Trainer Spotlight: Sam and Shayne
Meet Gosford Member, Shayne!
Hi, my name is Shayne and I’ve been a member of Planet Fitness for a few years now. Initially I joined because it sounded like a good thing to do but I was never particularly committed to the time and energy it takes to come to the gym on a regular basis. This changed in late 2015 while on a holiday in China and I found myself wanting to do more than I was physically capable at the time. A short time later the doctor suggested anti-inflammatory and pain killers for an arthritic condition which had gradually been getting worse over a period of time. Having a reluctance to go down the path of drug therapy I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands and build some strength and fitness primarily as a relief to the pain.
Fear of hurting myself or doing any further damage prompted me to enlist the help of Sam. So over the past 11 or so months Sam has become not just a friend but a mentor and sometimes my torturer. Each week we’ve worked on strength and movement exercises which quickly built the muscle and strength in my neck and back, these being the worst affected pain sites. I’ve not had any pain in these areas now for around 6 months. Sam’s patience and experience has been invaluable as I’ve worked to rebuild a physical and mental strength and confidence which I thought no longer existed. Besides our weekly PT sessions I now do BodyPump, X-Trainer and Spinn classes and yes I think I’m now a gym junkie. Rarely a day passes that I don’t do some sort of physical exercise.
Besides my 3-5 gym sessions I also walk up to 80km a week and have a new found passion for walking and discovering the great outdoors. Being capable of walking 10km on the beach or doing a 20km hike or just walking a few hours around our central coast bike tracks has given me the greatest sense of achievement and pleasure. While I can’t say that my body is totally pain free all the time, I now have the ability to work through the hard times and enjoy the good times.
From the trainer: Shayne is always a pleasure to train. I always enjoy hearing about what crazy adventurous walk she attempted the weekend before which is always over 10km. She has greatly improved strength and posture with many exercises and is moving a lot more freely as the result. Her hard effort has reduced aches and pains through the body and allowed her to do things she loves doing!