Posted on March 07, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

Thursday was a 6am start as normal, people often ask me if I mind the early starts and late finishes but I’ve always accepted it as part and parcel of my job – most people want to work out before or after work so if you work in the fitness industry you have to be prepared to work unsociable hours. The beauty of my job is I get flexibility to be able to train during the day than after work and if I want I can fit in meeting a friend for a coffee so it’s not all bad!

I had a couple of PT clients in the morning and then caught up with some paperwork until my client at 10am. It was going to be my last session with this client and saying ‘bye’ to her wasn’t something I was looking forwards to. I’ve trained this client over 4 1/2years, and I appreciate that clients aren’t going to stay with us forever but as you can imagine I’ve become quite fond of this client and after 4 1/2 years I’d class her as a friend too. She absolutely blasted through her last session and went out with a bang! She is a very determined lady who works her socks off in her sessions and I know she will continue to train hard, eat well and continue to see results. We parted her session with a sweaty hug and a few tears (I’m not as hard faced as people think I am!). I was planning on having a workout after her session so she warned me not to read the card she had kindly left otherwise I might be blubbing in my session! Being far to curious I opened it….whoops….there were tears throughout my warm up….then a few deep breaths so I could compose myself and get through my blinking workout without sobbing!

The words in the card were lovely and it made me think about the influence of a personal trainer on people and their lives. People look to us for advice, education and inspiration and see us as role models and whilst I think it is hugely important that we remember this, we are often more than this…we are friends, we are confidantes, we are counsellors….whatever we are, we make people feel better about themselves and improve their quality of life and confidence and I think this is a whole lot more important than getting bogged down with a particular body image that the media push us to be. I think that as personal trainers we often forget how much influence we do have on these small but important things.

Another example of this was yesterday when I emailed a client yesterday about their session that morning and they had mentioned that their session in the morning had ‘sorted them out’ so they could start the day feeling positive and had they not been to their session they wouldn’t have felt like this…..another perfect example of how we can help people deal with other aspects of their life rather than just the aesthetics.

Most people who know me know I’m a workaholic (I work around 60-70 hours a week which I know a lot of people also do these days!), if I’m not with a client or training myself I’m working on programmes or food plans for my clients or doing work for the business.

However, I said this year that I would start trying to take more time out for me. So yesterday I made some time to meet a friend for lunch who I haven’t seen for years! We met at The Roast for a healthy lunch and it was so nice, we just chatted and chatted for the hour we were together…..we must have burned a fair few calories from the amount our jaws were moving! Then I spent the afternoon in my second office (Starbucks at BridgeWater Place) working!

I had no PT clients in the evening just a consultation with some new personal training clients and then an early finish to spend the evening with Joel and some friends. So overall, I had a good work-life balance yesterday….and long may it continue!

As I was packing my things up to leave I glanced around the studio, there was a great energy! Lucy had a boxing class going on and Chris & Kate were training their clients. I looked at people’s faces as they finished their workouts and although they were red faced and sweaty, people had a smile and a look of satisfaction…you tell people genuinely felt happy they had exercised….or maybe it was just a look of relief?!