Impact Fitness

At one stage last year, when my son was still pretty young and sleep was scarce, my fitness reached an all time low. I was eating poorly, with lots of sugar and caffeine to get me through the day. There never seemed to be a spare minute, so exercise was confined very much to the back burner. Add to this the fact that I was knackered all the time and you can see that it wasn't a great recipe for a healthy lifestyle!

My wife and I discussed the situation several times and eventually we decided that we needed a kick start in improving our weekly routines. We decided to try a personal trainer, something my wife had done with great success a couple of years earlier after the birth of our daughter. This was how we came to meet Gordon Hill of Impact Fitness, with my first batch of sessions being a birthday gift from my beloved!

I was a bit wary of using a trainer, as it was going to be a new experience for me. I need not have worried. Gordon is a very friendly guy with the ideal persona for a personal trainer. He is very friendly but with a steely edge that helps him to push you on. He tailors each persons sessions to their individual fitness levels. He is also a very fit guy, so you never feel that he is making you do something that he wouldn't do himself!

Initially my sessions took place at my local hockey club. Gordon would set up circuit training for me on the grass. Latterly, when the weather took a dip, we would meet at the gym of Parklands Country Club, which is the base for his training. I enjoyed the sessions from the start , although my fitness was woeful! With the rest of my lifestyle at that time, Gordon was definitely fighting a losing battle! But we persevered.

For one reason or another, I had taken a break from the sessions since Christmas. We reconvened last night. I had asked Gordon to help me with the final push to fitness before the Etape ride. This was a challenge he seemed to relish...

Last nights session was based on interval training. Short sections of near maximal effort, followed by short recovery to allow the heart rate to re-stabilise, repeated. Gordon had me working through intervals on the exercise bike, rowing machine and treadmill. By the end I was gasping for breath and feeling more than a little nauseous! As I begged for mercy, we finished off with some abdominal work and some much needed stretching. This stretching seems to have helped my knee pain quite a bit. I will need to do more of this easily forgotten part of my training regimen.

I will be seeing Gordon once a week up until the ride. If you want details of his services, you can visit his website at:

http://www.impact-fitness.co.uk/
or at here:
http://www.parklandscountryclub.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=57

Keep happy and keep training,

Col.