A personal training and performance coaching practice built on a simple idea. Adults with real lives deserve the same standard of coaching that dedicated athletes get, delivered with respect for the diary in front of them.
MF Performance Coaching is the practice of Martin Fenn, an experienced strength and conditioning coach based in Reading. Martin has spent his career coaching adults who lift with a purpose, from first-time gym-goers rebuilding confidence under the bar, through to competitive powerlifters chasing a total. The practice sits at the intersection of that experience, technical strength coaching that is friendly, direct and calibrated to real life.
Straight-talking, technical, and quietly demanding. Sessions run to a plan. Cues are specific. Feedback is direct without being blunt for the sake of it. Progress is tracked, celebrated when earned, and adjusted when the week goes sideways.
The job of a good coach is to make hard training feel achievable, not to look impressive on Instagram. That means fewer novelty exercises, more repetition of the fundamentals, and a lot of honest conversation about what is really moving the needle.
Years spent coaching on the gym floor, running 1:1 sessions with adults from every walk of life. A working understanding of the barbell lifts, honest conditioning, injury-aware progression, and the reality of coaching people who are also holding down demanding jobs and families.
The remote arm of the practice grew out of clients who moved away from Reading and asked to keep working together. It has now become its own stream, serving lifters across the UK who train in their own gyms.
A short list of principles that shape every programme. Nothing revolutionary, just the standards a good coach ought to hold.
Two ways to work with MF Performance. Both are held to the same standard. Both are built for adults who want structured, capable coaching.
The practice runs 1:1 sessions in Reading, UK. Sessions are 60 minutes, run to a written programme, and include cue-level technique work, honest feedback, and progression that gets logged and reviewed week to week.
The Reading base is convenient for clients working in central Reading, coming in from the surrounding towns, or dropping in on the way back from London. Session times run early mornings through to evenings across the week.
For clients outside Reading, remote programming delivers the same standard of coaching without needing to be in the same room. Bespoke weekly programmes, video review of the lifts that matter, and written feedback that turns into concrete adjustments the following week.
Remote works well for self-motivated clients who train in their own gym, home gym, or corporate facility. Location does not matter, communication does. Weekly cadence keeps momentum steady even when travel or life gets in the way.
Coaching is a job, and the job is to make people better at something they care about. The rest is decoration. MF Performance Operating Principle