A No Excuses Special: Gwen van Rosmalen- Life Won't Wait

During my copious amounts of Youtubing today, I came across this video, and needless to say I was completely blown away by the transcendent, never say die spirit of this inspirational woman.

Many people give up on their goals when the first obstacle gets in their way.

Gwen had a stroke at the age of 28, and then after the subsequent recovery process, was hit by a truck driver who wasn't paying attention to the road, leaving her paralysed from the waste down.

Has this stopped her setting and achieving goals?
Does she face a dark and depressed future?
Has life beaten her?

Of course not!

"If you want things to happen you have to make them happen by yourself" Gwen van Rosmalen

I hope this goes to show you just how powerful the human mind is. Nothing, absolutely nothing has to stop you from training, improving, setting goals and achieving your dreams.

You must start the process, it will be a long and hard road to get anywhere near attaining the goals you want, but work for them like you have worked for nothing before, embrace the blood, sweat and tears and remember there is absolutely no reason why you can't achieve anything you want.

"Believe in yourself, follow your heart and never give up!" Gwen van Rosmalen

No excuses!

By Chris Kershaw
Level 3 Personal Trainer

Some Monday Motivation!

I have a to-do-list I go through before, after and while at "work." I use inverted commas as my job doesn't really involve going to work due to how much I enjoy it.

The first item on that list is to watch a youtube video of my choice (funnily enough I always seem to get this job done more than any other...I wonder why???) and today, I so happened to click on to this one.

Forget about impossible and the people that tell you that you can't do something.

Theo Wilson at TedX: The Rise of The "We"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBZAj-0Kwt0&list=PLY5j7w8WDbrpKggCvAmJnG3ctrAetB8RX

For some reason I won't let me post this video directly, but I found it that inspirational that I thought I would just post the link and hope you all follow it. What a guy :)

No Excuses #2 Money

Potential and often cited excuse #2: Money
Specifically for Training, Eating Healthy and Education

I Don't Have Enough Money To...

Train: This is one of the most annoying things to hear from someone.

You simply do not need a gym or a Personal Trainer to be able to exercise regularly with enough intensity to get results, especially with all the resources available over the Internet. The following videos will illustrate my point fully:

Extreme Example

I can do most of these, however the backflip burpee is beyond me...FOR NOW!

Flow Workout

Go fucking crazy with these, the possibilities are literally endless.

Barstarzz

I'm not saying go and train in the middle of a busy city centre, but these guys utilise everything and make it into their own little gym. And when there is nothing but the floor to train on, they use the floor! Some of the workouts these guys come up with are incredibly innovative, and I have often been influenced by very their individual style.

Parkour

He is in his living room for god sake!
Remember, you are always just a few clicks away from innovative/rebranded (coughcrossfitcough)  approaches to exercise using little to no equipment, often not even requiring you to leave the comfort of your own home.

And here's me rolling around again.....

CJK Bodyweight Routine

Eat Healthy
I'm sorry but this is unacceptable. I've  heard this excuse too many times to keep quiet about it now. I'm just going to use one example to show that you can at least eat healthier on exactly the same budget.

So we can immediately see with this one example that a healthier alternative to what you are eating is always possible when you actually shop around and take the initiative with an open mind to trying new things. To hear people say they can't afford to eat healthier is so so frustrating because it just isn't a valid excuse, not for one second.

I got literally the nicest bunch of banana's I have ever eaten for 20p the other day, from a big name supermarket as well.

Remember, if you eat shit, then you will look and feel it LIKE SHIT and you only have yourself to blame.

Further My Education:
In a less ranty tone, I'd just like to share the following websites which offer completely free, well-recognised University courses that have literally opened up a world of possibilities to me in the last few months.


www.coursera.org





I am currently enrolled to about half a dozen free courses through this website, and thus far, they have never failed to deliver. And all for free. This is amazing.

https://www.edx.org/courses

I haven't signed up for any courses through this website as I only discovered it yesterday through the courera discussion forum, but I will certainly be looking into it in the future. Again, a wonderful free resource that just proves again, that THERE ARE ALWAYS OPTIONS, WAYS AND METHODS of getting wherever you want to go with your life.

Free and less expensive stuff (often of higher quality than you pay for) is everywhere, it is just a matter of looking.

Currently working through this as well...

No excuses!

By Chris Kershaw

The No Excuses Series #1

I have a philosophy in life and in business, and that is a philosophy of there are absolutely no excuses in the striving for success and the achievement of my clearly defined goals.

In this series I hope to be travelling down numerous tangents (not necessarily directly related to exercise) which show that are excuses very rarely match up to the reality, very rarely are good enough and how these excuses can be eliminated therefore helping you achieve more success in your life in some form or another.

Excuse No.1

The Weather
(Or more specifically snow)

I received a text a few hours before a session with the genuine question of whether I would be able to make it into the gym for a session, which is a perfectly reasonable question, but I was surprised to get it because no matter what the weather was like, I can say with absolute certainty, that I would have made it in to the gym. If our cars were snowed in I'd expect any C & J Personal Trainer to try public transport, to get a lift off someone who isn't as snowed in, if that failed I'd expect them to run, if that failed I'd expect them to walk, and if they can't walk, well, you better get crawling.

So as you can see, in this little company we demand excellence of ourselves, therefore expect excellence from our clients.

"A good leader (or trainer!) must be harder on himself than anyone else. He must find discipline in himself  before he can discipline others. A man should not ask others to do things that he would not ask himself to do do at some point in his life." Vince Lombardi

And even if the weather was that atrocious, that hellishly bad that you couldn't even get out of the door, then we would still expect you to be able to workout, to train, and to get nearer your goals by performing (for example) exclusively body weight exercises and flows (which all of my clients should pretty much be able to construct by themselves by now!).

To sum up my philosophy on Personal Training and life; you must practice excellence in order to inspire it in others.

The weather is never an excuse not to train, to turn up for sessions or to skip out of thrying to make progress in some element of your life. There is always a way.

Picture stolen directly from Rosstraining.com (which you should all check out IMMEDIATELY by the way!)

And if a little bit of snow does stop you from training, getting to work or doing ANYTHING in life, perhaps you should take a look at the people who experience extreme adversity every day and still manage to pursue their goals.


In other news I became an Advanced Kettlebell Instructor this week, you may now bow down in my awesomeness at completing a day course to give me such a title.

(In all honesty the instructor taking the course looked as if he couldn't be arsed all the way through it and I doubt you could have failed the course if you tried. There are very few actual testing standards in Personal Training courses as a couple of my articles have touched on before, with most courses concerned with keeping people coming back to do more courses. Whether I ever go back to this particular company remains to see seen.)

No I don't do courses during which I train other Personal Trainers yet but WHEN I do (and I will before too long I hope) I will do so with this quote in mind:

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Henry Adams
 

So yeah, show some enthusiasm, or step out of the way of people who would love to be in your position.

By Chris Kershaw

Leg Day Madness and the Keys to Success

Leg Day rolls around again, and as always is my favourite workout of the week, due to it being (by far) the most taxing, challenging and therefore effective workout of the week.

Here is our leg day odyssey for you to enjoy....and perhaps have a go at.

You know you want to really.
You do.
Honestly!

The session:
Warm-up
 Co-ordination drills, dynamic stretching, animal crawls, agility ladder and footwork, quasi-plyometrics (low intensity) 10-20 mins

Main Session*
*I'm only including the working sets in this article- on every single exercise we always perform a number of warm-up sets just to get the movement 'locked in' before our working sets designed to make our bodies adapt.

Front Squats 3x20 reps (maximum you can do hopefully, but this can be subject to change between each set, there are no strict rules here)
Back Squat 3x6 reps (heavy as possible/heavy as you dare!)
Glute/Ham raise to failure- 1- Attempt at a 1-rep max 2. Half the weight of the first set until failure is reached 3. Bodyweight failure 4. Band ASSISTED to technique failure
Barbell Split-squat 3x20 reps each leg

Cardio
As little rest as possible

800m Run
30 Seconds of all-out Press-ups
600m Run
30 seconds all-out V-ins
400m Run
30 seconds all-out on Press-ups
200m Run
30 seconds all-out V-ins

You are done!

We just about lived on to fight another day!

So why did I choose to structure the workout like this?

Basically because it sounded really really hard, yet was low enough in overall volume not to completely smash my central nervous system and not leave me completely ruined for a number of days, subsequently ruining workouts in the following weeks, especially with me dieting for the show in May.

Something Jen said to me today got me inspired; it was along the lines of "Do something every day that either makes you more money or makes you more successful" These weren't her exact words, but importantly, that is what I took from whatever it was she was saying!

This reminded me of a video that I watched recently:

So, how to apply this to exercise?
Well, if we just concentrate on the first so-called 'secret' in the above video, if you are going to be successful (however you want to define the term) you must love or learn to love what you are doing.

What if you don't love working hard in the gym, or exercising in your home?

For me, the way I overcame thins was actively TELLING MYSELF THAT I LOVE THE PAIN OF IT.

Every day I train (pretty much) I repeat over and over in my head that I absolutely love it, that I love setting an example to everyone else and showing them how I think they should be training.

In my head it goes something like this:
I LOVE THIS PAIN!
I LOVE THIS PAIN!
I LOVE THIS PAIN!

At some stage it stopped being me trying to convince myself that I loved the pain of training, now I am addicted to training hard and absolutely nothing is going to get in my way. Rest is important and knowing when to rest is a very important skill if you are trying to achieve anything, but remember guys, there are no excuses to be lazy, and I hope everyone out there eventually will learn to love training hard if indeed you haven't already been bitten by THE IRON BUG (the kettlebell bug took a large bite out of my forearm this week...more on that in future sessions, videos and articles you lucky devils!)

Remember....everyone has a different version of training hard. Everyone has weaknesses, everyone has strengths, try not to get frustrated and focus on what you want to achieve and you will get there if you persevere!

By Chris Kershaw- Now an Advanced Kettlebell Instructor no less!

P.S. I'm doing free Personal Training consultations every Monday out of 'The Works Fitness' in Wakefield, message me for more details and we will discuss things further :)

The Fun, the Spontaneous and an Alternative to Typical Cardio

Okay so my typical day can involve as much as 2 cardio sessions in a day and as a Bodybuilder competing soon, I am encouraged to do slow cardio for prolonged periods with low intensity, such as stairmaster, uphill walking and a plethora of other boring shit for stupid amounts of time.

Fuck that.

At the very least its high intensity intervals for 10-16 minutes either at the end of a workout or early morning for me, at least this gets it over with quickly and challenges the entire body without taking up massive portions of my day.

But even this gets boring, and we can all get bored with a routine despite how important to us our goals are.

So what to do should/when your workout becomes monotonous one day? It will probably be fine tomorrow, but today, doing the same or a similar workout just won't cut it, that is ok. Do not despair, you can still come up with some fantastic workouts by just taking a look at your ipod (or similar) making a playlist and constructing a workout in the following manner:

• Pick a selection of songs
• Pick any number of exercises and perform a repetition each time something distinctive in the song is repeated
• Play the playlist
• Do the exercises
• Complete the workout

It was James and Jimmy who started riffing on this idea while we were all kinda just messing around at 'The Works' in Wakefield where I work. A couple of the songs and exercises come directly from them, and a few are my own ideas.

Here's what I came up with for myself and a client today:

Song/ Exercise 1: Lou Bega- Mambo No.5

 Hold a press-up position, and time Mr. Bega mentions a woman name...perform a press-up! Either hold the press-up position, or perform mountain climbers between his lady listing! 

 Song/ Exercise 2: Smells Like Song 2

Each time "Woo-hoo!" is shouted, you perform a walkout press-up. Each time Kurt repeats the word "hello" you perform a squat.
 

Song/ Exercise 3: ACDC- Back in Black

 Perform a burpee each time you hear the word "back"
 

Song/ Exercise 4: Witch Doctor- Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang

 

Perform a dumbbell clean and press from the floor each ting you hear "ting tang" then do mountain climbers between verses/ to the beat
 

Song/ Exercise 5: Eiffel 65- Blue

From a v-sit or holding the top of a sit-up perform a sit-up or v-sit each time you hear the word blue- this one is awful!
 

Song/ Exercise 6: Nuclear Assualt- Hang the Pope

 Perform a alternate straight punch each time you hear "hang the pope" repeated. You can punch pads a bag or just out in front of you, it all works.
 

Job and cardio done!

Give it a try.

What songs, exercises and ideas can you come up with?

Dare to make your cardio different.

Making brutality even more fun is allowed. Forget endlessly plodding away on a treadmill, stairmaster or bike in a gym, the time for that is soon to come to an end. Especially in terms of my Personal Training! It is an obsolete form of training for a Personal Trainer's to prescribe for any significant amount of time.

And thankyou to James Riley and Jimmy Stewart for providing the original idea for this concept.

By Chris Kershaw

 

Gillian Richardson: Client Success Stories and Why We Do What We Do

Gillian Richardson: Client Success Stories and Why We Do What We Do

So we've all seen the 'amazing body transformation in just 3 months!' kind of thing on the internet, and Personal Trainers who have clients rightly place their more ovbiously successful clients in portfolios to help sell their services to a wider audience (as do I and the other Personal Trainers that I work with), and as PT's we all love to train athletes and people at the very top of the fitness tree, these are the people that tend to be mentioned and highlighted the most in the media and on the social networking sights, particularly from what I have seen on facebook.

Robert Beattie, one of my clients who has achieved success more visibly and therefore tends to receive more of the attention.

I've also been banging on about the importance of training hard, having no compromises and not stopping until you literally drop. However, upon thinking about this there is a substantial amount of people and clients that I risk alienating by talking like this. It's not that some people don't or can't train hard (although most who go in the gym simply don't train hard by any definition whatsoever), it's just that these particular people are training just as hard as anyone, it's just to others, simply because they are not on the floor in pools of blood, sweat and tears they look different and probably make substantially less noise. So having said this I want to share with you the progress of one of my most successful, inspiring and consistent clients' exercise journey.

She hasn't necessarily overcome massive adversity to get to where she is, she won't be running the 'Tough Mudder' this year and will not be featured on any fitness model pages (yet!) yet for me, the things she have achieved never fail to make me smile and feel a great sense of achievement through my job, my hobby and my privilege which is Personal Training.

Gillian Richardson

 

 

So I began training Gillian in early 2011, she was in her mid-50's, having never stepped into a gym before, her knee's caused her a lot of pain, she struggled to keep up with her hobby of gardening for any prolonged amount of time, and had never felt comfortable wearing a dress when going to social occasions, she'd never even heard of kettlebells, a burpee, circuit training, squats, press-ups, medicine ball slams, plyometrics and importantly for her had never had the confidence or the inclination to walk on a treadmill, the prospect of running on one would induce visible terror!

 

Starting Out

To begin with, walking in to the first Personal Training session, I would describe Gillian as the typical 'rabbit stuck in headlights' kind of client, which is always a challenge as the gym simply isn't an environment where they like being.

Gillian was:

• Very self-conscious

• Probably felt massively out of place

• Felt as if her body wasn't capable of intense exercise

• Didn't have the confidence to really push her body to near maximal levels

We trained once a week, building up co-ordination and generally building things from the ground up and practising how to squat properly (which took around a year to perfect).

Turning Point

Probably about 8 to 10 weeks into training I had a relatively 'easy' session planned, we were getting through it fine, not really pushing it, then something seemed to click, the session I had planned was thrown out and the session changed into 30 minutes of brutality. Since then Gillian has been attending my circuit training class every single Sunday for the past 2 years and has consistently been training as hard as she can since that session where she realised she can push herself all the way (with a little help from me from time to time!).

Progress

I pride myself on my circuit class, I try and make it the most effective class at the gym that the class is held, it is absolutely brutal and I push everyone to their own limit as best as I can, and Gillian shows the young 'uns exactly how it's done. Many times young guys and girls have ducked out of the class early and Gillian is still charging around the hall, well and truly smashing it. For her I think being able to mix with people up to 30 years younger, and honestly put them to shame, is a huge confidence booster for her, and it is fantastic to see, despite how pained her expression is during the class itself!

Around 18 months into training we decided that Gillian's knees were no longer causing her problems or pain and that we should giving running a go on the treadmill a go, just for a couple of minutes, Gill had never been able to do this, and was a little shaky at first, but as soon as she was going for a minute or two she got into a rhythm and was 100% running on a treadmill.

For a lot of people this wouldn't be a big thing, but for someone who has never felt like she had any coordination whatsoever this was such a massive achievement. And was definitely an example of someone 'training hard,' harder than most people in that gym at the time for sure. To get over a huge mental hurdle like that takes more courage than a lot of people can handle. And by her face, she seemed to agree that it was a great achievement, to see how happy this made her made me again realise just how special my job is and how lucky I am to be able to make a living from it.

Gillian has now discovered yoga, has taken part in various classes that I put on, continues to train with me every week and is a regular at my hardcore circuit training class on a Sunday where she often lifts more weight, performs more reps and rests less than people half her age.

 

 

 

To further boost the ego of Gillian, it is also fantastic to see that she has set an example to her two daughters, who also train, and one is currently persuing her own career in fitness.

Keep it up Gill, you are doing us proud!

 

Conclusion

Everyone looks different when they are training hard, and although Gill's version might not be puking, bleeding or screaming and shouting (very often) she certainly trains as hard as anyone I know, I very much hope that if you are reading this and have exercise goals, and are commited to the cause; that you stick with it, persevere, train smart and get to where you want to be and stay there for as long as you can, the fact that you have never stepped into a gym before is no excuse, it is literally never too late to start. Any age, any weight, any budget and you can train, you can achieve amazing things for YOU. Gillian is just another prime example of the fact that there is absolutely no excuse not to train or to work hard (no matter what that entails)

And before you start condemning people for not training hard, take a look into what challenges they are trying to overcome, it might be that the very act of jogging, or doing a press-up takes far more effort than the effort you have put into training or your exercise goals today.

I am a Personal Trainer because of clients like Gillian. When you witness someone massively happy and full of joy simply because they have the confidence, the new found joint stability, co-ordination and core strength to run on a treadmill for the first time, or when they tell you they have had the confidence to wear a dress that they previously wouldn't of been able to do, it makes you forget that you are actually going to work on a morning. I've 'gone to work' about 5 times in the last 3 years. It's a pleasure to be lucky enough to have clients such as this. If you are a budding Personal Trainer out there or are considering a career in a similar field, remember it isn't necessarily about elite athletes, completely changing someone's body shape or making them strong enough to break world records...it's about the little things that add up to completely change people's lives and help people to perform feats of strength, endurance or whatever it may be that they never considered possible.

I'm very very lucky to be able to do what I do!

Be inspired and train as hard and as smart as you can!

 

By Chris Kershaw

Level 3 Personal Trainer (amongst other things!)

 

 

No Matter What....TRAIN LIKE HELL

I was hoping to get some time to write some more scientific, in-depth articles recently but lost all my research notes I had on the various article ideas in the process, which sucked, but the ideas are still bouncing around somewhere and will surely make an appearance at some point in the future, but until then........

GET SOME MOTIVATION!!!

And then an extremely pretenious video with various scantly clad people with amazing lighting posing around a gym with a swagger worthy of some kind of prize.

It made me really want to train though, so I thought I would include it anyway.

I want each and every one of my clients to achieve the goals we set, they set, and that I set them, I want everyone involved in my company to somehow better themselves through exercise, I want the Personal Trainers I work with to be among the best in the world, and I want C & J Personal Training to be at the forefront of the field in some capacity before I am done.

These are my goals.
I don't plan on stopping until they are achieved.

No days off, plenty of sacrifice, hard work, and you know what if you can enjoy doing it, it makes it a hell of a lot easier.

I love the pain of training, I love pushing my body to where I'm not sure it can carry on, and I want you to love it too.

Lack of money, lack of a gym, age, this is all irrelevant. Get over your excuses. You have a body that is designed to move. You don't need money or a gym to move around more. Just a decision to begin pushing youself, pushing others and setting an example to all those around you.

The time is now.
SMASH IT!

Earn your rest.

No fucking stopping.

Striving for success: The Habitual and The Impromptu

So the way I see fitness, exercise, and the attaining of one's body image, strength or sports sprecific goals and how I see clients and people come and go from the gym the more I see that the one way to help ensure success (at least in the short and medium term) as both a coach and an eerciser is to make exercise HABITUAL.

ha·bit·u·al

/həˈbiCHo͞oəl/

Adjective Done as a habit. Regular; usual: "his habitual dress".

Synonyms usual - ordinary - customary - wonted - common

To make something a habit means to encorporate an action into your daily life, to the point where you feel 'different' if said action doesn't take place at a certain time and at certain intervals. So, if you are someone looking to commit to the gym you must make the gym a habit. For something to become a habit it massively helps if that thing gives you some kind of instant and/or long term gratification.

Forms of gratification

• Short and long-term achievement of goals
• Improved body image
• Feeling good
• Fun
• Makes life easier in some way

 So, to get to your goals, first exercise must become habitual, for it to become habitual a part of you must come to love training and the hopefully concomitant results that come along with training consistently.

Whats not to love?

The best way to ensure results right from the very start is to employ the services of a Personal Trainer or Coach, its as simple as that. When you begin exercising for the first time, you have no idea what you are doing. Get a someone who knows what they are doing right from the very beginning. It will at least guarantee that your technique is good and keep the training schedule varied and interesting (if they are a half-decent PT!)

Me, my bald patch, a client and burpee pull-ups. Fun times were had all round!

Learn to train progressively harder, and over the weeks your body will be able to take more and more punishment (assuming you get adequat rest and variation AS WELL as training hard and consistently) and you will be subsequently stressing your body more and more, hopefully leading to your brain releasing endorphins- the 'feel good' chemicals that make you feel so good after a hard session. So by progressively learning to love pushing the limits of your body, the more you are going to get addicted to these euphoric chemicals....addiction is the easiest way yo make some habitual. Get addicted to training optimally and what you can achieve through exercise and training will defy any of your previous expectations.

To quote the documentary of BBC4 as I write this article "get aquainted with brutality!"
Eventually you will love just seeing how far you can push yourself.



FUN FUN FUN AND THE IMPROMPTU

The key element in all this is making exercise fun, both as a coach and as an exerciser yourself.

Studies have shown for years that the progressive overload form of training of increasing weight and work done week after week after week in order to improve fitness just does not work in the long run...which is good news, as doing the same thing week in week out is boring. So the lesson from this is VARIATION VARIATION VARIATION, change things up in some way every single week. There is a place in the calender year for all types of training no matter what your goals are. Have a week away from your usual training plan and do other things such as climbing or running or anything just different from what you usually do, just keep it fresh, and you'll be suprised at how rejuvenated and full of fire and enthusiastic you will feel.

In the gym today I had a client who was going for his 1 rep max in the bench press, the gym was quiet and the gym owner (also a Personal Trainer) was busy not doing very much, so clearly it was time for an impromptu powerlifting contest of brute strength to see who could bench the most weight. So we cranked up 'Welcome to the Jungle' and went for that shit, yelled like anything, got some benching done and had a hilarious time. Suddenly we are underneath weight we have never been underneath before, testing our courage as well as our strength.

I'd encourage everyone to get these impromptu competitions going as often as possible, compete with anyone and everyone, mix it up.

Make shit up, create new exercises and don't be afraid to go off on crazy workout and exercise tangents in competition with others in the gym.

Yeah you might risk injuring yourself going with these big weights, but warm-up correctly and assuming you've been exercising a while and know how to perform the exercises correctly, you should be fine. Get used to these competitive conditions and learn to push your fellow exerciser, create an atmosphere conducive with success and help push each and everyone training around you to the next level.

Success comes from the mind first, and then, when the knowledge and application and recovery time is there, results will inevitabbly follow!

Test your metal, enjoy the iron and have a blast.

By Chris Kershaw

Dear Potential Personal Trainer: A Word of Warning

I will begin this post with a link to the excellent blog rosstraining.com and a particularly succinct and well written rant about online arguements and the winning formula in achieving sporting success as a coach.

http://rosstraining.com/blog/2013/03/02/winning-debates-vs-winning-events/

A quote from this article:

Look at any successful coach from any sport and you find similarities. Perhaps the most commonly shared trait is a ridiculous work ethic. To be truly successful at the highest level, you must be obsessed with winning. Your life must revolve around it. You wake up early, work long hours, and bring the job home with you. There isn't extra time to waste. You always wish you had more. Thats the lifestyle.. Either accept it or find something else to do. Ross Enamait

 

Now applying this to Personal Training I would exchange winning for success, particularly in achieving exercise related goals; whether it be having the confidence to go out in a dress for the first time, or get down to a size 10 for the first time, or be able to perform a full range of motion squat with 100kg or win a national boing competition or fight.... all this is another version of winning, particularly in the eyes of your clients.

Now, with the recent surge in Personal Training course availability and subsequent reduction in the amount of time it takes to 'get qualified' suddenly everyone thinks they can be a Personal Trainer and the field is flooded with endless amounts of so-called Personal Trainers.

It's easy right? Just shout at people for an hour and, you know, results will definitely happen!

Wrong.

First of all, attracting clients, even with a good reputation and following can be quite difficult, Personal Training is the first thing to go when money is tight.

Client retention can also be very tricky even if you are an excellent Personal Trainer and motivator for similar reasons.

But in my experience of working with literally dozens of Personal Trainers and so-called Personal Trainers the biggest problem is that it is just a job to most who have passed through the various Personal Trainer factories where there is little to no chance of even failing the exams in the first place.

Rigorous testing? Hmm, I think not.

And where's the passion? If you don't love training, and the training or people and the countless hours of research then really, what are you thinking? How the hell are you going to inspire others to achieve more than they know is capable of their bodies with an attitude like that?

You aren't.

And each and every one of those PT's who are in it just for the money or just because it's a job have invariably not attracted enough clients, or remain stagnant and bored with where they are, what they are doing, and subsequently offer people nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary and nothing inspirational.
.
This is where the importance of the quote I began this article with becomes clear. Personal Training is one of the most time consuming, multi-faceted, complex, tiring and all encompassing yet rewarding jobs out there. If you are not prepared to put in EVERY SINGLE FUCKING HOUR YOU CAN then forget about achieving any amount of success or respect in the field of Personal Training.

It will take everything you have got if you are starting from scratch (and even if you're not) to build up a career, income and knowledge base in order to cater for a wide range of clients in order to help them win, achieve success and conquer their specific goals.

You must be a motivator.
A leader.
A shoulder to cry on.
Someone who leads by example.
Someone who immerses themselves completely in the field.

In order to be a successful Personal Trainer it must be your LIFE, your blood and your PASSION.

I've been lucky enough to achieve a lot of success with various clients, but the quest has only just begun.

Mr. Robert Beattie, who's achievements in changing his body image are some of the proudest, and most significant successes of my Personal Training career.
Who also is a member on our facebook group in case you think it's one of those made up before and after shots you see put together by morally bankrupt PT's that have no place in or around our company.

However its not all about "the big stuff" seeing someone's face when they first have the confidence, new found fitness, coordination and joint fitness to suddenly be able run on a treadmill for the first time when aged over 50 feels incredible to see! This is the winning that you must drive for. the success that you push every single day for.

The Grandmother, still the most influential coach, mentor and person in my life, although her success will never be recognised by the media or by many people even, she has instilled in me the drive to get things done no matter what. What a lady!

I research for countless hours every week, new exercises are tried all the time and it's extremely rare that I get time to have a full day off, let alone have a holiday. But I have never loved anything more and I thank every single one of my clients for the opportunities they give me every single day.

In short, if you're not prepared to give Personal Training absolutely everything you've got, perhaps it is best to look for another quick-fix, easy money form of employment and quit wasting your time and other people's money.

If, however you have the drive, passion and the "when in doubt DO MORE HOURS'' approach to getting things done properly, then perhaps, just perhaps, you have what it takes to make it in the field for a sustained and rewarding career.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Chris K
Level 3 Personal Trainer

Get in The Zone For YOUR Goals!

So recently I have been thinking alot about people who say they want to achieve great things through training in the gym and seeing them train...and not being impressed.

 

Some of the problems that make me angry:

• No aggression
• No intensity
• No focus
• No variation
• Excuse after excuse

 

I was told yesterday that I "Always look mad during my workout."*

For my specific bodybuilding related goals I absolutely have to force my body to adapt to the training stimulus in order to attain the muscle growth and hypertrophy in order to get my body to where it needs to be.

So of course I am going to look mad. I am mad! I'm about to brutally breakdown my body!

I believe a certain mindset, as close to what is seen in competition is essential for achieving excellence through training and that mindset is I AM GOING TO SHOW EVERYONE IN HERE EXACTLY HOW TO TRAIN.

Sometimes I do NOT reach this level, this is where sensible use of restoration, recovery or variation techniques is essential for when this style of training is literally impossible.

When I train I want it to draw attention, not because of how much noise I make (mostly while training legs!) or how much weight I am lifting (okay sometimes I like that) but because of the work I am putting in.

If you are aiming high (for example it is my stated ambition to qualify for a natural bodybuilding world championship) in exercise, whether you are in a competition or not; in order to achieve your goals in the average workout (not taking recovery, transition or flexibility sessions into consideration) you HAVE to be angry, focused and driven.

You should want to lift heavier, have less rest, squat lower, do more reps and the most importantly of all to do more but with exemply form and with better technique than anyone else in that gym.

I am setting an example to all around me when I train. Show people HOW TO TRAIN.

SHOW THEM THE MEANING OF HARD WORK.

When someone see's you training hard and pushing for success you are going to bring others along with you. It is often said the success breeds success, I think in the gym it should be HARD WORK BREEDS HARD WORK.

You don't need to be vocal or ignorant or aggressive outwardly to achieve anything in exercise, but in your mind you have to get it crystal clear that assuming adequat recovery time and restoration phases are adhered to, that in each and every workout you are forcing your body to adapt in order to achieve specific goals.

Set the standard.
Train as if your life depends on it.
Inspire others by showing people the meaning of hard work.
You can literally train anywhere in as little as 10 minutes, so lack of access to the gym, monetary or time constraints aren't excuses...sorry.

Get in there and get it done!

Chris K

*It should be noted that I am not in this frame of mind EVERY workout nor do I aim to be. My week consists of a fairly high amount of workouts aimed at relaxation, flexibility, co-ordination and sometimes (god-forbid) I am training for fun or trying a new exercise on one-leg due to one of my collegues saying "Have you tried this, ITS REALLY DIFFICULT!" and subsequently spending the next hour with about 20 variations of a new exercise and a ruined spine in the process.
So if you are not a sweaty red ball of rage in the gym....that is ok if that is appropriate to the goal of your specific workout.