With a busy job with long hours and a fairly frantic family life at the weekend, there was never enough time for dedication to the gym, so when I resolved to give it a concerted go in February this year, I wanted someone who would put me through my paces at 6am three times a week.
Rich was suggested as someone who could point me in the right direction, and despite living 30 minutes away he accepted the challenge for Thursday and Friday mornings. And he has never been even a minute late, unlike me with my six minute journey.
Before the summer we focused on general fitness – in my mid 50s with a sedentary job and not a particularly healthy life style I couldn’t manage anything else – and the results were encouraging. I had never done weights, squats or bench presses before and to my surprise under Rich’s enthusiastic and expert guidance I actually enjoyed them. I was improving my PBs most weeks, losing weight and feeling better for it.
Then summer interrupted us and five weeks away saw the weight slip back on (with a little bit more, maybe) so in September we set some challenging but realistic goals to achieve by Christmas, not only at the gym but also by reducing alcohol consumption, eating healthily and Rich’s gentle encouragement is helping me to get there. The summer excesses have gone, I’m well on track to achieve the Christmas targets and still enjoying it. I would never have believed I could dead lift 125kg and bench press 70kg but Rich did, and he thinks there is more to come.
Very knowledgeable, endlessly patient and despite being a West Ham fan, Rich is a great guy who is good to talk to even at 6 am!
