusion Fitness has gone from strength to strength. With 3 full time instructors and 23 classes per week on in the studio alone, there is always something available to get the people of Carlow moving. While physical health is so important, the classes are so fun and inclusive that the change in peoples overall mental health has been attributed by local G.P.’s to this fitness studio and for that Lesley could not be more proud. She wanted to provide a place where a 13 year old could come with her 20 year old sister/brother or her 38 year old mam/dad or her 45 year old aunty/uncle or her 75 year old gran/grandad. After working in the community for many years, Lesley knows there was a real need for inclusion. Exercise is not for the elite, it is for everyone. It is vital in this day and age where obesity is on the rise and where suicide figures are so high that there is a space for everyone to come with no judgement and no fear. Our classes are affordable and they are varied to suit everyone regardless of fitness level, age or ability. We are also very lucky to be able to teach classes to some wonderful private groups such as The Carlow Supported Training Services, The Delta Centre, Cairdeas Centre in Tullow and BEAM Services in Bagenalstown.
Some of the many qualifications in group fitness held by Lesley are: Tai Chi; Fitboxe; Aerobics; Aqua Aerobics; Pre & Post Natal Exercise; & Step Classes. She is certified to teach Zumba®; Zumba Gold®; Zumba Kids®; & Zumba Step®, Fitsteps, Bounce DanceFit, Tomboogie, POUND®, RIP60™, Piloxing Knockout® and Metafit™.
Other Relevant Qualifications:
Lesley has also qualified in providing Auricular (Ear) Acupuncture Treatments. In order to keep her licence, she retests every year under NADA Eireann.
This is also recognised as Acupuncture for Substance Use. Lesley combines this treatment with a guided meditation to create a relaxed atmosphere as the acupuncture works with the body’s chakras.
She has also qualified as an Oncologist Massage Therapist under the Obus Holistic Courses. She gives treatments to people who have cancer or who are recovering from cancer. This is a very rewarding role. She has also studied Hopi Ear Candling and Cupping Massage under The Obus Holistic School also. She uses these treatments as part of her NMT sessions if required.
Lesley’s thirst for knowledge is never ending, she retrains constantly to ensure that she has the most up to date programs available for her clients. She believes there is always new improvements in the way we work and it is up to us individually to go out and research new methods or new trends to understand what her customers want and need. Her ultimate dream is to one day open her own college. Watch this space……
Phil Slattery is the manager of Fusion Fitness Carlow. She is relatively new to the fitness arena. However, she is no stranger to the managerial world as she has held managerial positions in both the Hospitality and Telecommunications Industries. Phil’s passion has always been “people power”. That may sound very airy fairy but she believes that people coming together to help one another is the only way to tackle the crisis of suicide and depression. She is no stranger to depression as she has battled with it on and off all her life thus far. She loves the psychology of the mind and has always wanted to be a trained Professional Psychotherapist. However, she was not a lover of school and she found the world of work very early on and loved the independence it gave her!!!! Her academic days were put on hold after her Leaving Certificate.
As a child, Phil was involved in Ballroom and Set Dancing but she did not pursue either past an amateur level as she always struggled with her weight. However, her love of dance has always remained and she had always hoped to go back to learn more skills in this area but she was unsure how to go about it.
Phil came to a crossroads in her life when she felt she needed to do something very different, she was becoming bored in her day to day working life and felt there had to be more she could be doing. She went on to study Foundation Level Psychotherapy in 2007, as it was always a calling for her. In 2008, she entered Carlow College (St. Patrick’s College) to study Applied Social Studies in Social Care. She really wanted to work in the community with vulnerable groups but she was unsure of what area best suited her. Her college days allowed her to try out different areas and her love of working with people with disabilities was ignited in this time – very much to her own surprise!!!: as it was an area she had no previous interest in. After 4 tough but enjoyable years she graduated with a B.A. Honours Degree in Applied Social Studies in Social Care.
Due to her own weight issues, Phil attended a Zumba Class in 2012 and there her love for dance was totally reignited. She was heavily over weight at the time and really didn’t know what to do but Lesley encouraged her to take a class knowing that she would love it. What hit Phil straight away was that no one cared what she looked like, or how big she was. Everyone was too busy trying to follow Lesley’s fun choreographies. The atmosphere was so inclusive and so welcoming, that Phil went back week after week until she was attending up to 6 classes a week. She hated gyms with a passion and she had grouped all fitness classes in the same category for such a long time. Now she saw what she’d been missing and it totally opened up her eyes. After losing 7 stone exercising and eating correctly, Phil went on to certify as a Zumba® Fitness Instructor with the full backing, support and encouragement of Lesley. Since then she has also certified as a Zumba® Gold, Zumba® Kids and Zumba® Step Instructor. She has also trained as a FitSteps® Ballroom Fitness Instructor and a Tomboogie Instructor. She now teaches Zumba® Gold and FitSteps® full time. She will soon be launching Tomboogie classes, which she is extremely excited about.
Phil decided to combine her Social Care skills with her dancing skills and decided that Zumba® Gold would allow her to teach vulnerable groups who would not normally have this type of class offered to them. She began with mainly older adults in her class but as time has gone on her classes have evolved and grown so much that she has ages 13 and upwards in her classes. What she found was that people felt a little intimidated by the thoughts of a regular Zumba® Fitness class so they now try out Gold first. A lot of them will gain such confidence that they will very quickly find themselves taking other classes they previously never dreamed they would be able for. Phil loves seeing this transition, it is a very proud moment for her. Of course she also has her very loyal diehard customers who will never leave her and she adores them!!! It has grown into a family that she could not imagine herself living without.
The other area she really wanted to work in was with people with disabilities. She contacted local groups of people with disabilities to trial classes. She had previously/and is currently teaching classes with the Irish Wheelchair Association, The Delta Centre, Saplings, The Cairdeas Centre in Tullow and BEAM Services in Bagenalstown. She also teaches Rehab Care who join in with her public classes and have now become part of the fabric of Fusion Fitness Carlow.
Phil’s other role is to advertise and promote the great work that is done in Fusion Fitness. While Lesley had the vision, she did not know how to go about putting it into play. Phil brushed up on her Marketing Skills and got the word out there as much as she possibly could. Social Media plays a vital role in spreading the word throughout Carlow and the surrounding areas. Phil didn’t have much skills in this area when they first started but now you will never see her without her phone in her hand or posting up motivational quotes, knowing that someone out, there at that moment, really needs to feel that they are not alone. To understand the weight loss / weight gain struggle is probably one of Phil’s greatest assets. She is definitely not the typical fitness instructor but she has a real understanding and a bond with all of our clients. She knows when to give them a soft approach and a shoulder to lean on but she also knows when it’s time to kick ass!!!! It’s all about balance after all………
So what’s next for Phil????
Well, she is going to study reflexology starting in 2017. She also hopes to get a fitness instructor qualification within the next 12 months.
Fusion Fitness is part of her heart and her soul and her job is to keep the ship sailing forward all the time and remaining true to Lesley’s original goals.
Oh…. And she will keep on dancing………..