A rehabilitation success story

Work with offenders on how LJ Flanders turned round his life and launched a successful social enterprise

There is a solid evidence base on how sport- and health-based interventions can help desistance. But the story of LJ Flanders goes far beyond how the focus and commitment to physical exercise can breed a positive mindset.

Ten years ago, Mr Flanders got involved in a fight that ended up with him being arrested and sent to prison. Aged 21 and frustrated by the tedium of being confined to a cell for long hours every day, he turned to exercise – despite never have been a gym person previously. To start off with, LJ didn’t do much more than press ups and squats but then he spotted a flyer advertisement on the wings to enrol on a City and Guilds personal training qualification, he took the course and ended up getting a job in the prison gym.

In the last year of his sentence, LJ developed a whole fitness programme for people stuck in a cell with no equipment at all. The programme relied on using your own bodyweight to get fit. He shared the programme with fellow prisoners and encouraged them to dedicate their time to working out and feeling good (or at least better).  On release, LJ managed to get a job at a local gym with the manager saying he was prepared to give him a second chance.

Cell work out 

However, that is just the start of the story. LJ had left prison with something much more valuable than a criminal record – he had created a life mission for himself. Over the next five years with the help of the Prince’s Trust, LJ persevered with twin ambitions, both of which he achieved – to turn his home-made programme into a book and to go back into prison to help others. Hodder and Stoughton published Cell Workout at the end of 2016 and in 2017, LJ finally persuaded a sympathetic governor at HMP Wandsworth to allow him back into prison to deliver his fitness and achievement course. At the same time, he set up a social enterprise – Cell Workout Enterprise C.I.C – and succeeded in winning funding from the Ministry of Justice to deliver the programme inside.

The two-week programme was split into morning and afternoon sessions; the mornings focused on physical fitness and the afternoon looking at a range of positive mindset discussions and activities.

Through an accident of fate, one of the prisoners participating in the first workshop turned out to be the former CEO of clothing retailer Moss Bros, Don Rowland Gee, who became LJ’s mentor.

The social enterprise went from strength to strength and LJ’s work captured plenty of press attention which went to another level in the pandemic when millions of people suddenly developed more insight into what it was like to be confined (albeit to the comforts of their own home). LJ’s equipment-free approach to working out was taken up by many who were now working from home while gyms were shut.

Last month, with the support of Don Gee, LJ finally achieved a long held dream and launched his own athletic/leisure wear range in partnership with Next. This was a full collection of 40 pieces including T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and accessories. It launched on Next’s website on 25 February, as well as on the Cell Workout website.

Staying true to his mission, LJ is donating 5% of all profits towards funding work in prisons and the community, predominantly support with mentoring and qualifications.

I’ve got a feeling that the collection is not the last stage in LJ’s story.

Readers interested in learning more, can check out the Cell Workout website.