RFH Fitness Holidays Fitness & Weight Loss Holidays & Boot Camps

The Team at Rio Frio Holidays

About Us

RFH Fitness is a specialist branch of Rio Frio Holidays, under which name we have been providing fitness, weight-loss and activity holidays in Spain since 2004.

At RFH Fitness Holidays we are professionally qualified and offer weight-management and fitness holidays and fitness boot camps for guests of all abilities and ages, including groups and families.

RFH Fitness Holidays is run by Mel Richards and Janina Rajecki. As a team, we work closely with a number of specially selected, locally-based professionals to bring you the highest quality service possible and to make your holiday a rewarding and unforgettable experience.

Mel Richards

Trainer / Guide / Administration

Mel is the first point of contact for all guests. As well as handling all enquiries and administrative matters, he leads many of the runs, rides and hikes and directs all of the gym-based sessions. As a very highly qualified and experienced Personal Trainer, Mel is able to conduct assessments of health and fitness, design exercise programmes and give advice on nutrition. He is also a qualified Boxercise and Extreme Kettlebell Instructor, as well as a Sports Therapist.

Mel is also a British Association of Cycling Coaches-accredited coach, a first-aider, and a member of both the Andalucian Cycling Federation and the Andalucian Mountaineering Federation. He has years of experience of trekking, cycling (both on and off road) and ultra-running - including successful participation in the Yukon Arctic Ultra, the Grand Union Canal Race and a whole host of running, hiking, mountain biking and road cycling events in Andalucia.

Janina Rajecki

Trainer / Guide

Janina is a qualified Tourism Activities Organiser and Guide, as well as an Aerobics Instructor. In addition to her native Finland, Janina has also worked in Spain and the UK and has travelled extensively throughout Europe, South America, Australia and Asia. She is a regular runner and cyclist, who regularly participates in local races and other events.

Pilar Miranda Fernández

Nutrition

Pilar is a fully-qualified pharmacist, with 9 years experience as a dietitian. As well as working with clients of RFH Fitness, Pilar is a nutrition consultant to local elite and amateur athletes and works with the local community as a consultant at the Nutrition Counseling Centre in Antequera.

Utilising the principles of the much vaunted "Mediterranean diet" (which consists of salads, fruits, pasta, vegetables, meat, fish, olive oil, whole meal bread and wholegrain cereal), Pilar will prepare a nutrition plan totally customised and tailored to your metabolic requirements; a plan based on sound scientific principles, which takes account of your activity levels and nutritional needs. The nutrition plans produced by Pilar are realistic, healthy and sustainable, and they will give you the knowledge to change your eating habits to benefit your health - not just to lose weight and not just for now, but in the future too.

Lissa Dells

Cognitive Training

Lissa Dells is a qualified physiotherapist and holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science, the science of learning, motivation and adjusting to new perceptions.

Lissa has 35 years of experience coaching clients of all ages in motivation, stability, adjusting to hormonal and seasonal changes (includes relieving autumn/winter SAD), reducing work-related stresses, improving the quality of sleep, managing young people, improving individual body image and staying young. Her exercises can make it easier to integrate better fitness habits into daily life and into relationships - demonstrating, for example, how couples and families can support each other in their fitness and weight-management goals.

In addition to being our resident personal trainer for "brain fitness" and positive body image exercises, Lissa conducts training in motivation and consistency with clients from all over the world - in 4 languages!

John Paish

Tennis Coaching

John Paish has been coaching tennis for the last 20 years, both as a club coach and working for the British Lawn Tennis Association with top young international players. Now living in Spain, John is able to provide top quality coaching for guests of RFH Fitness Holidays.

One of John's chief advantages as a coach lies in his knowledge and understanding of players, derived from having played professionally to reach a World Ranking of 84. He has competed in all 4 Grand Slam events and represented Great Britain at The Davis Cup in 1971 and 1972. At Wimbledon, he reached the semi-finals of the Men's Doubles (with David Lloyd) and the Last 32 of the Men's Singles.

John has also coached in the United States and in the Netherlands, where he worked as Head Pro in a top country club. Having worked and lived in the USA, Holland, Germany and the UK, as well as touring the world as a professional player, John is well able to understand and help players of all ages, standards and nationalities.

Suzanne Wildman-Chard

Yoga

Suzanne Wildman-Chard holds a D.Sc. (Medical Sciences) and is qualified as a teacher of Hatha Yoga with the British School of Yoga. Suzanne specialises in a large range of Yoga teaching, including: classes for beginners, seniors, children with challenging behaviours, expectant mothers and Tantric.

Suzanne can count a number of UK celebrities amongst her clients and has made appearances on television. She was also a radio phone-in "agony aunt" for Radio Kent!

As well as being the resident Yoga teacher with RFH Fitness Holidays, Suzanne is the director of The Wildman-Chard Centre for Yoga, Health and Beauty.