After years of playing Rugby, Basketball and Boxing while at school I was very, very active. After leaving school i did no exercise for 2 years and in that time I went from a slim athletic 13 stone teenager up to a 17 stone slob.
Yes I had put on 4 stone by not being active and not eating correctly.
I woke up one day and looked at a photo of myself and thought, no way! I look 10 years older than I was. I was unfit, fat, de-motivated and had low self esteem.
I decided to go back down to my local boxing club . I trained for a year to get fit and then decided to fight for Tamworth Boxing Club. This brought back my desire to exercise. I started to lose weight and I was getting fitter each week.
I was loving the training and the buzz you get after you had finished these hard workouts!!
This is when it went from passion / healthy exercise to become an obsession /overtraining.
I ran 5 days a week and went boxing training the 2 other days. Although with each passing fight I was getting better, I was also becoming more tired and lethargic. So I increased my running from 2.5 miles per day to 5 miles per day. I thought the more I trained and the fitter I was, the more energy I would have … RIGHT? WRONG!!!!
I was overtraining and nobody told me. I was leaving the best part of me on the road and turned up at these fights with no energy. Yes I was still winning, but I could not understand why I was finding it so hard.
The weight was dropping off me and by now I weighed 12 stone 9 pounds. I had lost 4 stone 3 pounds.
Injury then struck which meant I could not box!!!
Forced to leave the boxing, I took various different types of exercise such as weight training and several different martial arts.
I then started working in the corporate world of sales, targets, budgets and staffing issues etc. Leading to long hours and yet again not enough exercise.
Every excuse was used not to train; I have not got time, too busy with work, got no energy. You know the reasons if you are reading this because we all use them from time to time.
Training 4 times per week, I was eating healthy in the week and then kicking back at the weekends with fast food and alcohol again. I then went from that 12 stone 9 pounds at 21 years of age up 16 stone 10 pounds at 32 years of age.
I am tall and because of this I thought I needed to be bulky rather than lanky. I was lifting weights, looking at my chest or my arms and forgetting about my waist!!!!!
Leaving the corporate world behind me I went out to Australia to change my life.
I went out there to get some more fitness qualifications, I was qualified here in the UK as a fitness instructor , but wanted to be a personal trainer.
I enrolled on a 2 year course in North Sydney, Australia and the first thing they did was take my measurements, weight, bodyfat and take a photo.
THIS WAS ANOTHER WAKE UP CALL
Like most of you out there, I have been slim and I also have been overweight or fat. Friends used to say you look good with a bit of weight on you as you are tall, but inside I felt fat. I even had to wear size 40inch trousers.
Yes 40 inch trousers, 30% bodyfat and a photo of somebody that I did not recognise, surely my body was in better shape than that???
No I had become complacent and thought that training 4 times per week would keep me in shape!!!!
This is why I became a personal trainer.
- To help you achieve your goals.
- To stop you over training.
- To guarantee results and get them fast.
- To try and pass on my passion for health and fitness.
How can an inexperienced personal trainer educate you on a heathy lifestyle when they have not lived themselves?
How can you get somebody to lose weight if you have not been fat or overweight yourself?
If you have never had low self esteem how can you help somebody who has?
I have been a Personal Trainer for over 10 years and in this time I have helped 1,000′s of clients.
Fitness is my Passion and my Saviour. Now I want to pass that Passion onto you.
You can get results and still have a good time its all about the 80-20 rule.
80% of the time you eat really well and exercise.
20% of the time you kick back & enjoy.
Now what are you waiting for get on the phone to me today and make your life a success story.
Yours in Health & Wellness,
David Hughes
Advanced Personal Trainer
Director Activ8 Fitness
Personal Training Tamworth / Solihull / Sutton Coldfield / Lichfield