Training advice for the Fit Pros

Darryl has a busy job working hard and getting the long list of tasks that his boss gives him done. It’s a complete change working in this corporate environment from when he was at University with time to spend playing lots of different sports that he loved. These days he misses the exercise and the feeling of being in shape. He also had an injury that he was able to work through when he was playing regularly at University, but since he’s been playing less sport it bothers him more now when he exercises. 

He signed up for a local football team when he left university and enjoyed playing several games with them until work started taking over and his injuries became more and more frustrating for him. He now plays much less regularly and even when he does he can feel the pain from his injury playing up causing him to sit on the sidelines more. 

He has tried making exercise more frequently, but he often fails because he has so much on at work and every time he tries to play football his knees bother him. He has looked for trainers who could help him to train around his injury and to make exercise a regular activity, but without any success and after many failed attempts at finding a trainer that can help him he is really frustrated and often tempted to give up completely. 

He also has a young family who he devotes his attention to when he comes home from work and after they have dinner together every evening. At the end of every day he feels low on energy and just wants to relax with his wife in front of the TV. This repeats every day and he can never seem to fit in session at the local gym with everything going on. The prospect of travelling to the gym late in the evening and leaving his wife alone to handle any upsets that his daughter might have isn’t fair on her so he always stays home after she’s in bed. It feels impossible to achieve any results with all his responsibilities so he is desperate to figure something out!

He has seen some posts on social media from Alex and reading some of the blog posts written by him he’s decided he would get in touch. One thing that stuck in his head when he was reading about Alex’s methods was something called “stop and carry on” which seemed like a great tool for avoiding possible injuries. After reading about this he was quick to get in touch with and a call was set up to see if this was the right person to help him. 

Alex will help Darryl by first understanding what type of injuries he has had in the past and his experience working with trainers before. He asks about why Darryl’s experience of what haven’t worked, but also taking into account what has worked. He is looking to create a program which overcomes the unique hurdles he faces such as limited time available and creates a workout using bodyweight exercises. 

During the call Alex relates with Darryl being in the corporate space a bit and they joked about some of the idiocracies of working in an office. Alex was keen to get an understanding of what challenges Darryl faced at work and also asked about what time Darryl had available. This would help Darryl to avoid the hurdle that he had ran into with his past trainers where they didn’t account for his busy schedule.  

After the call ended Alex was going to construct a training plan for Darryl and they would get together once a week to discuss the training and go through the different exercises. The way Alex had organised the training was all bodyweight and were short in duration so this made it easily accessible and straightforward for Darryl to fit into his busy corporate day. Over time Darryl will be able to learn different exercises that he can do to get himself feeling fitter. 

Several of the exercises I have recommended to Darryl are available as a free ebook which can access on my website. You can use to get started in building a stronger, better you- just as Darryl did! If you want advice tailored to you then get in contact with me on the website and we can organise a call to discuss your exercise plans.

Here are a couple we used to get you inspired!

Push ups with one hand moving forward

A great upper body move!

Push ups with one hand moving wide

This is another great variation from the same position making these easy to execute together.

Push up with one hand backwards

The last exercise here is from the same position only this time you are moving one hand at a time backwards from the push up position which will challenge your body from another angle.

My last suggestion is that you combine these three exercises to make a program.

Perform each exercise one after the other, 10 repetitions (or as many as you can do) using rest periods that allow you to recover enough to repeat the exercises. Aim for 3 sets each, but this will depend on how long you have so do as much as you can manage in the time available.