FlareLab — My Story

Hi, I'm Howard.

I'm Howard, i've spent years learning how to build fitness around an unpredictable body.Living with Crohn's taught me that rigid fitness plans often fail for reasons that have nothing to do with motivation. Your body knows things no training plan can predict. Energy levels, stress, sleep, life; they all affect how you show up.Fighting that never works.This philosophy helped me bring what I've learned from having a chronic illness to the wider world of fitness, incorporating key things I've learned to make fitness a habit, rather than a chore.

In March 2025, I was admitted to A&E with a severe virus which had caused me to be bed-bound for over a month, and miss the last portion of my time in college. This led me to not only stay as an inpatient for a further week in hospital, but also be diagnosed with Crohn's disease after a colonoscopy 4 weeks later.At my lowest point I had lost a quarter of my bodyweight. I was underweight, exhausted, and completely disconnected from any sense of physical strength or confidence.For two years prior, I had been training consistently in the gym; not only to put on size/strength, but to also feel good. Losing all my progress (and more) was devastating. I had trained so long, all for it to be taken away just like that.

It's this moment which shaped my thinking behind FlareLab. That I needed to learn to work with my body, not against it. That same week I was released from hospital, I was back in the gym with a new frame of mind. A new way of thinking, a better way of thinking.Rebuilding wasn't about following a programme. It was about learning to listen to my body, understanding what it needed on any given day, and building consistency around reality rather than fighting against it.FlareLab is built on 3 years of lived training experience, not a generic guide. It's using applied techniques to improve the general fitness advice that has harmed me and so many others.

This industry needs real change, and I'm going to be the one to deliver it.

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