Fitness instructor David Howard describes his day
I ALWAYS wanted to work in health and fitness. When I was a youngster boxing was my game, and I got a lot of help from older coaches, which led me, in time, to coach younger boxers myself. So that’s how I got started.
After college, when the opportunity came to work at the Ritz-Carlton I jumped at it. I love its service ethic. I drive here from Ballybrack, in Dublin, each morning, against the traffic, which is great.
I get here at about 8.30am and open the club before meeting with the team to discuss the day’s events. We have between 20 and 30 people working at the Cedar Club fitness centre.
Then I will meet with my first member to talk about anything relating to their health, fitness and nutrition. It costs €2,400-€3,350 to join, and we cap membership at 250, to make sure we have time for everybody.
I meet each member on a monthly basis to discuss their personal training regimen and see how it is going and what might need to be adjusted to deliver the results they want. Some want weight loss, some want to tone up and some want to stay active.
We have all sorts of people here, from those who have never exercised before to people who go to the gym six or seven times a week.
On a typical day I’d go through three or four personal training sessions. We also run one or two group classes a day, which might involve taking people for a five-kilometre walk down by the river. The landscape here is beautiful, and I love being outdoors. Even when I’m indoors I love the fact that I look out over the Great Sugar Loaf from my office window.
After the walk I’ll shower and head over to the staff canteen for lunch. We call it the employee dining room. There’s a TV and newspapers. It’s nice. Lunch is 30 minutes, and that suits me, because I don’t like to sit down for long.
I’ll meet the team again at 1pm for an update and then get ready for my next session.
At the moment we are also running Bridal Bootcamps, which are great fun. People spend a fortune on their wedding, so it makes sense that they want to look their absolute best on the day. It’s a four-day programme, and we recommend they come within two weeks of the big day. If they put the work in, the results are amazing.
I finish at 5.30pm or later, and three or four days a week I will stay late to exercise. In this job you really have to practise what you preach, so I’m trying to lead by example.
David Howard is a personal fitness instructor at the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt