TrainerDave

Pro information

My Website

http://www.bodylinkfitness.com

Qualifications

• Diploma in Personal Training: (REPS Level 3)
• Diploma in Sports Therapy: (IIHHT)
• Kinetic Chain Assessment Specialist (Posture imbalance and correction)
• First Aid including Defibrillation
• NARS / RNLI Beach Lifeguard Award

Specialist areas

• Gymnastic Bodyweight Training
• Bodybuilding and Hypertrophy
• Posture Correction
• Core Training and Proprioception
• Stretching
• Training for Specialist Populations (doctor referred High Blood Pressure, Diabetic, Pregnancy)

Location

The Big Smoke...London, England

A bit about me

Hi, my name is Dave and I am ZodBods Health and Fitness pro. I am 31 and have been a Personal Trainer and Sports Therapist for five years. Let me tell you how it all began............................

I started going to the local gym when i was about 17 and still at school. A friend asked me to go with him and as i played football at the time i thought it could be a good idea to bulk up a little as i was naturally pretty slim. I enjoyed the dedication of going to the gym three times a week come rain or shine and from the beginning found it pretty easy to stick to. I guess this was because i was seeing a good change in my body. When you see results it keeps you motivated, right?
A year or so down the line and i reached that stage that every new trainer gets: a plateau in my achievements. I wasnt putting on any more weight and i wasnt lifting heavier either. I was getting a little dejected by it all. Then, talking to one of the older guys one day he asked me what i ate. A normal three meals a day diet i replied. This is when he told me that training, especially if you want to bulk up and gain muscle, is perhaps as much about eating right as it is about training. You can lift as many weights as you like but if you dont fuel your body you WILL NOT grow. Its not in the gym that you grow, its at home when you are eating and resting. With this in mind i researched proper eating habits through the old muscle magazines and entered the world of tuna, chicken and supplements! Within a month or so and now eating 5 meals a day and using protein shakes, my training once again started improving and i reached new PB's with the weights. It was this knowledge and application that i could see and feel that made me love training so much. The fact that it can be science based as well as just pure brawn. If you know what to do then anyone can change their body.
Fast forward a few years and i was at university playing American football for the university team. Again i wanted to pack on some size and it was here that i met a friend who impressed upon me the importance of the big compound exercises. Yeah...the ones that hurt!! Like Squats, Cleans, Deadlifts and Bench (okay so i like the last one!). I had spent so long doing the little isolation exercises like leg extensions and bicep curls and avoided the ones that i didnt like. With some instruction and practice i nailed the big exercises and once again found myself putting on the weight. They really DO work!
Also during this time i was researching a fairly new supplement called creatine and wrote a dissertation on its properties and if indeed it did work. For me, it certainly did. I think its the only genuine 'new' supplement that can make a massive difference to your training and it has certainly stood the test of time. Behind Protein itself i think you will find it is the most bought supplement in the fitness world.
A few more years passed and after a spate of uninspiring jobs and some very inspiring travel i decided to go back to college and took the diploma course in Personal Training. It suited me down to the ground. My degree in Biology helped massively with the anatomy and physiology side of the course and helped me to translate the exercise principles onto the workings of the body.
When the course finished i worked for Fitness First in Berkeley Square in London. One of the most exclusive areas of town, i got to meet a lot of interesting people and really put my knowledge to use. Its not until you have to deal with real people everyday in all shapes and sizes that you realise there is an art to exercise prescription. And thats what Personal Training is: prescribing the right exercises to the right people in order to see the maximum results possible.
After two years i moved into the position of Health and Fitness Manager at the club and that gave me a lot more experience in the background workings of a health club chain. I was still able to carry on Personal Training as well.
My wife and I then decided on a change of scenery and we moved down to Cornwall in the southwest of England mainly so i could indulge in my other passion, which is surfing. We lived down there for a little over a year when we decided on another travelling break and hit up Europe for four months in our van. A great trip. We are now back in London.
So that brings us up to date! ZodBod is now launched and as well as continuing to train people in a freelance capacity i will be the sites Fitness pro. Any questions that you have and cant find on the site then drop me a line and i will endeavour to answer them for you.

History

Member for

50 weeks 1 day