I am Lewis, the other half of the blog – a lifelong health and fitness fanatic and a personal trainer and health advocate. That sounds very boring, right?
Quite the opposite! I suppose. The real fun and enjoyment began when I started working with people who couldn’t do things around the house and felt isolated because of it.
Most people around my age take for granted the ability to walk without pain or reach for a cup at the back of the cupboard without any real problem, so when I was hired to work with a group of guys suffering from Parkinson’s I finally found my calling. Being able to help these guys, who came in on crutches or with walking aids, then left either without them or less reliant on them, I understood who really benefits from exercise.
After working with this group for a few years I took over from a lady based in a doctors’ surgery, who was teaching more senior clients with basic movements and stretching. Her class was small in number but big in voice. As with my previous group, I learnt from this class how much dedication is needed to increase mobility as you get older or suffer from medical issues. Through a lot of laughs, cups of coffee and the odd stretching session, I discovered that by gently increasing targeted exercise the improvements really do come. After a year of this class and lots of new members, that outnumbered even the people in the waiting area, I met Pete……
Pete is like no man I’d ever met. He walked into my class with his wife and, after ensuring she was seated comfortably, he marched up to me, looked me in the eye and said, “Hi, I’m Peter. I can’t lift my garage door up anymore and I want to know if you can fix that?”
I knew from that first moment, here was a guy with a purpose, who was not going to let a little thing like age affect his goals. My kind of bloke!
He quickly became a popular member of our group, with his determination always to do the harder variation of any exercise I gave and his speed and energy during our boxing and “seated sprinting” warm-ups.
After a few months, he came to me and said, “Right! I can now lift the garage door. I used to be able to do a press-up and I want to again. What d’you reckon?’
I was shocked; he had completely bypassed the fact that his shoulder now worked and was already looking for the next goal. If you want proof that all you need is a little commitment and that age never stopped anyone with a goal, here he is!
Since I started working with Pete, he has gone from being a guy who couldn’t lift his garage door to one who gets angry with himself when he can only do 14 press ups at a time. We are a great team – and we want others to follow the journey and realise that this isn’t just a marketing exercise or a couple of blokes boasting about what they can do, but an illustration of an undeniable truth: age is only a number and the only barriers are those we create ourselves.
So until next time, enjoy the videos and please leave a comment. It would be much appreciated.