ThatIsBeyond… My Fitness Journey (part 1)

In many ways 2019 had not been my best year. Don’t get me wrong there have been some amazing highlights, there is no doubt about that, but there has also been a lot that I would rather forget!

One thing that changed drastically for me, was a perception of who I was and who I wanted to be. 2019 was when I started to prioritise my health (mental and physical) and began a lone journey to feel better about who I am. The problem was I made small strides in the right direction, but I didn’t have the expertise to know how to achieve, what I wanted to achieve!

I bought a gym membership in the hope that paying for the gym would make me go more regularly (and it did for a bit) but work got in the way – heavy schedules unusual hours and before I knew it, I was attending only every now and then.

Gyms are not always the friendliest of places. I’m quite shy in new surroundings and found the bravado of other gym goers combined with my lack of knowledge pretty intimidating.

With all of that in mind and a determination to lose some weight and build some muscle (eventually) I knew I had to find a way to make the gym less scary and to make sure that I attended regularly, and more importantly that I was getting the most out of the time that I was in the gym.

In November I approached Tom at TPM fitness. (Full disclosure – he’s the boyfriend of a friend of mine whom I haven’t seen for years!) I had never met Tom, but knew of him via social media – and contacted my friend to see if there was anything that he might be able to do to help.

With Tom based in Wolverhampton and me in Kent personal training sessions in the conventional sense were never going to work, so instead I embarked on what I will call “online training” for want of a better phrase!

The first thing to say is that Tom is a top bloke. He listens, and was someone I could instantly open up to. I have a history with food, and we ain’t always BFFs – and I can also become obsessed with things like weighing myself or overdoing things to the point where my body is at breaking point. I also stressed to Tom that whilst my fitness journey would no doubt impact on my family life, I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t cutting too much into the quality time I spend with my wife and son… a pretty tall order.

With all of this in mind, Tom worked out a program for me and the hard work began. I spent two weeks in the US with little access to a gym, he adapted my training to be able to complete it at home and therefore my fitness journey continued.

So how does it work? I hear you ask!

Well it’s simple really

⁃ weekly check ins (mostly done by email but sometimes via Skype)

⁃ Calorie counting (made easy with a handy App)

⁃ Gym sessions (all planned by Tom for you to achieve your personal goals)

⁃ Monitoring steps

⁃ Disclose weight/ measurements once a week

What I think I great, is that Tom sets my parameters with his experience and knowledge, but I take responsibility for achieving my goals. If I want that mars bar (king size obvs) then I know that the consequence is I might not hit my goal that day – which in turn could pause my progress, but sometimes you just NEED a Mars Bar and that is my choice to make!

When I check in with Tom, there is definitely a certain amount of accountability and in a sense I don’t want to let him down, but really it’s about focussing on my goals and how I can achieve them. This process seems to be working for me and the Library of exercises with handy pointers on how to complete each exercise is fantastic. I have found that the bigger the weight the more my form weakens so it’s good to return to the bite-sized videos to remember how to achieve the best form.