Why I became at Personal Trainer for women

My Story

I 'm a 39 year old mum of 2 children (aged 11 and 14,) who has an autoimmune condition - rheumatoid arthritis which I've been living with since 2010. I credit exercise and excellent nutrition for allowing me to live a full and active lifestyle with my loved ones.

I teach resistance training to other women for its benefits including but not limited to, helping us to build lean muscle mass, increase bone density, improve mobility and strength. For clients who are looking for physique goals, bodybuilding style training allows us to train in a way that we can encourage muscle growth in desired areas.

Resistance training's ability to reliably increase basal metabolic rate is useful as we age, allowing us to maintain physique while consuming a greater number of calories than we could if we were untrained.

I am fascinated by health and spend a great deal of time learning and consuming content on everything health related - including diet and exercise.

My fascination comes from having had numerous health issues in my mid 20's to early 30's. From age 25, after giving birth to my daughter, needing emergency surgery and losing 2.2 litres of blood in the process, I ended up developing an arrhythmia issue. My heart rate would climb at rest, to a point where I would become disoriented and weak, my condition was put down to anxiety which I knew was incorrect. I then suffered with alopecia twice in 2 years and ongoing gut health issues with stomach cramping and vomiting

At age 28, I gave birth to my 2nd child, and a week after ended up in my local hospital and then the intensive care unit of London Heart Hospital for a condition named Wolff Parkinson White syndrome, this explained the years of arrhythmia and I underwent a catheter ablation for accessory pathways in my heart. I had given birth via C-section and my son was a week old, I spent the next 4 weeks of his life in a hospital bed not being able to see my new born.

By 2010 and aged 29 I had developed rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and decided to start taking my health into my own hands. I was put on a number of DMARDS, (disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs,) and decided I had to change my lifestyle, the way I was moving and eating to see if it helped.

I have spent the last 10 years practicing regular exercise, I have learnt a great deal about resistance training including bodybuilding and strength style work. I promote education and awareness around exercise and always take a client through why we are training the way we do. I have a special interest in nutrition and anything that can "bio-hack" (for lack of a better word,) us to better health.

Over a decade, I have manged to drastically reduce the medications I take for my rheumatoid arthritis and have become significantly stronger, visually leaner and noticeably happier and more energised.