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!)