I have been a Personal Trainer for just over 15 years. In that time I have learned so much from continuing education on exercise protocols and nutrition. Indeed that was one of the things that drew me towards the job as I knew there was constant research with new findings that there was always something to learn.

I have though, learned way more than I anticipated, not just the technicalities of exercise and in particular nutritional science but about what is more important.

  1. It’s not all about weight loss. When I first started, all training was about losing weight primarily. Now I think that mental health and healthy aging are way more important.

  2. Yes it is unhealthy if you are living with obesity but what are the general motivators in this instance? It can all be very negative. Lose weight, stop eating this, reduce that, weekly weigh ins etc. I’ve definitely been guilty of that messaging in the past. It only ever worked temporarily, if at all. Now I try to focus more on behaviours around food to have a healthy gut and exercise for a strong and mobile body.

  3. Community is more important than individual exercises or workouts. If the experience of an exercise class is of moving about with a group of friends and feeling yourself getting stronger then you are more likely to attend. More frequent movement is better than isolated big beastings that take a week to recover from and that you dread the next one so don’t go. And then it’s an easy habit to do nothing at all.

  4. Peri- menopause and menopause can play havoc with life and energy to exercise. I had NO IDEA about this until I experienced it. We get more injuries, that take longer to resolve. Our mental health is affected as is our energy for exercise, (life!) so it often takes a back seat which leads to a further reduction in mood. So so easy to spiral here. We need to be gentle with ourselves while also knowing that exercise is one of the best ways to manage menopause symptoms.

  5. I am always learning! I can never know or learn it all. More research is being done all the time. Things we thought were true 10 years ago are now being adjusted with further information. What will be discovered by science in 10 years time? What will I have learned about what is important to general health for women?