About Us

Established in 2006 Catch Fitness provides a variety of  unique initiatives, most notably the 20 Week Body & Lifestyle Competition, which provides the general public with proven solutions to achieving their health and fitness goals.

We pride ourselves in being sincere in our mission,devoted to the cause and creative in our solutions.

Creative Director- Broni (Bronwyn) McSweeney

I  started working in the fitness industry in 1997 after what had been a sedentary life mainly as a student, then as a lawyer, then as a passenger on trains, planes and automobiles as I backpacked around the world thinking I would always backpack around the world.

I was soon over backpacking and exchanged hostels for a tent and buses for a bike and hit the the Sth Island of NZ where I  saw mountains that I knew I could never leave! So began a new life, of mountaineering, climbing, kayaking, mountain biking etc and then the desire to work with my new found love of fitness by training to be a gym instructor, take aerobics classes and to personally train others to do what I had done and more.

After 10 years or so of living a dreamy existence,  I began running educational workshops for others in the fitness industry as well as lecturing Fitness Students at Christchurch Polytechnic.

Life only got dreamier – I now regularly present to others in the fitness industry at national conferences like GetNZActive and Business Grow, take a Seniors exercise class once a week (same class for 13 years) as well as train Circus Performers as part of the 3 year Degree course here in Christchurch and in between I get to lecture at Auckland University.

In 2010 I won the New Zealand Fitness Industry Award for Best Lecturer and was a  finalist in the Bella – Fitness Mentor Category, which proves that we  can can get good at stuff that we are not that good at, like public speaking and exercising, (both of which I grew up being hopeless at)  if we apply ourselves and better still, we can learn to love these things to the point where we couldn’t imagine life without them.

I  am now very proud to be part of the Active Canterbury Network which is full of good people who strive to really help our community and I ‘ve been fortunate enough to hang out with the cool staff members mentioned below who regularly succeed in reducing my mountains into mole hills.

The 20 Weeks Body & Lifestyle Competition is a dream come true for me.  It was a project which I had set almost impossibly high goals with, where priority one was the long term success of its entrants without using any gizmos or gimmicks or costing any one a fortune.  I still have lots of cool things to add to 20 Weeks – but even as it is it works really really well and not a day goes by when I don’t appreciate all the hard efforts of all those who  have helped make it such a success.

Lauren Parsons – The North Island Promotions Guru

Director of Pure Health & Wellbeing her company delivers a range of wellness solutions to individuals and businesses inclusive of Personal & Business Coaching, Speaking Engagements & Wellness Specialist Programmes.  Hugely passionate about inspiring as many people as she can  Lauren loves what she does as it gives her the opportunity to encourage and empower others to improve their overall wellness and live the extraordinary lives they deserve.

Email:lauren@laurenparsons.co.nz

Website: www.laurenparsons.co.nz

Phone: 021 348 661

Catch Fitness would not exist but for all the great personal trainers that inspired us to set it up and we could not have made it to today without the great advice, help and support of people like Jo Kent, Jean Scott, Aron Anderson, Phil Benoit, Kris Tynan, Carol Hides, Tarsh Guy, Desra Barron, Amanda Armitage, Leanne Thomas, Lyn Walker, Russell Graham and Mike Catton, who really got behind it from it’s early stages as did our initial entrants who helped us pilot this project and iron out all the details.

In the times that followed we have only grown  due to the help and support of people like Belinda Edmondston, Tony Curran and Tim Webster and our amazing sponsors inclusive of Elite Fitness, Diamond Mine,  Macpac and nWow!.

The biggest thanks must really go however to the two guys who owned Olympus Health and Fitness Centre, Stephen and Richard, who took me on as a gym instructor eons ago and who constantly pushed me (and supported me) to do more in this great industry.

And finally, at least for now, a big thanks must go the Greenwoods who have ensured I have a beautiful office with ocean views to work from.

Thanks to all of you, we are now going into the 8th successful series of the 20 Week Body & Lifestyle Competition.