Zoë
“I’ve always been a bit on the heavy side and have had some bad experiences with personal trainers in the past where I felt more judged than encouraged. As a result I had a lot of concerns about whether doing personal training sessions would actually be about what’s right for me, rather than the typical focus on weight loss in an effort to try and mould me into a vision of what an ‘athlete’ should look like. I was also concerned about going into a ‘strength training’ environment, which in my experience had not been particularly welcoming and required a lot of technical knowledge. But when I met Guy for a consultation my concerns immediately disappeared. What really struck me was how much space he gave to my own goals and my own definitions of what fitness looked like, and quite honestly I’d never felt more undertaking a ‘fitness’ programme than right at that moment. Guy really took time to get to know me and understand what my goals were, his compassionate and supportive manner made me feel really at ease, and I felt a lot more confident about undertaking a personal training programme.
Throughout our sessions Guy consistently reflected back to me the goals that I stated at the start of the process, took the time to explain how the programme would support these goals, and I came away with a lot of knowledge of how training programmes work and what kinds of benefits different forms of exercise will bring (knowledge I’m still using to plan my exercise now).
One barrier that I had to strength training was my nervousness over doing squats and the feeling that my form was poor, so I often tried to avoid them. Guy gave me a range of specific exercises that would help build my glute strength as well as a variety of drills and movements to help my form and develop my confidence doing squats. I’m now much more confident and am squatting away happily in the gym on a regular basis!
I also saw a huge improvement in my upper body strength (which had previously been quite poor) and quite a substantial growth in muscle size in my upper body (lots of jackets no longer fit me!) By the end of the programme I found myself able to lift much heavier things than ever before, to the point where I was consistently surprising myself with how strong I had become, I remember going to lift a large heavy box and really bracing myself for the impact, to find I practically threw it in the air!
One of my favourite moments actually happened shortly after our training sessions came to an end, I attended a HIIT class run by Guy where we were using kettlebells. As a result of all the training we had done (LOTS of kettle bell swings/squats/bicep curls etc.) I was able to use a 20kg kettlebell for the whole hour session. I remember making eye contact with Guy at the end of the class and there was a moment where we both acknowledged how far I had come, and just how much stronger I was, it’s one of the proudest moments in my life to date.
If you’re looking for fun sessions that are thoroughly tailored to you and your goals, with a compassionate, body-positive trainer who really knows his stuff – Guy’s the one!”
Zoë