Ever wondered what it’s like to be a real life Personal Trainer?
Check out “A Day in the Life…” by our fantastic AFA Ambassador – Shelley Lask as she describes a day running her own Mobile Personal Training business – Body Positive Health & Fitness
“My Monday”
5.30am – alarm goes off
5.40am – another alarm goes off
5.45am – ANOTHER alarm goes off, and I zombie walk to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal
6am – Shower, get dressed
6.15 – Drink coffee
6.25 – Go to the car
6.35 – Arrive at first client’s house, dig around in the car boot in the dark for the equipment I need, carry it to the door and press the doorbell
6.45 – Client is pregnant and having a lot of aches and pains, feeling stiff and exhausted. We’re in her loungeroom, just working on gentle mobility as moving is helping her feel good but there’s not much in the tank today and she still has to get through a whole day of work and then come home and look after her kids. The sun comes up during the session and the sky looks beautiful, but the pinkish colour tells me to expect rain later. Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen during one of my outdoor sessions.
7.45 – Load equipment back to the car, drive home
8am – Arrive home, have another cup of much-needed coffee
8.15 Go back to the car, drive to a park for my next session.
8.25 Find a park, carry equipment 100m from my car to the the spot we’ll train. Today I’m carrying a mat, two 20kg kettlebells and a 2kg dumbbell for mobility work. I’m glad for the chance to practice my farmer’s carry as I won’t have time for a formal workout today.
8.30 – Second session. We’re working on glute/leg strength and endurance as the client has a long hike coming up. His posture is improving all the time and we discuss his plan to acclimatise to the altitude he’ll be hiking at as well as the times we’ll train next week. The weather holds out and we don’t get rained on!
9.15 – Carry the equipment back to the car and head home
9.25 – Arrive home, grab a snack and then head back out the door
9.45 – Drive to next client’s house
10am – Third Session. We’re working primarily on core strength as she experiences lower back pain and her physio and I have been in communication, but we do some general fitness work as well. She has a huge range of gym equipment at her house so I just carry my handbag. I get to pet her new rabbit. She’s going overseas for a few weeks so we confirm the date that she’ll resume training. I have a quick chat to her daughter who’s just come home from a ballet competition.
11am – Back to the car and straight to my next client’s house
11.15 – Fourth session. Lovely client makes me a cup of coffee and we have a chat before we get started. He’s recovering from a broken leg and wants to be stronger for his return to martial arts. He also has a lot of gym equipment at his house but I take a weighted bar with me for rotational work as this is relevant to the type of movements he’ll do at martial arts, particularly as it often involves using swords. We discuss what we’d do in the event of a zombie apocalypse and I pet some cats.
12.30pm – Back in the car and driving home. Listening to an audiobook about strength training so that I can keep improving my arsenal of ideas while I’m on the go.
1pm – Make and eat lunch, reply to some emails, write a post on my business facebook page and then head back out
2pm – Drive to my next session. More time in the car = more audiobook time.
2.30 – Pick up my client at the bottom of her building and drive to her carpark (there’s no on-street parking and nowhere to safely stop, so this is a finely timed exercise). Once we’ve parked we walk down to the building’s reception area where I have to sign in so that we can use the apartment gym and then go back to level 10 to use the gym.
2.45 – Fifth session starts. We’re building towards doing pushups from the ground and completing Turkish Getups. Her leg feels a bit twingey when she squats today so we skip that and the running that we were going to do and do some woodchop type movements instead. I’d rather err on the conservative side. We talk movies and music and laugh a lot.
3.30 – Go back to lobby and sign out, drive down through the carpark and drop the client off again, then drive to next session.
4.10 – Arrive early for next session, which is in a hall that I hire. I pay for parking, have a snack, prepare the equipment and then do a few kettlebell snatches while I wait.
4.30 – Sixth and final session of the day. We’re working on upper body strength, cardio and kickboxing. We’d spent the previous 12 weeks cementing leg strength and stability and now the kicks are feeling really solid. We’ve been training together for a while and always have great chats in the breaks – a nice way to finish up the day.
5.30 – I pack up my equipment, and drive to the supermarket.
6.15 – Buy ingredients for dinner and drive home.
7pm – Return home, cook and eat the first part of dinner
7.30 – Clean the mats and equipment I’ll need for Tuesday’s sessions, go over notes, reply to emails, write up and send some invoices, update my expense report, and put on a load of washing which includes the boxing wraps I’ve used for the day.
8.30 – The second part of dinner has finished cooking and I eat that as well, and watch an episode of “Black Books” with my boyfriend.
9.15 – Double check tomorrow’s timetable, hang the washing out, respond to one last email, and start getting ready for bed.
10.30pm – Bed
If Shelley’s worklife sounds like something you would enjoy, contact AFA about becoming a Personal Trainer and running your very own business!