About
I'm Tom Edwards, a personal trainer in Sandbach
I coach people who already know a fair bit about food, training and what they should be doing, but can't get it to stick. That was me for years, so I know how it goes. Knowing more isn't always the answer. Often it's having a reliable system in place that makes it harder to go off plan than to stick with it.
The short version
I was the overweight kid. Twelve stone at twelve, thirteen at thirteen, and it carried on like that for a while. My family does food properly: Friday takeaways, Sunday roasts with pudding, birthdays at a favourite restaurant. So when I decided to lose weight as a teenager, I tried to live on plain chicken and salad. It felt like cutting off part of who I was, and half the time I wasn't even sure I was doing the right thing.
I found the gym with my mates at fifteen and did far too much, in the least scientific way possible. Then I went to Leeds to study Fine Art and become an art teacher. I took up kickboxing for the university, competed at heavyweight, and ended up coaching half the squad. That turned out to be the teaching I actually wanted to do.
I worked four departments at the big Tesco to pay for my PT qualification, quit as soon as I'd qualified, and I've coached in Sandbach since 2014.
The thing that took me longest to learn was that I didn't need to be perfect. Years of chasing "optimal" got me less than being roughly right most of the time. Your results come from the average of your efforts, and that's most of what I teach: how to keep making progress week by week, even through the weeks that would normally have you dropping off plan because you don't have the time, don't know how to juggle it all, or feel like you can't stick to anything.
I use the same approach on myself
On 1 January 2026 I weighed 91.8kg, after multiple surgeries in 2025. On 22 August, the day of my photoshoot, I weighed 75.9kg. That's just under 16kg in a little under eight months.
Those months also had family holidays, stag dos, my birthday, parties and plenty of meals out in them. I planned around those events the same way I'd plan around yours. And no, that didn't mean taking a single plastic tub of cold chicken and broccoli to any of them.
It all comes down to proper planning, effective training that builds you up, and the background education and system to understand why you're doing everything with your big goal in mind. That combination makes the plan far easier to stick to, and reaching your goal much more a matter of when than if.
Different lighting, obviously. The 16kg is the same in any light.
What I believe about coaching
Optimal only counts if you can do it
A five-day programme might be better on paper. If you can reliably get to the gym three times, that's a fairly academic advantage.
Food has pros and cons, not morals
Having cake means less room for other things that day. It doesn't mean you've been bad, and it doesn't mean the day's gone.
A bad week is information
I'd rather you have one early on. It shows us exactly where you need more support, and we can plan for it next time.
You should know why you're doing it
My idea of failing as a coach is a client ordering a burger without the bun and, when someone asks why, saying "because my coach told me to".
Outside the gym
I'm a dad and a husband. I eat toast most days, and I'll happily argue that mashed and boiled are the lowest forms of potato. Weekends are for family time, attempting to tame the garden, and a nice low and slow barbecue if the weather allows (sometimes even if it doesn't).
I love strength training and have never been a fan of cardio, which makes my current goal of a sub-20-minute 5k slightly awkward. Some days I don't fancy the gym either. I go anyway, tell myself I'll just do the first set, and nine times out of ten that's enough to get me going.
Qualifications and training
- Level 3 Personal Trainer
- Precision Nutrition Level 1
- Phil Learney Advanced Coaching Academy
- M10 Physique Coach mentorship
- BA Fine Art, University of Leeds
- coaching in Sandbach since
- 2014
- average time in-person clients stay
- 2 years+
If this sounds like your kind of coach
Book a 20-minute call. Tell me what's been getting in the way, and I'll tell you whether I can help and which option I'd pick for you.