Last night I went to the Global Trade Review awards dinner where my personal training was part of an auction for charity. One of my longer term clients Duarte helped set up the charity
Shelter Them in Rwanda. They built a school and provide education to 100’s of children and are looking to expand this to help yet more kids. They were selected as the official charity for this year’s award dinner. If this resonates with you then you can donate money here –
Shelter Them>>.
The event went well with over £24000 being raised and a couple of bids for my personal training. I have yet to find out or meet the winner but will do so in due course. A theme that came up yesterday and is very common when chatting to new people is what sort of people do I train? What are their goals and have I trained any celebrities. The main answers to these are below:
Demographics – The average age of my clients is 43 years old, with a third in their 30s, another third in their 40s and 25% over 50. My oldest current client is 67 years old and youngest is under 21. Historically, this data is fairly typical in regards of age, my oldest client ever was 88 years old, youngest was 10, Gender wise I train two thirds men currently, it is usually more of a 50/50 split gender wise than it is right now.
Goals – The main goal focus of clients is a split between improving fitness (40%) and losing body fat (40%). Other goal include preparing for a sport, reducing injuries/pains as well as improving health.
Every year I will always have a few people training for their weddings, holidays as well as landmark birthdays. I will have clients with various fitness challenges, which may be preparing for a half marathon or longer, sprint training to improve sports performance or a snow based challenges such as ski touring. This last month I have been helping someone prepare to pass the fitness tests to get into Sandhurst Army Officer training.
Exercise Experience – About 10-20% of clients have never done exercise before, or not since they were forced to in school. They consider themselves non exercise type people. The majority (50-60%) have done exercise at some point in the past but nothing in any recent time (months to years). About 20% have extensive exercise experience and are currently training consistently. The rest fall somewhere in-between these brackets.
Professions – There is a large mix of professions within my clients, the largest sector is from within banking or finance. The next most common would be self-employed / business owners. Doctors probably come in third and then a mix of all sorts thereafter. It is interesting but not so surprising how many doctors have a personal trainer. I guess they understand the importance of prioritising results within their own health & fitness.
Celebs – People still want to know what celebs I have trained. My list remains fairly limited, I did the nutrition for
Benedict Cumberbatch many a year ago before he was super famous while working on a film, I think it was for the short film
Inseparable, as he wanted to lose weight as he was playing someone suffering from cancer. I cannot quite remember as I only knew he was famous a few years later when I saw him in Star Trek.
What Does This Mean For You?
The main take away should be if you are looking to get a trainer it really does not matter that much on whether you have never trained previously, hate exercise or love it, are younger or older, or coming back from injury. The right coach will guide you forwards and to a higher level.
Photo – A couple of pictures from last night and of the charity itself –
