ABOUT NEO WEIGHTED TRAINING

About Me

Hi I’m Vivi
I am from Newcastle, Australia. I am in the 60s club and have been active all my life. I am a wife, mother and business owner and the creator of NEO Weighted Training.

I started Ballet when I was 5 years old, became a professional Ballerina but due to injury I was forced to take a different path.
Not being satisfied teaching Dance, I threw myself into the fitness industry where my stage experience and choreographic skills lead me to becoming and elite fitness instructor and fitness convention presenter. Choreography became my passion and there began my journey into Sport Aerobics.
As a freelance choreographer, Sport Aerobics competitor with state, national and world medals, I became a mum and took a break from the fitness industry to focus more on my family. Working from home became a priority and thanks to a wonderful husband (a builder!) we created the first private Sport Aerobics Studio in the world, 19 years ago.

Creating NEO

After guiding and nurturing the young elite Gymnast Lauren Farry into the world of Sport Aerobics, who went on to become 6 x World Aerobics Champion, and experimenting with additional weight for pushup training, I created a fully adjustable weighted vest with 8 strategically placed steel weights totalling 2Kgs, for the next wave of my elite athletes to gain an edge in the sport without the risk of injury. Long before weighted vests became a thing. Elite Sport Aerobics athletes needed a weighted vest to be comfortable, have unrestricted movement and be able to maintain full agility. The added weight had to be manageable and adjustable for different types of training. This idea was a “secret tool” until some years later other athletes started to take an interest and I had them manufactured as needed. My elite Sport Aerobics competitor Allira Bull (8 x World Champion) used and still uses her original vest to this day.

When Covid 19 arrived, and along with that the uncertainties of work in the future of the sport that I had invested more than half my life in, I decided to use the spare time to begin upgrading the NEOvest design for retail. The NEOvest upgrade included additional weights to allow for use in a wider range of sports and sport specific training and changing the dynamics by creating soft edged powder coated lead weights.

In the process of the upgrade, chatting with a friend who loves her original 2kg version of NEOvest, said she gets very hot in a vest during her outdoor training up north. I suggested that this was good in relation to working harder, increasing fitness and burning more calories. Nevertheless, that night, I mentally started to create an alternative. By mid-morning I had designed, created a pattern, mocked up a base model and approached my manufacturer for an urgent prototype of the NEOwrap. I was so excited. It was even heavier in total (2.5Kgs ) than the original NEOvest and an amazing firm feel. This was a totally unique product. A high quality, attractive adjustable weighted training accessory that could be used by anyone from an elderly person transforming their walks into weight bearing exercise, an elite athlete wanting to gain an edge in their sport or enhancing your Parkour movements.

A fitness product like no other!