Shawn Francis

Shawn Francis is the eldest son of Chief Brian Francis and in 2009 he began Fran Train Athletic Sports Conditioning as a personal fitness trainer.

Shawn is a bright eyed and enthusiastic person with an innate desire to help others. He holds a Can-Fit-Pro certificate from Canada’s largest organization of fitness professionals, and is constantly studying the Internet and books for better ways to perform exercises at a high level of consistency.

“This qualification is important,” says Shawn. “You’ve got to know about blood pressure, heart rate and different muscle groups.”

He adds that it is also important to look for someone with experience when choosing a motivational personal trainer, and he’s got plenty of that, both locally and on a world-wide basis.

These days, he works out at the gym regularly and plays recreational hockey five times a week. In 2006, he benched as much as 465 pounds, and squatted and dead lifted as much as 600 pounds.

When he was 22 and in his fourth competition as a power lifter, he competed against power lifters from Latvia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Hungary, South Africa, Finland, Poland, Japan, Germany, United States, Slovakia, Norway, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iceland, Sweden, Lithuania, Czechia and Canada in the 24th Junior Men's World Championships held in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Shawn says Canadian power lifting consists of three lifts: the squat, the bench press and the dead lift. With the squat you have the bar on your back and you’re squatting down to below parallel; with the bench press the weight is taken down, rested on your chest and when the ref says go, you’re allowed to press it up without wiggling and with straight arms; and the dead lift consists of pulling off the ground and walking your shoulders up without any hitching.

Earlier this year he did some work for Bernie Cheverie, GM and Head Coach of the Campbellton Junior A Tigers team. He was asked to develop some hockey players from the Eskasoni Reserve in Cape Breton; five who tried out with the Quebec Major Junior hockey players. Cheverie who has permanent residence in Fortune, PEI, was very pleased with the training and dedication that Shawn offered.

“He made my guys stronger, better and fitter,” says Cheverie. “I’m hoping that he offers his own fitness package full time, across Canada, and is able to help more people. Anyone who wants to get fit, I tell them to go to Shawn; not to hurt their muscles but to develop them.”

Cheverie also works for player agent Mike McArthur of The Hockey Group, based in Simcoe, Ontario. McArthur says Cheverie is a great point man for the Maritimes and has done a lot of tremendous work in the region.

“When you look at advising people about their training regime, it’s one of the things lacking in many hockey players across the board,” says McArthur. “That has become the hangover of hockey. Really, everyone played catch up with Canada on the skill level. Now everyone has great skills and you have to be ready to perform when you have to. We certainly see that there’s great opportunity for Shawn and his type of business.”

While Shawn’s main target is to train professional athletes, he’s also passionate about training clients who are interested in a healthy lifestyle. So far he’s training a soccer player on the PEI provincial team, his father and his mother, Georgina. He encourages them and everyone else to squeeze in at least 45 minutes three times per week.

“I want to make a difference for them. I want to help them. I want them to reach their goals and I want to say that I helped.”

It’s all about learning. Shawn is certified by Can-Fit-Pro to meet every sort of personal goal involving fitness training, including one on one and group sessions. He’s ready to offer beginning, intermediate and advanced levels of fitness. He can be reached at shawnfrancis77@hotmail.com.