Last Tuesday I read my friend Debbie Jacob's piece on "Gymns and fat people" and empathised with her and all whose abs and pecs are not showpieces for the gyms.
I understood her every grouse from the instructors who sometimes wander into Treadmill Territory from Muscle Corner and condescendingly answer your enquiries about machines which they believe no one whose skin is not tightly stretched over their bones should know about, and I could add that there are those who grudgingly repeat instructions if one of 'us' dares to forget the workings of a piece of equipment other than treadmill or bicycle.
Not to mention that those who have not paid for a personal trainer easily become non-existent while he, since it is usually the male of the species, walks in the footsteps of his personal hirers whether they are mountainous in size or not since a special fee is being paid for special attention. And I do agree with Debbie too that she is no muscle man's Tantie, nor for that matter, I must warn the youth in the streets, am I their Tants.
Twice I tried the gyms and each time lost money as after six weeks of mostly walking the treadmill and looking at myself in the mirror which usually faces the machine, for as long as 45 minutes at a time, I was bored to tears with a face on which every line and crow's foot is known. I took a firm decision that the savannah pitch was going to be my exercise ground for however long I live.
But even there you can find yourself faced with feelings of inferiority if your self-esteem is anywhere from middle to low, as the runners, joggers and brisk walkers race past your medium/slow paced walk. Not to mention some of my Johnnie-come-lately friends whose conversation pieces are now about their walk up Chancellor or over the Maracas Hill. Some of whom never even pitched a marble in their youth.
Then I met a beautiful, well-toned young woman, named Jaael Shepherd, doing the medium-paced morning walk, and learned that she was a personal trainer for the very same individuals who can make people like Debbie and me feel fat, out of shape and out of breath. A co-director of Exec-U-Fit Health Centre at 26 Ana Street in Woodbrook, Jaael walks the savannah pitch for more reasons than a bad ankle: "I look at it as being away from work. It is a change and a different type of training than the gym where I use weights, which is different from aerobic walking."
Yes, aerobic walking was what she called her medium pace around the savannah, and I was tickled pink to hear Jaael explain that "any exercise done non-stop for 25 minutes is aerobic exercise." And my lean, mean people, according to Richard Augustus, the other director/personal trainer at Exec-U-Fit "whether you bounce up, down and around an aerobic class, creep or jog around the savannah, stride up Chancellor or over Maracas, use a skipping rope, power walk, ride a bicycle, once it continues non-stop over 25 minutes, it is an aerobic exercise."
Because, he further explained "in an aerobic class people need to follow a pattern of warm-up, stretch, and the actual class must be non-stop for 15 minutes, if you break your rhythm you have to start all over to achieve that 25 minute non-stop benefit, and then you must cool down."
"What is important" says Jaael "is to find what you like and stick with it as you will more likely stick with something that you like." Augustus is accredited to the International Sports Science Association (ISSA), International Correspondence Schools and the American Council of Exercise (ACE), while Shepherd is affiliated to ACE and ISSA, both of them "for donkey years."
The difference between the Health Centre, which opened its doors on April 3, 2000, with the latest in exercise machines, steam room and massage, and a commercial gym is the personalised training and rehabilitation for those with health problems who may not get personal treatment unless a personal trainer is specifically hired in a commercial gym where it could take up to two hours to get the use of machines.
At Exec-U-Fit no programme goes for longer than one hour and fifteen minutes. It is hard work so you either work hard or work long but you cannot do both at the same time. And although the trainers guarantee that a client will be better off than when he/she first came in "it is really up to the client to carry out their part of the bargain when they go home. We give the motivation and guarantee that at the end of three months you will see some sort of change" says the two directors.
The services offered at the Health Centre include constant client monitoring, advice on nutrition, and exercises minus the aerobics dance routines, with no traffic pile up for equipment as each client is given an appointed hour. "Here you are guaranteed a time with your personal trainer, no rush for equipment and above all there is the privacy that many overweight or ill people want when they come to do their routines" explained Jaael.
"Each programme" says Richard "is individualised because everybody is different. Most programmes have basic core exercises - the amount of sets, repetitions, rep speed which could be slow, fast or medium, rep range of a certain amount for size or lower amounts for toning and definition - all tailored towards the individuals. In addition to the fact that each person is given very specific types of exercises, we educate them as well on nutrition which is very important, we do not just train you, we educate on exercise and nutrition."
The client at Exec-U-Fit can come for general all-round fitness, heart disease, rehabilitation from strokes or arthritis, problems with the knees, lower back or shoulders. "Why we call it personal training and guarantee results" explained Richard "is that we take all the guesswork out of it, we have a plan, put pieces of the puzzle together and work something out. All needs are confidential between trainer and client and since there are for the most just three to four at one time in the gym, privacy is guaranteed."
The trainers of Exec-U-Fit, which include additional trainer Kieron Draper, are quick to explain that other commercial gyms will also bring results but they have noticed that the Centre attracts the more mature people who like the ambience, no rushing for a treadmill and a lot of privacy.
" Since we started, we have shed hundreds of pounds for our clients" says Augustus.