Shane Lee Personal Trainer

  I first heard about CrossFit several years ago. CrossFit is a brand with a training method which includes high intensity, functional movements which are constantly varied. I didn’t know much about CrossFit but there was a growing buzz about it in the fitness industry. People were talking about it and it was gaining popularity. However, some of the people who I associated with at the time spoke negatively of it, saying it increased the risk of injury. Luckily, I was taught growing up not to believe everything that I hear. I prefer to see and experience things for myself, to learn more and to make my own mind up. This is one of the values I have grown up with. My journey into CrossFit started with Olympic weightlifting. My specialism as a personal trainer is calisthenics and I also have a running club, but a coach came into the gym I used to own. He did Olympic weightlifting an when I saw him lift, I wanted to know more. I started watching Olympic weightlifters on social media and ...

  One of my favourite pieces of equipment is the Olympic rings. A set of them would definitely be my one luxury item if I had to leave Stockport to live on a desert island. You can take them anywhere and all you need is something to hang them from. Over the last couple of years since we emerged from lockdown being able to train outdoors, I commandeered a tree in the local park and hung my Olympic rings there. The tree also provided shade in the summer and some shelter in the rain, which is another unintended added benefit, particularly with the unpredictable Manchester weather! I bought my Olympic rings from   decathlon   and they’re currently £24.99. They are affordable and versatile - there’s a range of exercises that can be done with Olympic rings (scroll to the end for an Olympic ring workout). Before lockdown I was doing a lot of calisthenics and some people would be put off by it. A lot of the exercises in calisthenics are high skill movements and sometimes clients ...

  Helping clients reach their potential both in and outside of the gym My ethos when working with personal training clients is to help them reach their full potential, both in and out of the gym. To achieve this, two of the core values required are commitment and consistency. Long term consistency and commitment in the gym will always lead to clients reaching their fitness goals whether that be short-, mid- or long-term goals and once they achieve those goals, we create new ones. For some clients this might mean committing to two hourly sessions per week, some like shorter home workouts that they can perform when their children are watching Peppa Pig for 15 minutes and others train much more frequently. The key is incorporating this into their weekly schedule and being consistent. What I have noticed among my long-term clients is that not only do they grow from strength to strength inside the gym, but they also do the same in other areas of their lives. The consistency and commitme...

  One of the biggest pieces of advice I can offer to those getting started in the fitness industry is to get yourself a coach. This could be somebody whose skills you admire on social media, somebody who has inspired you in some way, somebody who has a skill set you want to learn or just somebody more experienced in a particular area than you. When you train to be a personal trainer, you’re usually told to walk the gym floor and engage with members to try to recruit clientele. You’re invited to endless expensive weekend seminars to learn everything from boxing to spinning. Of course, you will gain some valuable knowledge from these courses but perhaps you might get better value for money by employing a coach who can give you individual, tailored knowledge and lived experience of working in the fitness industry. I have had multiple coaches over the years ever since I first qualified as a personal trainer. Slowly building my client base, I was working in a pub part time to supplement...

  When I was younger, I joined the army. It didn’t work out well for me and so I came out and got a job as a labourer. My life revolved around working during the week and partying at weekends. I was surrounded by people who did the same and none of us were going anywhere in life. At times, I would spend time with people who were poisonous and had negative attitudes, behaviours and ambitions. Being around people like this brought out my worst qualities. As these were the people I spent most of my time with, I thought this was normal. Back then, I didn't know anything different. I sometimes felt sad and depressed, I didn’t feel confident and had no self-belief. I didn’t realise there was another, better life out there for me. I had no ambition or drive to better myself and improve my life and what I didn’t realise at the time was that part of the problem was the people I surrounded myself with. Of course, it was me as well – I am responsible for my own behaviour, but as Jim Rohn once...

  "Never stop learning because life never stops teaching" 2012 was the year I became a qualified personal trainer and the more I think about that the more I realise that it actually doesn't mean anything. Yes, I know I had the qualification and the certificate to prove it. I thought that I was ready to go out there and help people with what I was passionate about. But setting up and running it as a business, making it profitable, building a client base and making it become a long term part of my life in an industry where I knew and was regularly reminded that a lot of self employed personal trainers never make it past the first year...I knew nothing! Long story short, I've come across so many amazing people through my journey who have given me the skills, knowledge, confidence, abilities and mindset that I needed to keep me going in this industry and the years to come. Most of these people I've had to go out seek help from,  but a lot I've just happened to cro...

  "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO US IN LIFE BUT THAT WE TAKE ACTION WHEN IT HAPPENS AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THAT WE TAKE THE RIGHT TYPE OF ACTION" No matter who you are where you are we will always come across situations in our personal and work life that we'll have to deal with whether we like it or not and that will require us to take some form of action. Over the years I've come across many situations big and small where I've taken action but the wrong action, and some situations where I've taken no action what so ever and instead I've decided to bury my head in the sand. All those decisions put me in difficult positions and one decision even put me in Colchester Army prison for 5 months - not my proudest moment but learning from your mistakes is a great way to build yourself again, so I've learned! At a party once I met an guy who was talking about life and our meaning one of those deep conversations you have from time to time but one of thing...

  Communication skills are something I’ve been purposely working on throughout my career, and these skills are an essential part of not only being a personal trainer but are valuable in many other careers as well. Effective communication is not just about speaking to others but also considering your own qualities and shortcomings, addressing them as they arise. It’s also about understanding things which are outside my frame of reference. We all live different lives and have different experiences so there will be times when I come across a situation or person and I have no understanding of their experience. Effective communication also includes going out of my comfort zone and exploring things I don’t know or understand, or just have never considered from another perspective. One of the most important things to do in effective communication is to look at other people’s perspectives. We occasionally come across people in life who we don’t like at first, or we get off on the wrong f...