'Moving to West Cork is the best thing we've ever done'

Fitness expert Karl Henry is back on television screens with Operation Transformation, and is enjoying his move to the south west. He’s urging Ireland to get moving again to enjoy the New Year

THE health benefits of movement will be emphasised in RTÉ’s favourite lifestyle show Operation Transformation this year.

That’ll be one of the key messages from fitness expert Karl Henry this year. And it could apply to his own life, too.

Last year, Karl was adjusting to the family’s move to Clonakilty, where his wife Jean is from.

This year the Operation Transformation presenter and his family are firmly embedded.

He has his business fully set up in Clonakilty, while his wife Jean works locally as a GP.

‘I can honestly say moving to West Cork is the best thing we’ve ever done,’ he told The Southern Star. ‘Sometimes you don’t appreciate what life is like here. It’s a different pace. For Jean and I, we’re not really big clubbing people. Living in Clon, there’s great restaurants on our doorstep, we can go to Kinsale, we can go to Lough Hyne or to the beach for a swim. If we need to travel, we can fly out of Cork Airport.

‘I still go up to Dublin regularly, I do the podcast from Dublin, but when you move out of the city, you see how busy it is, how it’s just chaos sometimes. Then I come back to West Cork and I immediately feel better.

‘Sometimes for people living in West Cork, you don’t realise how lucky you can be, the pace is much more relaxed in the country.

‘It’s just so different. We’re super happy.’

The Henry family have enjoyed a proper West Cork Christmas.

Santa arrived safely delivering presents to Karl’s five-year-old son Alex and his two-year-old daughter Eve. Alex is attending the Naoínra in the Gaelscoil in Clon.

But Karl is now ready for one of his busiest work times of the year as he embarks on two months of Operation Transformation, which began last week, for what will be its 17th season.

It has been transformative for so many lives, and Karl remains in touch with many of those OT leaders from down through the years, sometimes meeting them at runs and at events, which reinforces what they do.

This year the programme is based in Westmeath, and Karl is braced for a challenging but rewarding eight weeks.

‘We’re filming every weekend but it’s happening live for us too,’ he says. ‘We don’t know what’s going to happen so every week is different, it’s a journey for us too.’

The Operation Transformation team.

The lifestyle arena has changed significantly since the first series.

‘Every year is different and every year we try to look at the latest science and to reinvent the show and incorporate that in. But things have changed a lot over the years,’ says Karl. ‘These days there’s much more of an emphasis on wellness.

‘I’ve been working in personal fitness for 24 years. When I started most of the people coming to see me would have been looking for help with weight loss. I would say that number would be just 20% of my business now.

‘We now know that people can live longer and healthier by being stronger – by being stronger they can do both.’

The catchphrase which Karl will be instilling into our minds this year is: Movement is medicine!

The idea is that by making the most of your movement, you can build up the fitness and strength your body needs. Karl encourages to do this by making the most of the movement in things we enjoy.

‘It about building up the intensity of those things, say whether it’s going for a hill walk up to the Cross at Lough Hyne, or whatever you enjoy doing is. It’s about adding a bit of ‘huffing and puffing’ to it. That’s what you want.

‘The other part is resistance training. From our 30s on we lose muscle mass, so by lifting weight we can stay strong, whether that’s by dumbbells or things like press-ups, or lunges, or genuflects.

‘So it’s that idea of movement is medicine. You could be aged 50 biologically but physically you could be much younger, but it works the other way too for people who don’t move.’ K

arl has set his own fitness goals for 2024. He’s a keen swimmer, enjoying his weekly swims at Lough Hyne.

‘I swim there every Thursday with a great group,’ he says. And in 2023 he enjoyed the Galley Swim. For this year ahead, his big target is the Fastnet swim.

For now though, it’s about getting others to reach their goals on OT.

‘I love it, I can honestly say I’m addicted to it,’ says Karl. ‘It’s so rewarding. I’m very lucky to be able to help people enjoy their lives more. I get such a kick out of it.’

• Operation Transformation started on January 3rd at 9:35pm, and continues on RTÉ One & RTÉ Player.