Fancy Escaping and going on an Active Holiday? Thanks to New Horizon Escapes you now can as they offer Active Holiday Retreats to places like Thailand & Bali.
Spa it Girl spoke exclusively with Founders of New Horizon Escapes: Adam Rogers & Ina Plescae who gave us the inside scoop on what an Active Escape really is.
Meet Adam Rogers & Ina Plescae:
What Inspired you to Start New Horizon Escapes? We have always been into travel, and fitness, but it was actually when we were living on a small island in Thailand (Koh Tao) where we were running a gym, that we started thinking about the possibility of people coming out to Thailand for fitness holidays. The idea kinda faded into the background until around 14 months later when we were back in the cold, gloomy weather of the UK trying to come up with a way to escape the 9-5 grind and the miserable weather. That’s when it popped back into our heads, and before we knew it we were building a website, booking villas and taking our first group of unsuspecting victims to Thailand.
What does a typical day look like on a New Horizon Escape? Well, every location tends to have a slightly different structure, and we like to keep it varied, so it’s not often that two days will be the same anyway, but i suppose a typical day would be a nice early rise and a wholesome breakfast, followed by a half day activity like Surfing, White Water Rafting, Hiking or Rock Climbing, a beautiful lunch in a local restaurant, then a couple of hours for guests to relax by the pool before a late afternoon/early evening training session, and finally another delicious meal. Obviously this is pretty generalised, but you get the idea :)
What do you love most about running your New Horizon Escapes? We love to travel and we love to share our favourite places in the world with people. It also gives us an opportunity to hopefully inspire people to make changes in their lives both from a physical and mental health perspective. Our escapes are not just about fitness, they are a way to show people that life is beautiful, amazing, exciting, and that every day should be cherished.
We see you love holding your New Horizon Escapes in Thailand and Bali can you tell us why? Well we’ve spent a lot of time in Thailand over the past couple of years, and no matter where else we go in the world it always seems to pull us back, so we wanted to show people the place that we love. With Bali it just seemed to tick all the boxes when it comes to offering people a jam packed adventure holiday. I mean, there really isn’t much you CAN’T do in Bali, plus it seems to be on most people’s wish list of places they want to visit.
If your on your own and a solo traveller can you still book in for a New Horizon Escapes? Still? Absolutely! We cater for all sorts of people, and tend to get a complete mixed bag of guests from married couples, to friends, to singles. We’ve even had a couple of single people start a bit of a romance while with us, which was awesome. Maybe we should start a dating retreat next, could be fun ;)
What Health & Wellness Benefits can people expect from doing a New Horizon Escape Holiday? People can expect to be challenged in every way possible. As much as we do traditional training sessions with people, we aim for guests to get a majority of their exercise through awesome outdoor activities that not only burn serious Calories, but get the adrenaline pumping as well. With the food we have a bit of a motto: “We don’t dictate, we educate”. Life is about enjoying yourself, and we want people to enjoy what they eat, so give guests the freedom to choose their meals, but we give them the tools they need to make an informed decision about what they put in their body. It’s about making “better” choices and empowering them to continue making “better” choices when they get back home.
How do you like to personally keep fit and healthy? We are both proper gym freaks and try to train every day. For me, it’s all about the free weights and heavy resistance training. I usually like to train alone and use the gym like a meditation session. Ina is much more of a social creature so likes to do more group oriented training like CrossFit, or Kickboxing/Muay Thai. She’s actually a blackbelt kick boxer, so I have to watch my back! We have actually both just started surfing as well, which we hope will become a new way for us to keep fit.
What do you like to eat mostly? EVERYTHING! Of course we both have goals and our diets will be 90% steered toward that goal, so will consist of a lot of whole foods, fish, meat, and vegetables, but we are human, so do like to let loose occasionally, which usually comes in the form of a trip to the movies and a large popcorn each.
Do you Cross Train? Or Do HITT training? A bit of everything really. Again, my training mostly consists of heavy weight training, but my rest periods are very short, so that would be considered HIIT. Ina is more of a Cross Trainer, she likes to do a bit of everything, and seems to be allergic to rest periods!
Do you have any of your own health and wellness tips you would like to share to help others? Please stop the Guilt. Feeling guilty after eating something is probably the biggest reason that a lot of people struggle to lose weight. If you eat something highly Calorific, or high in sugar (notice i’m not using the word “bad”) then just acknowledge that you’ve eaten it and MOVE ON. That one chocolate bar isn’t going to make you overweight, The next 20 that you eat as a reaction to the guilt and depression will though. This is something I spend a LONG time talking to my clients about, and It’s very difficult to sum up in one paragraph but people need to improve their relationship with food, because food is AWESOME!
As busy personal trainers do you take any days off the gym or training? Of course, but we listen to our bodies and choose accordingly. Sometimes we might go a couple of weeks without a day off, but we’ve been doing this a long time so have gotten pretty good at knowing when to put the breaks on for a day or two.
If someone is struggling with losing weight what words of wisdom or advice would you give them? TV shows like “Biggest Loser” have dangerously warped people’s expectations of how much weight they should be losing weekly, but you know what. Just Google what the “Biggest Loser” contestants all look like now. They pretty much all put the weight back on, and some! Trust me when i say, the only diet that works, is the one you can stick to, every single day, for a long time. Don’t look for quick fixes, because I can guarantee that you will NOT keep the weight off long term. With weight loss, it’s a tortoise and hare situation, slow and steady wins the race.
Do you have any favourite day spa treatments you like to have whilst on your Health Retreats? Personally I don’t think you can beat a good massage. I carry so much tension in my body that it actually can start to affect the way i think sometimes, so I usually know when it’s time to go for a solid 90 mins massage, and let all my problems fade away!
Do you think people everyone should do resistance weight training? Absolutely everyone should do resistance training in one form or another. Even 80 year old women should be doing it! But most people view resistance training as “bodybuilding, whereas it comes in so many more forms than that and is absolutely vital to build strength and overall physical health.
Why is it good to Cross Train? Cross Training is about getting your body adapting to a wide range of stresses, and therefore becoming generally fitter and stronger. Personally I would ensure you can perform each movement competently first before throwing a load of different exercises together as this can do more harm than good if you do it with poor technique.
What do you love most about Yoga? The way it makes you feel afterwards. Ina is far more experienced than I at Yoga, but whenever I do Yoga I always walk away feeling relaxed, refreshed, realigned and very positive mentally. The flexibility side is great too, but for me it’s definitely more of a mental/spiritual thing.
How can we book a New Horizons Escape with you? Easy Peasy! Just head over to www.newhorizonescapes.com, pick a location and see what we’ve got going on. Places can be booked with just a 30% deposit, and you’ve then got until 12 weeks before the escape to pay the rest of your balance. Plus, if you’re a reader of this interview you can use the code: SPAITGIRL for an exclusive £80 off.
For More Information Contact:
New Horizon Escapes: www.newhorizonescapes.com
Instagram: @Newhorizonescapes
FaceBook: New Horizon Active Escapes
Twitter: @NH_Escapes