Once considered the preserve of the rich and famous, having someone to help you workout can help you come to terms with illness, writes Patricia Weston
No longer an exclusive and expensive method of toning the beautiful bodies of the rich and famous, personal training is fast becoming a worthwhile prescribed treatment for people suffering and recovering from a range of illnesses and injuries.
"Exercising with a personal trainer is not just for improving your image and vitality. Our personal trainers have vast experience in dealing with patients suffering from osteoporosis, asthma, obesity and those recovering from operations or injuries. We also have a referral system where cardiac and cancer patients are referred by their GPs," according to Sarah Good, gym manager of Westwood Club in Foxrock.
Clients recovering from serious illnesses such as cancer like to take gentle exercise with personal trainers as part of their recovery.
"We have a lot of cancer patients in Westwood who take one-to-one Pilates, yoga and t'ai chi. They can take time out for relaxation and flexibility and they seem to get a lot out of it," says Good.
Westwood also employs three Chek personal trainers who treat people with postural problems and rehabilitate those with disk and back injuries.
Chek stands for Corrective Holistic Exercise Kinesiology. Chek practitioner Alan Farrell says: "It's corrective exercise. I treat all types of people from athletes to sedentary office workers suffering from back, shoulder and neck pain. I help the client build strong flexible muscles."
An advocate of one-to-one training and client of Farrell's, Rosemary took personal training sessions after the birth of her children to get fit and to help ease her back and joint pain. She says: "I find it so effective and I only do an hour a week. There's just no comparison to working out in the gym, it's so much different and it's holistic so I leave each session feeling brilliant."
Dave Sheahan is a personal trainer based in Limerick. He trains a variety of clients and has worked with a lot of obese children. "I've noticed a serious epidemic of obese kids in the last five years," he says. "I worked with a five-year-old who was eight stone. I introduced fun exercise such as jumping, playing ball and walking to get the kid active and it worked because you have to make the exercise fun," he says.
Sheahan also works with obese teenagers. "Teenagers can find a gym a very intimidating place so they're usually better off with a personal trainer. Once they learn to get active with a personal trainer they can stay active," he says.
Dirk De Eecker runs his own personal training business called Perfect Fit. He has more than 800 clients on his books. "We work with the client on a one-to-one basis designing a programme to suit each person's very individual needs," he says.
While Perfect Fit has a range of people with different needs on their books, they work with many patients recovering from surgery. "We deal with a lot of surgeries. These include patients referred by their GP with heart conditions, diabetes, sports injuries and arthritis," he says.
Diabetes sufferers benefit hugely from exercise. According to Sheahan: "Diabetics need to increase their muscle mass for greater glucose control to reduce their insulin intake."
Sheahan's trainers also make home visits to personally train elderly clients. "We have a number of elderly people looking for personal training because they suffer from arthritis and we can design a programme to help relieve their symptoms. Exercise promotes a loosening of the joints by heating up the synovial fluid," he says.
Personal trainers require a basic fitness instructor's qualification to work with clients in a gym or on a one-to-one basis, although most seek additional qualifications.
"All of our trainers have a base qualification from the National Training College [ NCEHS] or the National College of Exercise and Fitness [ NCEF] with additional specific qualifications in nutrition, sports-specific training or class-specific training such as Pilates," says Good.
Damien Jackson co-ordinates the personal training courses run by the NCEF on the campus of University of Limerick. "It's a separate course from the basic NCEF fitness qualification. Instructors are required to have at least one year's experience working in the fitness industry to qualify for the course," he says.
According to Jackson, the most important skills a trainer should have are "excellent communication skills backed up by sound technical knowledge of fitness principles and guidelines".
He also stresses that the trainer needs to seek medical clearance before they take on a client whether he or she suffers from an illness or injury or not. "There is definitely a need for a referral system from a medical professional and then continuing communication between the client and his or her medical adviser throughout the personal training," he says.