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:
- 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!)
