What is your background with exercise and fitness training?
I am not from a fitness background professionally, however, I have participated in many different sports most of my adult life. I have attended Pilates classes for the last 7 years. I was lucky enough to live in Australia for two of those years where I attended an advanced mat class and had one to one clinical Pilates with a physio, using reformers. I have a work related neck injury, and through doing this, completely changed my upper body shape enabling me to have significantly better posture and pain management. I also participate in Zumba, sea kayaking, sailing, cycling and dancing.
Why did you choose HFE to deliver your training?
I chose HFE for a number of reasons. I felt their courses offered much better value for money than other companies, and at a fraction of the cost. The online learning and personal tuition was a massive help to me, especially because I am not from a fitness background and was starting from scratch. This course also covered the use of equipment, something that other courses charge extra for.
What did you find most challenging about your course?
I found the anatomy and physiology really challenging and having a tutor to speak to on a regular basis really helped me with that. I cannot speak highly enough about Martyn. He responded quickly to any queries I had, gave alternative ideas of how to remember difficult topics and arranged for me to sit the Level 2 paper at a different time/location so that I could get that out of the way and focus on the Level 3. I also felt more comfortable about attending the course weekends because of the contact I had had with him. The course tutors, Yvette and Dawn were also great. Very approachable and very funny!
What is your current role?
I have resigned from my job and intend to start teaching Pilates as soon as possible!
What are your future training and career plans?
As stated above. I would also like to do further qualifications around Pilates and will maybe look at this once I have recovered from the shock of passing my instructor qualification! I would definitely look to do further courses with HFE, they offer excellent, value for money courses with great flexibility around learning.