My journey as a Personal Trainer & Massage Therapist
My road to becoming a Personal Trainer and Massage Therapist hasn’t been an obvious one, but making a change can be one of the best decisions you make.
In the second half of the last decade I found myself adrift professionally and personally, after going through a sea of redundancies after 28 years in a career I had considered a job for life, where I had risen through the ranks. Having a niche skillset in your mid-forties and a lack of qualifications can be a sticky situation to find yourself in.
It was with some encouragement from a couple of personal trainers that I decided to gamble on changing lanes, turning my gym hobby into a profession and enrolling on the relevant training to become a personal trainer and sports massage therapist.
I had an image in my head that I would just tell everybody I’m a personal trainer and have people queuing up to work with me. Imagine my surprise when a year later I still had no business and was running out of money. As a last-ditch effort, I agreed to work in one of the large chain gyms; because surely there are thousands of people who would want to work with me?!
Another year later I had no money and things were getting desperate. It was at that moment I realised I was competing with the super young, super cool trainers and getting far too highly strung about it. So what did I do? Stopped taking myself so seriously.
Now don’t misunderstand me, I have great pride in myself, my abilities, and my years of life experience, and would not change that. I just decided to let myself have fun and enjoy the moment, stop judging myself against others and run my own race. I started enjoying the banter with people and It helped me be less judgmental of others, seeing everybody for the fab individuals they are. That’s when things clicked for me and I started to be approached, by real people with real lives, and these people became clients and friends over the years.
My outlook and approach have improved every aspect of how I work; from the local park where I run outdoor sessions and we chat about music or weekend plans, whilst people try to have a laugh at my expense (and often do); to the small group strength sessions (LIFT!) that Istarted last year where I love seeing the sense of community and camaraderie, as people that have been too scared to go to a gym master exercise and get a personal best.
Even Covid offered a silver lining, as I moved the business out to the streets to give people a gym experience whilst staying safe. For everyone else, we met online twice a week for an hour of free exercise just to help keep everyone sane. Really happy memories from a dark time.
Covid also convinced me to build a gym setup at home, because it removes the issues of one-to-one coaching in an oversubscribed commercial gym environment, allowing privacy for my clients and the time and space to focus completely on each client, without wondering if we will be able to find equipment and space to actually follow the plan I have designed.
No, life as a personal trainer is not easy: long hours, forcing yourself to be a positive influence (even on the odd day that you really don’t feel it - yes we are only human). It can be stressful trying to maintain a consistent level of business and its highly likely it won’t make me a millionaire, but to see people grow in confidence and ability and be granted the honour of becoming a part of their lives and supporting them through the ups and downs of life is worth a sleepless night or two.
From coaching mums-to-be through pregnancy and then returning to fitness afterwards, to reminding somebody that life doesn’t have to be all downhill after a certain age, or helping a nervous newbie grasp the power and confidence that comes from getting strong, and watching a person with restricted movement or chronic pain jump off my treatment couch with a new lease of life.
These are the reasons that I keep doing what I do and why I wouldn’t go back and change a thing. It’s not often you get a second shot in mid-life and I’m extremely glad that I’ve been so lucky. I love to help people to become the best version of themselves that they can be.
