Spend a day with me personal training at Real World Fitness.
Many people have certain perceptions of what personal training is, and what we do. Often, the perception can’t be further from the truth.
Here’s my day today, which is pretty much a typical day for me. I’ve just used initials for my clients, because not everyone likes being identified on the internet!
7.30am
I drop my daughter at breakfast club and then drive to work – normally I get in around 7.50am.
8am
My first client is GM. He’s been training with me for a few years now, initially to solve a painful, limited mobility, shoulder issue. We nailed that quite early on in his training, and removed a major issue affecting his quality of life. A busy MD in his 50s, he now sees me once a week on top of his solo gym training to get stronger and avoid future problems. His wife also trains with us, with another of the PTs here.
He’s currently running through a modified powerlifting programme for the first time and enjoying the challenge of pure strength training.
9am
Next is DP. She’s been with me for over 15 years. Yep – wonder which one of us has the short straw here?! Initially weight loss and general fitness, now we train twice a week and aim to keep the weight away, get gradually stronger. We’re working on squat volume at the moment, and at getting her deadlift comfortably about 100kg for multiple sets and reps.
10am.
Here’s JG. He’s another RWF long-termer, who’s entering his 8th year working with me. We’ve seen two new hips (the original issue in coming to see me was getting strong before having the first hip replaced), and pre-habbed/re-habbed both of those. In his early sixties, we’re squatting 50kg, deadlifting 60-70kg and benching 55kg. He’s half-bionic now, but it still counts 🙂
11am.
My first female of the day! My client base is about 50/50 male/female.
SC came to me for strength mainly, weight management second. That first goal is on fire – comfortably squatting 80kg for 6s, easily deadlifting 115kg for the same, and benching just shy of 60kg. She’s only been at it for just over a year, so this is some going. A busy mum, who’s shortly starting a PHD, proves you can make the time and find the energy to get some cracking results.
12pm.
Yes, I screwed up my diary and didn’t leave any chance for food. I do this a lot and need to improve! But, couple of bananas and on we go to Mike.
Mike started with me early into the move to our shiny new premises, so he’s been with me nearly 9 months now. From a start of zero experience, he’s already squatting 100kg, deadlifting 130+ and benching just shy of 100kg.
Today we’re continuing with an old programme I first came across years ago – it’s a full-body hypertrophy style programme that is giving him a break from the pure strength work we had been doing over the last couple of months. He’s learning front squats and glute-ham raises, amongst other things, for the first time.
1pm
AM arrives, for his first session with me since before Christmas. A lecturer in nothing complicated, only nuclear physics, and with 4yr old twins to deal with, consistent training isn’t that easy. Initially coming to me to help get over knee surgery, we’ve got his squat back to 140+ for reps, his deadlift to over 200kg and his bench back up to over 120.
2pm
SF came to personal training with me in September with the aim of getting stronger, adding some muscle and trying to make himself bombproof for later life. In his early 50s, he’d come to the conclusion that if he didn’t start training now, he’d only find it harder as he aged. That’s pretty good foresight – but being a scientist, he’s all about the practicalities!
We’ve worked on the basics – building strength in the big movements while paying attention to the usual build-up of niggle and injuries that anyone has amassed by their 50s. So, a dodgy knee and some back gremlins. For the most part, they were resolved in the first couple of months.
From a standing start, he’s now hitting 80kg squats, just nailed a 50kg bench and has pulled over 100kg on a deadlift. Not bad for 4 months training! We also now train his wife and teenage daughter.
5pmÂ
This is MB – if you’ve read any of these “my day” things before, you’ll know him. He has cystic fibrosis, is a senior partner in a law firm, and is one of the busiest people I know. The aim is always strength and endurance; he has a lung function of only around 40% so every session is a hard slog for him. Today is different though – he’s just recovering from the chest flu everyone’s had this January, which nearly hospitalised him. So, today is a bit of everything, at around 70% of his last session’s weights, to get him back into the swing of it.
6pm
My last of the day, Eddie. He came with a severely damaged shoulder, around 11 months ago. Initially, he didn’t have the pain-free range of motion to bring an empty bar to his chest in a bench press. Now, we’re benching nearly 55kg for sets of 8 with full range and no pain. The shoulder is still not 100%, but tends to only play up when his huge labrador yanks the lead on a dog walk – so we’re winning. We’ve also brought his deadlift to over 80kg, and his squat to over 70kg.
And that’s me done with clients! I’ll have a quick tidy up of the gym – which is very quick these days as pretty much every gym member, client and PT tidies up as they go, so I rarely have more than 5 minutes of pottering around to do. Tonight, I’ll do my own training and then probably head home around 8.30pm, leaving one of our keyholding members to lock up after he’s finished his late evening treadmill run.
As you can see, we work with a huge range of clients at RWF. I haven’t picked a particularly special or interesting day, this is simply what it’s like, and what our client base looks like, more or less.
If you want to train around normal people, with everyday issues and everyday lives, come and visit us. You might be surprised how different we are from any other gym you’ve visited!
Want a free personal training session? No problem, just ask.
Fancy a week’s trial of the gym? You’re welcome, just click here.
Sign up to the RWF newsletter
