Aren’t You Too Fat For A Personal Trainer?

Aren’t you too fat to be a personal trainer? 

This is a question/ statement I get quite a-bit! Now according to world of social media, essentially yes people would assume because of my size I am unable to be in the health and fitness industry!

However my response to a lot of people is: do you know where I was when I start my fitness journey.... and 90% of people respond with NO! So if you’re in that 90%, let me explain! 

I left high school in 2015 weighting at about 26.5st, wearing a size 26/28! And honestly I never thought I’d become a gym person.... however I was extremely unhappy with my weight and how I looked to other people, but more importantly I hated what I saw when I looked in the mirror! Dancing was always something I loved, saying that I did dance in collage, I wasn’t inactivated! I just didn’t really care about what I ate or how much of it ate!

In May 2018, I signed up to do the race for life for the end of the year! I did they along with some of my friends, however I realised I couldn’t even run on a treadmill for 5 seconds without feeling like I was going to die! So I attended a fitness bootcamp which was held by an incredible personal trainer who now is one of my closest friends! After being at bootcamp for over a year! Here from June 2019! I was a fully qualified personal trainer with my own fitness story that inspires so many people! 

And that is why I became a personal trainer! Because I can relate to so many people! I understand he struggles of walking into the gym for the first time, I know what it feels like to have set backs, bad days or times where the number on the scale isn’t going down! Which is why I work hard 7 days a week to help people who is where I was when I started! Change is possible, we all just need a little support! Curley weighing in at 16.4st! That’s 10stone lost in just over 4 years! 

For me, at the moment my weight isn’t what worries me anymore! The thing that worries me is the imagine that gets created by social media on what personal trainers or anyone in the fitness business should look like! And it’s not a realistic picture to look at! I know this from my own personal experience! I’ve seen and followed some “fitness influencers” and then I looked at myself and thought “how do they achieve this in such a short period of time” and let’s be real! One working won’t give you a flat stomach! One set of squats won’t give you the bum of your dreams! These of physical changes that you have to work hard for and be consistent with to see the results! Nothing changes that fast over night! Don’t get my wrong some of the influencers out there are incredible, and they show their progress! And they inspire you as you see where they started! 

Here’s quite a few people I’ve seen mainly on Instagram who give out all this false information about form, technique and even diet advice! And those kind of influencers aren’t actually qualified to give you that information! Yeah feel free to share what works for you, however everyone’s body is different so it won’t alway work for you! 

My advice if you want help, find a personal trainer in a local gym, because we can’t work in the gym unless we have our qualifications to do so! So you’ll get the right advice and support from us! Or if a gym isn’t too local, find a personal trainer in your area and see if they do online coaching! 

Hip Thrusts?

Why are hip thrusts so good for glute development?

When we perform the exercise, there’s a great shift of weight from hip muscles to the gluteus maximus, which means they experience high levels of mechanical tension throughout the range of motion.

As we extend our hips and maintain knee flexion, hamstrings shorten to the point in which they don’t produce meaningful levels of force.

Adductors have their best leverage through hip flexion therefor, as we extend our hips, our hips, our adductors end up not producing that much force. 

On the other hand, the gluteus maximus works best with hip extension, which is why, as we extend the hips during the exercise, it ends ups taking most of the weight. 

On top of this, the exercise is very challenging both at the top and at the bottom of the movement because the hips and the knees don’t move that far away from the weight: while at the bottom other muscles can help synergistically to push the weight up, as we extend our hips, the glutes end up experiencing the most tension!
What are the key points of how to do a hip thrust? 
• Head up and looking forward to decrease activation of the lower back
• Break the bottom of your scapula (mid back) as it puts more emphasis onto the glutes to work more rather than the erectors
• The basic hip thrust needs a shin-thigh angle at 90degress at the top of the thrust 
• Push your knees out throughout the movement (or use a band to help with this cue.)