What did I learn working as a Personal Trainer?
I think it was 2018 when I decided that one of the stepping stones in my journey would be working as a Personal Trainer. I used to do bodybuilding for 15 years.
I have applied to work in one of the clubs nearby and I have got the job. I didn’t take it through as I assumed I was too good for the job. This worked out for me as in 2021 I moved to work in London and met my mentor. I have come came back to West Yorkshire and started to work at the same place a year later. I wasn’t too good for that job and I am not too good for any job. As a personal trainer, I have become aware of the belief that the gym is where we all make results regarding health. Just to have a basic understanding of resistance training we have to know that resistance training is a stress. We call it hermetic stress and we get benefits from those stresses while we recover. People come to the gym for different reasons. Some of the individuals may be managing their body weight, which has gotten out of their hands. Others may be ego-driven or simply lack physical security. “It doesn’t matter how hard you train if your body can’t benefit from it.” Resistance training is like a knife that can be very useful when it comes to putting butter on the bread but can be harmful if used inappropriately. I’m not saying that you are going to get hurt by signing up at the gym without a personal trainer but I am also not saying that you will get healthier by going to the gym and lifting weights a few times a week unless your body needs the (?) . The first gym in the United Kingdom was opened less than 200 years ago, a lot of understanding of training comes from enthusiasts of training and from the bodybuilding world not from the health field. Not every bodybuilder understands how much stress we add by forcing the body to grow or by limiting food while increasing the amount and intensity of training. Bodybuilding goals are physical or lock not a healthy body inside out; the goal may be the size not necessarily the health or the performance. Not every person signing up for the gym is ready enough to make the changes that are essential to address deficiencies and imbalances in the body. That requires changing lifestyle and sometimes means giving a way habits that we are not ready to dis-attach from. Sometimes we go to the gym because we expect sessions a week to do the trick. Yes, you can lose weight that way but if you stop eating overall you will lose weight anyway. As a personal trainer, I learned that some of us expect one hour a day of four sessions a week to be the key ingredient to get the results we want but those gym sessions can be only a distraction from discomfort and addiction as alcohol or drugs. Instead of writing programmes based on the number of calories burnt (which is primitive) as a health practitioner, I follow my consultations with plans that address individual imbalances. By the end you look in your best you feel; your best and your metabolic rate is not low, therefore you go through yoyo effect. Your programs should improve metabolism and food intake. Think about an analogy I have for you. Think, more training and less eating is harmful to your body and to metabolic processes. is like increasing the temperature in the house on a freezing day by putting a fire in the middle room instead of fixing the central heating. Fire in the house will increase the temperature but that will burn the house. As a health practitioner, I help people to find their deficiencies by performing functional tests, and by learning about their metabolic type. I always follow consultations with an individual plan that addresses their imbalances, it’s like fixing the central heating in the house. By addressing metabolic imbalances, I help people to feel and look younger! As a functional practitioner, I understand the human body and stress. I don’t say to people that training is the solution. Training is 10-15% of my approach. Some people should slow down with their training and rest more to get their results. I don’t put everyone on exercising programme in the gym. Some of my clients train at home, and some start the programme without training. As a health advocate, I would not start with a training program for someone whose body is fatigued or is going through disease as a personal trainer only I would have no choice. If your body is under stress, you’ve got too much fire in the house and you shouldn’t add more stress, or more fire to the house as it would burn the house faster. You should address individual deficiencies and imbalances instead (in other words fix the actual problem that doesn’t allow you to use central heating). As a functional practitioner, I create programmes based on the current state of my clients and I don’t have to start them with training programs if that is not appropriate for them or for the current time. Imagine if you stop eating altogether you would eventually lose weight, right? You would eventually lose the excess body fat and muscles. Would you be able to maintain the results? What would be the consequences? Potentially a low metabolic rate, dysregulated nervous system, imbalanced hormonal system? As a functional practitioner and personal trainer, I am capable of creating programmes that address imbalances in your own body and allow you to learn once for the rest of your life how to look good while you are feeling good.