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My work experience module has allowed me to explore the world of personal trainers further by shadowing one at my local gym. Being in a gym environment has always been an important part of my day to day life and has become a great way for me to escape daily stresses. This type of work experience has allowed me to gain the knowledge that I need to better my understanding of the work that goes into personal training. In the UK, almost 13% of the population is registered as a member of a private health and fitness gym or a publicly owned fitness facility (European Health and Fitness Association, 2014). This statement tells us that the role of a personal trainer is potentially in high demand, so learning the skills I would need from a qualified trainer will be beneficial for my future aspirations. 

Personal training has always been a career which I enjoyed the thought of, as it develops your personality through exercise. It allows a supportive, motivational and friendly session to aid the achievement of personal goals with professional supervision. A study by Mazzetti S. A,. Et al,. (2000) states that supervised training has been found to lead to greater increases in maximal strength gains when compared to unsupervised training sessions.

In this blog, I will be using Gibbs’ Reflective Model to help reflect on my experiences about how I felt and scenarios which arose during my time on placement. A study suggests that the purpose of reflection is to work out what is already known and add new information which results in a higher level of understanding (Paterson, C., & Chapman, J. 2013). The model is made up of 6 different stages including description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. These six stages aid a full reflection in many different scenarios. In the same study by Paterson, C., & Chapman, J. (2013), reflection is a vital part of learning from experience and it is also an integral part of developing deep learning. 

My blog is about to begin, and my reflection into working life is about to start. This time has allowed me to develop into a better person and I hope you can experience that with me. 

Anyone can attend the gym, whether it be to keep fit, get stronger or socialise. But for me, the gym allows me to get away from everyday life. This relates to Crossley 2006 who states that for some participants, the gym is an escape from everyday life, where people can ‘turn off consciousness and submerse themselves in exercise’. When my day is not going well, the gym allows me to release all my frustration and focus on myself. I have been attending the gym for a number of years now, firstly it was just to increase fitness levels by taking part in an individual session or in a class environment, but now it has become so much more. It has become a part of my daily routine and I look forward to attending the gym every evening. Sometimes it even helps me get through the day knowing that I can release any tension by putting all my anger into lifting the heaviest weight I can (correctly of course). 

Over the years, I have never had much confidence within myself and I have never fully felt comfortable within my own skin. This really brought me down and demotivated me to take part in anything let alone exercise. Playing netball for a number of years allowed me to release any stress throughout game play which lead me to realise that exercise was the way to improve my confidence. Therefore, I started going to classes within a gym environment to build motivation and confidence which then become quite frequent and I ended up attending different classes 3-4 times a week. This then encouraged me to speak to a personal trainer and attend smaller group classes and a 1-1 session once a week. These small classes allowed me to build my motivation and confidence hugely, especially to improve strength and technique. 

The more exercise I take part in, the more my confidence grows and allows me to flourish. A study by Sani, S. H. Z., et al (2016) that regular physical activity impacts positively on self-esteem. Confidence used to disrupt my life as I had little drive to take part in anything however exploring different exercises and different environments has lifted my mood and most definitely my confidence. A study conducted by Brand, S., et al., (2018) that exercise improves psychological states such as mood, social interactions, attention and physical strength.

Now the tables have turned, and I am about to type my code in and walk into my gym not as a trainee but as a personal trainer. My nerves got the better of me and all the moments of self-doubt are coming back. My confidence levels disappeared, and my mind is just telling me “how can I do this?” “how can I go into this gym and help other people when I cannot even help myself?”. All my knowledge felt like it had been erased from my mind and I knew nothing. But I was in. I was in, what I thought was the most comfortable environment for me but somehow it looked different. It felt different. But I had to introduce myself and start because otherwise I just never would. My supervisor was there, waiting for me to arrive, to explain what my first day was going to consist of. My supervisor mainly leads classes on different days as well as one to one personal training sessions which are adapted to the clients goals and needs. 

A mixture of males and females with different body types allowed us to analyse and adapt each session/class to each clients outcomes and goals. The classes consist of boxing, high intensity interval training (HIIT), upper body, bum abs and back (BAB).

Boxing was the class which was causing me to be most nervous as I had no clue how to box myself, let alone how to assist and teach it. However my supervisor taught me the basics and allowed me to shadow him so I could get the hang of it. Boxing was different to what I was expecting, the moves and the sequences were much harder than I thought and remembering it all was a challenge in itself, but I enjoyed it. 

It was unfamiliar. There were many skills that I learned from this experience, the main one of which was working in and leading a group. It taught me how to incorporate every single team member into a specific task and adapt it to their specific needs, which was a challenge. Making sure my relationship with clients was professional, polite and respectful was a major skill required. Developing my knowledge and proficiency was what this experience was all about. Deepening my knowledge for a potential future career goal. 

Confidence is key when interacting with other individuals. Starting off, I was the least confident individual. Telling people what to do, or how to change their movement to improve it was so difficult and I almost felt rude.  But shadowing a personal trainer, you had to. I couldn’t overcome this; it took me days or even weeks until I was able to acknowledge and assist a client to improve. Making sure you’re not overly confident and overpowering is a very difficult attribute to master. Especially in the gym environment, the characteristic of confidence is everywhere in both males and females whilst training. But these clients relied on my supervisor and me to communicate and assist them correctly with exercises and movements so that they would not injure themselves. Communication comes with confidence as by having good communication skills it allows me to support my clients the best I possibly can with my supervisor. In a study, 56% of the participants supported that vocal encouragement improves performance (Davis, K. M., Sandage, M. J., Plexico, L., & Pascoe, D. D. 2016). I understood and knew the correct form for many movements in the gym, but it was gaining the confidence to assist someone else carrying them out which came with time, and patience. After a number of sessions with the same clients, I started to get to know them and understand their individual goals therefore my supervisor would allow me to assist and structure a session plan with his observation.  

I gained the confidence to carry out my own one to one session plan with one of the clients whom I had met at the beginning of my work experience. The first time was nerve racking and I felt embarrassed and anxious in case I performed a movement incorrectly. I kept saying to myself “I do this every day” “I enjoy and love training”, but in my head this was all wrong. I finally did it – I was carrying out my own classes and my own session plans, obviously with the assistance of my supervisor but he believed in me. And he believed that I could gain the confidence and do it. I had nothing to be worried bout, I had to just gain the confidence in myself and increase my own knowledge. Every client is different, and every client has different goals and aspirations, but being their personal trainer allows you to be apart their journey. 

Personal training had not previously crossed my mind as a career path as I just attended the gym for myself and my own goals. However, it could be the job of my dreams. Helping other trainees achieve their goals from my classes and one to one sessions would be extremely rewarding and gratifying for myself. From the number of hours of work experience in the gym with my supervisor, he has really inspired me with the way he conducts himself and his work towards his clients. 

My supervisors company name is Sweat with A Smile, this says it all really. He works with everyday people with everyday lives who attend the gym, have fun and work out which I was glad to be a part of. I was invited to work intimately with clients who all train for various reasons and all have different goals, that are all inspiring in their own individual way. Looking at the techniques my supervisor used within both class sessions and one to ones has increased my knowledge around becoming a personal trainer, this includes how to approach situations which may arise as well as planning and decision making. Problem solving was another vital skill which I learnt within my experience as applying my current knowledge to improve new tasks is key. Adapting to client injuries and incorrect forms for specific exercises were demonstrated and it has allowed me to again improve my understanding on how to approach different clients.

Session planning and decision making was another useful tool used during each day to adapt the tasks to the right client. Doing this required patience and trust as well as reliability and interest. A study by Vecchione, M., et al., (2016). & Cieciuch, J., et al., (2016), proposes that an individual can try to have more autonomy at work when it is similar with their personal values. This relates to myself as I believe that my time management skills, reliability, decision making, and planning has developed over my experiences and will benefit me throughout workplaces and future workplaces. In my career life, whether it be working with other people or by myself, my aims would be the same as my supervisor. To make sure all my colleagues and clients start their day with a smile and to make every day beneficial and enjoyable, making them leave feeling upbeat and good about themselves. 

Working in my gym is a work experience I will never forget. Every single day, I worked closely with clients and my supervisor who introduced me into their world; their goals and their ambitions. I learned so much about my clients and was able to work with them closely to aid them with improving their lifestyles. And my supervisor, to say the least, helped me come out of my shell and taught me experiences I will take away with me forever. Everyone who was a part of my experience inspired me in many different ways not only with their motivation but with their commitment to achieve their goals which could affect them positively for life. By being inspired by my clients, it has given me the motivation to improve myself and my wellbeing in my degree, workplace and in the gym. A study by Thrash, T. M., et al. (2010) stated that inspiration initiates intrinsically valued qualities, suggested by an external stimulus e.g. people which encourages inspiration and then motivates individuals to extend these qualities into relevant situations. Like any job, you come across positives and negatives, but my supervisor taught me how to overcome any negatives which may occur with a happy mindset. 

With days where clients are feeling down and demotivated, being happy and upbeat was the best way to drive them to keep pushing themselves. I started off so nervous and with very low confidence and trust in myself, but my supervisor brought the best out in me and supported everything I did which allowed me to gain the confidence and use this work experience to its full potential. A study suggests that work experience allows students to reflect on and practice what they have learnt from formal study and develop employability skills in a real workplace (Helyer, R., & Lee, D. 2014). Furthermore, not only has this work experience developed my skills, it has also allowed me to understand myself and given me a chance to improve my weaknesses which will help in my future career choices.

From using Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle in this blog, it has allowed me to follow a model allowing me to fully reflect on my time on my placement. I struggled to use the “action plan” stage in the model as it did not suit what my experiences taught me; the other stages allowed me to develop my reflective skills and explore my feelings and experiences that I came across throughout my time. 

So, I therefore thank exercise, the gym, trainees and my supervisor for inspiring me, improving my knowledge and making this whole experience a lifelong memory.