Meet TONY
Founder & Sport Scientist
I took the long way round. This is where I was always meant to be.
Over ten years ago, while working in the Athletics Department at NYU Abu Dhabi, I had the chance to run metabolic tests for student athletes: VO2 max, resting metabolics, the works. That's where the obsession began. I knew, even then, that this was what I wanted to build a career around.
Then life took a detour. I moved to Germany to run a hospitality business, a great experience, but it pulled me away from sport science for longer than I'd planned. What brought me back wasn't a plan. It was racing. A few 70.3s, then a full Ironman, then an ultra-triathlon, a double Ironman, and somewhere in the middle of all that suffering, the obsession came back. Not just with finishing, but with understanding. Why does one athlete recover faster? Why does one session feel effortless and the next identical one break you? The answer, almost always, comes back to data.
When I came back to New Zealand and found myself starting over, I made a decision: back myself, and build the thing I'd always wanted to build.
Tristar Performance is the result.
We test using the same equipment you'd find in a university sport science department or a professional endurance programme, because that's the standard I wanted to hold ourselves to from day one. But the testing is only part of it. Knowing what to do with the data is what matters. That's the conversation I want to have with every client, whether you're an athlete or simply someone who wants to live and age well.
"This isn't about living forever. It's about flattening the curve into old age: living longer, and living better when you get there."
That ethos applies to everyone we work with. The same equipment that builds a performance profile for an elite cyclist can tell a 55-year-old exactly where their aerobic capacity and metabolic health sit, and what improving those markers means for their quality of life. VO2 max, lean mass, and resting metabolic rate are among the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality. That's not marketing. That's the research.
I'm also a certified Level 1 Oxygen Advantage breathwork instructor. Breathe through your nose, people.
Qualifications:
Master of Human Performance Leadership — AUT (in progress)
Master of Sport Management — Johann Cruyff Institute
BSc Sport, Fitness & Coaching
Ironman Certified Coach (2015)
Tri NZ Accredited Coach
Oxygen Advantage Instructor, Level 1
Meet LUISE
Women's Health & Metabolic Coach
Triathlon, running, HIIT, hiking — movement has always been part of who I am. But somewhere in my late thirties, I noticed something shift.
I'd spent years trying different approaches. Different diets, different training blocks, different rhythms. Some helped. None gave me the full picture. What I really needed wasn't another trend. It was data. And the knowledge to do something with it.
Tony wanted to build a centre where athletes could understand their physiology at the deepest level. I wanted the same thing — but from a different angle. The longevity side. The metabolic health, the hormones, the breathwork, the question of how we age well and feel good doing it. Different entry points, same destination.
To me, this is what Tristar is — a centre where we bring both together.
I'm German, and I've lived a fairly non-linear life — seven years running a farm business in Germany, six years in Abu Dhabi alongside Tony, and now here in North Canterbury, building something I genuinely believe in. My MA in Intercultural Communication wasn't a detour either. Understanding how people receive and process information — across cultures, across contexts — shapes everything about how I work with clients. Science is only useful if it lands.
My focus at Tristar is the women's programme, breathwork, and metabolic health coaching. These three things are connected more than most people realise. How you breathe affects your nervous system, your sleep, your stress response, and your metabolism. How you fast and fuel affects your hormones and energy. And understanding your body composition — really understanding it — changes the conversation you have with yourself entirely.
I know this because I've lived it. Not as a single fix, but as a combination — breathwork, fasting, testing, and actually understanding my own data. That's what I want to help other women do.
"You don't need to follow the latest trend. You need to understand your own body. That's a completely different starting point."
I'm a certified Oxygen Advantage breathwork instructor, ISAK certified for body composition assessment, and an experienced fasting coach. I'm currently completing my Precision Nutrition Metabolic Health coaching certification and a behavioural change certification — because knowing what to do is only half of it. The other half is understanding why change is hard, and how to make it stick.
Qualifications:
Certified Oxygen Advantage Instructor
ISAK Certified — Body Composition
Fasting Coach
MA Intercultural Communication
Precision Nutrition Metabolic Health Coach (in progress)
Behavioural Change Certification (in progress)
What Sets Us Apart
People-First Approach
Everything we do is built around understanding your needs and helping you succeed—because when you thrive, so do we.
Long-Term Relationships
We’re not just here for the now. We love creating lasting relationships with our clients and growing with them over time.
Proven Process, Flexible Execution
We bring structure where it counts and adaptability where it matters. Our methods are clear, but always responsive.