A few days ago I saw a post from Girls Gone Strong where they looked at a day in the life of a bunch of very successful personal trainers and fitness professionals. I know it’s one of those things where someone outside of the fitness industry would look in and think all we do is play and we can workout all day long with impugnity. It’s not always rose-colored glasses. Check out their article HERE to get a dose of the real stuff.

I thought this was a really cool idea, and like any cool ideas, I’m sure it will be stolen and copied ruthlessly. I’ll be the first one to steal it by showing you what a day in my life looks like, not simply to showcase myself, but to talk about some of the really cool clients I get to work with and give them the spotlight.

This was what happened on Tuesday

4:45am: Wake Up – this time of day licks donkey balls at the best of times, but the night before my wife went to a Justin Timberlake concert with her sister, planning to ride there and come home with her, saving me to have an evening to myself to catch up on work and go to bed early. Well, her sister managed to catch the flu bug that’ been going around, so she had to bow out early, leaving me to pick Lindsay up at 11, making it to bed at closer to 12. This meant about 4 or 5 hours of sleep instead of my normal 7. Oh well, at least it was a good concert.

I find waking up is easiest when you don’t hit the snooze alarm and just get out of bed. From there, I shower, because there should only be one smelly person in the client-trainer interaction.

Breakfast was yogurt and granola, a coffee, and checking emails before heading to work for my first clients of the day

5:30am: drive to work – because it snowed a bit last night I had to spend some time brushing the car off and shovelling the side walk.

6:00am: first group – a 2 person group, these ladies work hard despite the occasional complaint about how hard some of the exercises are and how little they want to do them at 6 in the morning. One is a lawyer and the other is pursuing a career in personal training after working with me to help recover from a spinal injury.

7:00am: second group – a mixed bag to say the least, one guy just retired at the ripe age of 71, another girl in her 20s runs and lifts weights to get stronger, and another girl in her late thirties works out to stay fit and to get in some activity around a very active career.

7:15am: the third member of the group shows up – this is a common occurence, and I’ve taken to calling it “Jen o’clock” and it seems to be catching on with other members.

8:00am – this client is recovering from a hip replacement last year, still walks with a bit of a limp, and is preparing to get the other hip replaced this coming winter.

9:00am: no show – this rarely happens anymore, but I think it was a case of me not remembering to take the client out of my schedule, so I give them a pass and go grab a coffee instead of charging them for the session. She’s usually good about letting me know, so I figure I dropped the ball somewhere along the line.

10:00am – this is a client whom I wrote a short Facebook post about HERE. She’s battled cancer twice, runs her own business, and is just looking for the same things anyone would be looking for: stay active, lose some weight, get stronger and become a complete bad ass.

11:30am – this is a new client who was sent to me from a chiropractor to help with some low grade low back pain, shoulder problems, and balance issues following a cerebellar injury in a motor vehicle accident a few years ago. We do a half hour workout, and she feels great afterwards.

12:00 – lunch. Today’s meal involves a concoction of grilled chicken, diced tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, oregano, garlic, and red wine I made over the weekend, plus another coffee, a bottle of water, and checking of emails. I go through 20 in an hour and set aside another 8 that will take more effort at a later point in the day.

1:00pm – workout time. Today is just a volume day for upper body, so unfortunately no deadlifting. I’ve been playing with using kettlebell swings as my warmup, and getting in 20 reps on the minute for 5 minutes is becoming my go-to method of getting fired up for anything. Try it.

2:00pm – this client is coming back off a vacation of skiing in the mountains, so I’m thinking nothing too crazy. We work up to a PR in deadlifts of 315, up 70 pounds from the last time we tested 3 months ago. Some days are just plain weird like that. We then hit the sled and he can’t feel the left side of his face for about a half hour. Success.

3:00pm – This client is actually a trainer who works with me, and he’s been dealing with some long standing back pain. Today we got the clear to begin with some light squats, so we did what any sane trainer would do: 10 sets of 10 reps with the bar, going to a 14 inch box, working on perfecting technique, balance, pulling into the movement, and breathing. We superset this with bench hip thrusts to ensure he’s getting the glutes completely fried for 10 x 10 as well, and by the end of the workout he has the look of someone who will shortly simultaneously puke, pass out, lose the ability to stand, and probably void his bowels. Success.

4:00pm – a short break to get a quick bite to eat, do some programs for 4 clients, and re-check emails. I answer 8 and save three for later.

5:00pm – this client has been working with me for a little over a year. When she came in, referred from a physio, she had nbeck, shoulder, back, foot, ankle, and I’m suspecting a lot of other things going on she wasn’t telling me about. She could barely squat in any way  that involved moving the knees, and now she’s getting to full depth. Her posture has improved, she’s running again for short spells, and hasn’t had any kind of issues in a while. New workout on a new program seemed to leave her feeling good overall and not like complete death.

6:00pm – my wife comes to pick me up after work. We head home, catching up on each others day. When I get home, she has dinner ready (WOOHOO!!!!). Tonights menu involves crab cakes and home made ravioli with tomato sauce.

6:30pm – start catching up on those emails I put off. Also, work on a picture card for a client who needs a visual reference for the workouts I’m giving her. I have a library of 3000 pictures that I use for these, but being a complete organizational failure I have no specific order to them. This makes it a much more time consuming venture than it should be, which means I take much longer to get through the evening’s paperwork than usual.

9:00pm – I sit on the couch and watch some tv for a few minutes before getting ready to go to bed. I’m feeling the effects of the short night on Monday, so catching up is warranted. The dog are both being very cuddly and want nothing more than to get a belly rub. The downside is they both want this at the same time and fight for my knee, leaving me with many foot steps on areas that shouldn’t be stepped on. Ever. I get up and avoid further personal defamation and brush my teeth.

Tomorrow I get to do it all over again.

Total clients trained: 12

Total emails answered: 42

Total emails responded to: 34. 3 emails confirmed new clients

Trips to New York confirmed: 1

Meals eaten: 6

PRs smashed: 3