Posted on March 26, 2015 by Kate Halsall

As personal trainers, we don’t just measure a client’s success by their weight loss/gain, body fat reduction or their amazing six pack abs. It’s important to know that not all clients want these things. Regardless of what the end goal is, targets are set and achieving those targets through blood, sweat, loss of colour in the face, the occasional moment of feeling sick and a little tear here and there, should be recognised as a success! For some it’s about getting fitter, maintaining a routine, running faster, taking time out for themselves, spicing up their existing training programme, get stronger and so on. For my client Guy Weston, a runner who initially started personal training with his then pregnant wife Kelly, it was to get fitter, stronger and faster.

Whilst Guy regularly runs, his initial training with Kelly identified some strength and balance weaknesses. As a result, we set goals to develop a stronger core and reduce some of his abdominal fat; to strengthen his knees and legs for running; and to get leaner/bigger on top. In addition to training once a week, Guy participates in the Monday Morning Motive8 Bootcamp and also trains in our Marshall Court gym a couple of times a week.

We take measurements on a monthly basis (to look at those muscle gains!), keep checks on his food and drink, review his gym plans and track the weights he is using in the gym. His progress to date is a testament to how hard he works.

Vital Statistics

Body Fat:
Start – 20.46% Current – 18.30%
Guy has lost over 14mm of abdominal fat

Inches Lost to Date:
10.5 inches from the whole body
Nearly 4 inches from his abdominals

Resting Heart Rate:
Start – 68bpm Current – 55bpm
This is in the “excellent” range for a 34 year old male

Running Speed:
Guy ran the Ilkley Moor Fell race (8km, 401m climb) in 1:12 in 2014
Ran it in 1:01 this year and felt like he could have gone faster.
http://www.ilkleyharriers.co.uk/index.php?page=imr&subpage=route

Strength:
We have almost doubled Guy’s strength in Bench Press, Squats and Lunges
Increased the number of “good” pullups he can do (one of the more recent goals!)
Progressed to heavier weights for shoulder work
And no longer falls over using the TRX (sorry for bringing that up Guy!)

With the Yorkshire Marathon in October looking to provide some more personal bests, I just wanted to say Thank You and AWESOME Work to Guy for his successes so far. Keep it up!