I don’t stop very often and look backwards.
Like most people who run their own business, I’m normally thinking about what’s next.
The next client, the next project, what I could improve or where I want to take things.
But recently I had a reason to stop and think about just how much has happened over the last 20 years.
I’ve become a Chartered Personal Trainer with CIMSPA.
Alongside becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (FRSPH), it feels like a pretty special way to mark more than two decades working in health and fitness.
And I’m incredibly proud of both.
It all started on a gym floor at 18
I started working on a gym floor when I was 18 years old.
At the time, I was playing competitive ice hockey and doing a lot of my own training. Sport and fitness were already a huge part of my life, and working in a gym seemed like a natural direction to go in.
I certainly didn’t have the next 20 years planned out.
I just knew I loved training, loved sport and increasingly loved helping other people discover what they were capable of.
What followed has been quite a journey.
From gym floors to boot camps, sport and community projects
There have been thousands of personal training sessions over the years, but when I look back, some of the things I’m proudest of happened outside the four walls of a gym.
We built boot camps and eventually took them overseas, running fitness boot camps in Spain.
We held end-of-year celebrations for our clients and gave out awards like Transformation of the Year, Boot Camper of the Year and Athlete of the Year.
Having grown up playing ice hockey myself, I also had the opportunity to work within the sport, coaching players from junior level upwards and helping athletes become stronger and better prepared physically.
Then came a period of my career that became heavily focused on community.
We set up free community boot camps in Yateley and had hundreds of local people come along and exercise with us.
We organised charity 5K fun runs that raised thousands of pounds for Youthline, a local youth counselling service.
We collected clothing for homeless people and got involved with local initiatives that had very little to do with building a fitness business and everything to do with trying to make a difference.
There were radio interviews, local media coverage, events and plenty of things that probably seemed quite ambitious at the time.
Looking back, though, I think all of it helped shape the coach I eventually became.
And then there are the people
The hardest part of reflecting on 20 years is that the things you can list on a CV aren’t necessarily the things you remember most.
It’s the people.
I’ve worked with people from all walks of life.
I’ve watched people completely transform themselves.
I’ve seen people lose weight, become stronger, regain confidence and achieve things they genuinely didn’t believe they were capable of.
I’ve coached athletes and complete beginners. I’ve worked with people in London, locally and further afield. Today, I work privately with clients and families from a huge range of backgrounds and professions.
I’ve also had the opportunity to contribute my expertise to national media and increasingly share what I’ve learned over the years with a much wider audience.
The career has evolved enormously.
The fundamental reason I enjoy doing it hasn’t really changed.
I like helping people.
The career looks different today
My work today is quite different from that 18-year-old walking around a gym floor.
Private coaching has become a much bigger part of what I do. The relationships with clients are often long-term, and the work increasingly goes beyond simply writing workouts.
It’s about understanding the person in front of you.
Their health. Their lifestyle. Their family. Their career. What they’ve been through. What they want their body to allow them to do in five, ten or twenty years.
I’ve also become increasingly interested in the wider role physical activity can play in people’s health.
And I think that’s part of why these two recent professional milestones mean so much to me.
Becoming a Chartered Personal Trainer
CIMSPA is the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity and the professional body for the UK’s sport and physical activity workforce.
Becoming a Chartered Personal Trainer represents recognition of the experience, professional standards and impact I’ve built over my career.
When CIMSPA recently included me in its Setting the Standard feature celebrating its latest Chartered professionals, it gave me another opportunity to look back at everything that had led to this point.
And when I think about it, Chartered status doesn’t represent one particular qualification or achievement to me.
It represents the whole journey.
Starting on the gym floor at 18.
The thousands of coaching sessions.
Playing and coaching ice hockey.
The boot camps.
Spain.
The community projects.
The charity events.
The people who trusted me with their health and fitness.
The mistakes I’ve made and learned from.
The countless hours spent studying, learning and trying to become better at what I do.
And eventually, the coach I am today.
Getting that recognition from the Chartered Institute after more than 20 years in the profession means a lot.
Becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health
Then there’s another part of this that I’m equally proud of.
I’ve also become a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health.
In many ways, FRSPH feels like the icing on the cake of the last 20 years.
What’s particularly meaningful to me is that I didn’t arrive at public health through what might be considered the traditional route.
I came through a different door.
I came through the gym floor.
Through parks filled with people doing free boot camps.
Through charity events.
Through sport.
Through sitting opposite someone who desperately wanted to change their health but didn’t know where to start.
Through helping people become stronger, fitter and more confident.
Through thousands of conversations about exercise, nutrition, habits, health and what people actually want from their lives.
Over 20 years, I’ve seen first-hand that exercise can be about so much more than fitness.
It can help someone maintain their independence.
It can give someone their confidence back.
It can allow someone to continue doing the things they love.
It can reduce someone’s risk of disease and help them manage their health.
And sometimes it can completely change the direction their life is heading in.
That’s why being recognised as a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health means so much to me.
Two very different recognitions. One career.
I think that’s ultimately why FCIMSPA and FRSPH feel particularly significant together.
One recognises the career I’ve built within fitness and physical activity.
The other reflects something I’ve increasingly come to understand over those 20 years: that helping people become physically active can have an impact far beyond the gym.
Neither changes how I coach tomorrow morning.
They’re not a finish line.
If anything, having those letters after my name gives me even more responsibility to keep learning, keep questioning what I do and continue trying to raise my own standards.
But I also think there are moments when you should allow yourself to stop and appreciate what you’ve achieved.
For me, this is one of them.
From an 18-year-old starting out on a gym floor while playing ice hockey to becoming a Chartered Personal Trainer and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health more than 20 years later.
There have been a lot of chapters in between.
And I’m incredibly proud of the journey that’s got me here.
I’m also not done yet.
Thanks for reading,
Joe.
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