Why Did I Become a Personal Trainer?

My Story

The reason I got into personal training is because I was the quiet underweight kid in class who was seen as an easy target for bullies. I suffered with low confidence, low self esteem & lacked belief in myself because I felt the majority of people around me, especially in my school days just saw me as this underweight kid who they would never respect or take seriously.

As I grew older and jumped from job to job I began to realise that the idea of someone else having my lively hood and career in the palm of their hands just did not sit right. At any moment my bosses could have decided I was no longer good enough or I could be easily replaced. Deep down I began to gain some belief in myself & began to value you myself in a high regard. This was because I started to understand my worth in this world.

Throughout all this time I had been in and out of the gym. Having absolutely no idea what I was doing. Signing up to a gym one month then cancelling my membership the next. The worst part is that when I would actually get myself in the gym, the only exercises I really performed were Triceps push downs with cables and hammer curls with cables. Then immediately after a “workout” I would have a protein shake and some McDonalds. I always wondered why I wasn't getting any bigger or stronger.

Fast forward a few years and I had moved out of my parents & decided to sign up to my local gym. Still having no clue what I was doing, I decided to give some classes a try. This is a decision I will never forget as the first boxing class I joined made me fall in love with not only the sport of boxing but also myself. The confidence boost I received just from this one class was something I had never felt before.

I came across an Instagram advert which was about white collar boxing & I decided to sign up to this. I knew this was something that would help me push myself towards my goals & finally have a commitment in the gym. Simply put, it gave me a goal to work towards. I had only 12 weeks to prepare and as I was attending the boxing classes consistently for a number of weeks before this. I decided to enquire about personal training with the trainer of the class. I was referred to a great trainer who I explained everything to (including the short notice of just 12 weeks to prepare for the event). My trainer was super understanding and helped me gain a basic understanding of strength training and how this would be important for me if I wanted to avoid being knocked out in the event.

Every day, I found myself researching deeper and deeper into the science of building muscle and strength, how to perform the compound lifts correctly and much, much more. My knowledge had expanded incredibly and I was performing compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts & bench presses with confidence.

Sadly, a week before fight night in sparring I suffered an injury and had to pull out of the fight entirely. What kept driving me on to compete in this fight was the fact I was raising money for a good cause in Cancer Research UK in memory of my granddad who sadly passed away from brain cancer. It didn't phase me at all that I had no experience and could easily have been knocked out. I was excited for the experience more than anything else.

To compete in a white collar boxing event is still on my to do list and is still a goal of mine for the same reasons as it was the first time. After getting injured, it was time to go back to the drawing board. Shortly after, due to personal reasons I could no longer afford to keep having a personal trainer. I also felt comfortable with the basic knowledge I had at this point to attempt training on my own for a while. So I kept researching and expanding my knowledge.

This was when my results and progress really came. I finally understood nutrition and how to train for my goal. I had pieced this all together. I ended up gaining about 20kg in my first 6-12 months or so of training. I will admit that I did put on some body fat as well but as a naturally slim guy, I didn’t really care about that. All I wanted was to see the number on the scale rise so I was no longer that skinny guy.

When meeting up with friends and family, they all noticed a huge difference in my physique. My transformation inspired many of the people around me to attempt their own fitness journeys and my close friends also requested I assist them in reaching their goals. So I invited them to come and train with me, where I gave them basic tips on how to perform certain exercises and gave alternatives to exercises they were not quite ready for.

This is when the idea of becoming a personal training first came into my mind. At first it was just a little thought like any other, but the more I trained, the more my passion for fitness grew. I then realised that this is my calling in life. Health and fitness is my passion and so I decided to develop an idea in my head on how a business I could start up might look like in the future. I spent months and months really thinking about the pros and cons and whether I would actually enjoy being a personal trainer. Eventually I decided it was what I wanted to do and that became my goal for my career.

Back to my training, the gains began to slow down and I became confused and had to once again go back to the drawing board and dive even deeper into my research. This is where I came across periodization. This took me a long time to fully understand and be able to implement into my training.

Then life hit my like a bus, my partner at the time had left me, my parents had split up, I had a car accident which ultimately was held liable for and even lost my job within a matter of 3 months. In the middle of all of this happening I had finally committed to getting my qualifications by signing up to an open university as well as getting a job in a place where I worked previously.

This took a huge toll on me mentally and I began to question myself and everything I was doing. My training was no longer getting me the results I wanted because I was unable to put any faith or commitment into any programmes, my nutrition however was still fairly decent for the most part.

Then just as I began to dust myself off and try to turn things around. Covid hit. Before I knew it, I couldn’t even go to the one place where I really felt comfortable, the gym. All gyms had closed and I had no equipment at home. I quickly loaded up every website you can think of to try and find some sort of equipment, such as barbells, plates or dumbbells but nothing was available. I did however come across a pull up bar and began to attempt some bodyweight training at home for the first month or so of the first lockdown in the UK.

This didn’t last very long as I focused too much on how much I missed the weights in the gym. Being able to squat, deadlift, bench press, row, overhead press etc… None of these exercises were possible anymore and I wasn't interested in even giving bodyweight exercises a chance.

Then next thing you know it, during lockdown, I had to undergo surgery for something which could have been life threatening. I had my operation and was unable to eat or drink for about 2 weeks after being discharged. I spent 2-3 days in the hospital after my operation glued to the hospital bed because I couldn’t even walk. Each day all I could think about was getting better so I could leave and go home and see the people I love most.

Finally I was discharged but as I was unable to eat or drink for a couple of weeks due to my throat being severely irritated by the operation, I stopped training all together, stopped making healthy meals with the weekly meal preps I was doing before lockdown and became completely sedentary. Once I had recovered I began to just play video games and even started a YouTube channel which I hoped would be able to raise money for the NHS but sadly this didn’t work out as I had planned either.

Before I knew it, lockdown had ended and I was back at work. Completely out of my comfort zone as I hadn’t trained properly for at least 6 months. By this time I had lost roughly 10kg as well which meant half of the progress I had made in my first 6 months of training went down the drain. All of my colleagues at work had noticed as well, some commenting on how much muscle I had lost and others stating I looked so much better having leaned down. Just for reference, this is exactly why your goals have to mean something to you, if you just want to impress others then one person may have a completely different view/opinion to the next.

Anyways... Next thing I knew it, my mental health had taken a huge dip. I began to suffer really bad from anxiety and over worrying. So much so that I ended up self referring myself to a therapist. This was thanks to the encouragement of close friends, family and colleagues at work.

Through out all of this, there was one thing that kept me going and kept me focused. That was the fact I had been studying to become a personal trainer. Before Covid hit, I gave myself the goal of qualifying within the next year and I didn't want the virus to get in the way of that. Luckily I was able to pass all of my exams and modules online during lockdown. My concern now was that I needed to get my practical course and assessment completed but these had to be done in a gym environment. I consider myself extremely lucky but I was able to book my level 2 and 3 within the same month and miraculously, I managed to pass both of these and became fully qualified during one of the strangest years of my entire life.

So here I am today, running my own personal training business which I had envisioned years prior. The point I want to get across from my personal story is that I had many ups and many downs but the one thing that always kept me going and kept me positive. Was health and fitness, whether it was the thought of having my hand raised at the end of the white collar boxing event and being able to look up at the sky and tell my granddad that victory was for him or whether it was when I was in the hospital bed and just wanted to be able to have my independence back or even the simple fact of gaining my qualification so I could help others improve their lives. Health and fitness has always been the one thing that consistently gets me back on my feet and helps me clear my head.

That is the reason why I became a personal trainer, because I know health and fitness can do what it has done for me, for anyone else who decides to commit to improving their lifestyle and overall health.