I’m now 8 months into my sessions with Lawrence Martin a personal trainer, Cheltenham. It’s probably the longest I’ve stuck with any exercise. I’ll give a little update on how it’s going at the end!
I’ve had a very up and down relationship with exercise, at school I went to great lengths to avoid it, (every excuse under the sun!) and it didn’t get much better once I left school, preferring the pub to a run. The only exercise I’ve consistently enjoyed throughout my life is climbing mountains. Living in Wales that was a lot easier and I’ve climbed Snowdon three times and all the mountains round where I lived. I even went on a trip of a lifetime trekking the Annapurna range in Nepal in my early 20s. When we moved from Wales and had children it put a stop to most of my mountain adventures, as they are really not buggy friendly! And then the kids’ legs were too small, although they are getting a little better as they get older and we’ve managed some fairly decent walks around the Cotswolds.
Over the years I realised that I needed to do some exercise for my health that was possible around young children and I took up running, going from couch to half marathon in seven months but just days after my race I had to have surgery that had a long recovery time and I never really got back into running. I have tried, in no particular order, DVDs, online courses, HIIT style gyms, regular gyms, buggy fit, Zumba and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a whole lot more! I am a stress eater and struggle to control my weight so I needed something to combat the cake but I also realised I needed to exercise if wanted to live longer to be around for the kids as exercising regularly is a huge contributor to a long and healthy life.
I walk the dog daily but it rarely gets my heart rate up and during lockdown I was doing a lot more baking and eating and so was feeling pretty rubbish. Enter Lawrence Martin, a personal trainer in Cheltenham, with an offer to try his brand new personal training business out! Having worked for years in the industry and holding all the qualifications, he decided to take the leap and start up for himself. (For transparency, Lawrence messaged me on instagram and offered a trial session in exchange for some story promotion, he didn’t ask for this post and I pay for all my sessions.)
I felt nervous at the idea but realised it was a good opportunity to get the push I needed. We had the trial session in the park near my house and he put me at ease right away. Friendly and professional, Lawrence chatted to me to assess my fitness goals and then put me to work. I’m not going to lie, it was hard, and I was in pain for a couple of days after, the kids were in hysterics watching me hobble about. It was also quite weird having one to one as you can’t hide at the back of the class or slack off under his watchful eye! I could have stopped there, but I’d had in my head that if it was good, I’d continue as I needed something. Another draw was that I’d admitted to Lawrence that the reason I gave so much up when it comes to fitness was that I get bored easily and don’t like doing the same things every week, (I’ve since been diagnosed with ADHD so that makes a lot more sense now!) and he told me that he would make every personal training session different, so I decided to become a paying customer and put his claim to the test.
He wasn’t lying! In 18 weeks of personal training, every single workout has been different. You can really tell that he has so many years of experience as the new exercises and ideas just keep on coming. I don’t get a chance to get bored and so I’ve kept showing up. This is nothing short of a miracle, believe me! It is very daunting when you first expose your lack of fitness to someone who works with lots of people at the other end of the fitness scale but I’ve never felt laughed at or belittled when I’ve been struggling or collapsed in a heap after two push ups, just encouraged to keep pushing myself when I don’t think I can go any further. And it works, I have really noticed a difference, I’m far more toned and feel so much fitter than I did. The exercises I really struggled with at the start feel much easier now.
As with many personal trainers in Cheltenham, Lawrence is making use of the many parks in town, sessions cost £25 for an hour one to one. Before this lockdown, over the summer, I could bring the children to the park with me and they could play during the session which makes such a huge difference when you don’t have a lot of childcare. When it was allowed, we even had workouts in my garden early in the morning while they were still sleeping! Something we will go back to hopefully!
Contact Lawrence for a free 30 minute personal trainer session in Cheltenham to see if it works as well for you as it does for me! You can reach him via instagram, facebook or on his website. Or just give him a call on 07703 531460.
8 month update! I now feel fitter then I ever have before! I have lost a considerable amount of weight, I am toned in all areas of my body, I can do sits ups easily and still no session has been a repeat. Lawrence pushes me but in a gentle way, and I always feel a sense of achievement after. He always puts up with me rolling my eyes at him with good nature too! The photo above was was last month and I’m beyond thrilled. If you’re looking for a personal trainer in Cheltenham, give Lawrence’s free trial session a go, what have you got to lose?
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