Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
Hiya! My name is Rea and I’m 28 years old, I am a through and through Londoner. Never lived anywhere else and don’t really have a burst to live anywhere else. At the moment, I am a private gym manager, social media content creator, personal trainer, fitness instructor and bootcamp owner. But my most important job role and most amazing accomplishment is being a mother to my eight-year-old daughter.
I have been training for roughly seven years and maybe more. I first got into training after I got pregnant with my daughter. At the time, I was studying a dance degree when the course leaders wanted me to take a gap year. They felt I was not able to pass my year being pregnant.
After weeks of fighting to keep my place, they finally gave in and allowed me to continue ahead with my year with only two more full years to get through.
After I had my daughter, I knew I had to do something to keep my spot and keep up with all the other people in my year. I started training with my daughter’s dad and doing Insanity Workout like a crazy person!!!
Since then I have always kept a routine of having gym in my life no matter how crazy my timetable gets. It must be put in my day-to-day schedule.
Describe a typical day of training
At the moment I’ve been training at home given it is lockdown and gyms are closed. I have really enjoyed the home workouts. I have focused on doing a load of HIIT training during this time as this is the bit of the training, I knew I would find hard without the gym.
When gyms are up and running and open, I train at my workplace and at PureGyms some days. In a typical week, I would train five to six days a week. Each session would last for about one to two hours.
It would look a little something like this:
- Monday; Glutes & Hamstrings
- Tuesday; Shoulders & Biceps
- Wednesday; HIIT
- Thursday; Back & Triceps
- Friday; Quads & Abs
- Sunday; HIIT
My favourite exercise is anything back-related, I love lat pull downs & bent over rows, I’m also a sucker for a sumo deadlift. I find them super hard but work a treat for my glutes when I really focus on the mind to muscles connection.
The best program that has given me results is when I’m really on it with my eating. I would normally weigh my meals and prep them for the next three days.
How do you keep going and push harder?
The way I find works to keep you on track is tracking your progress and making smaller goals.
No day feels right for me if I haven’t been to the gym. I like to go first thing before work that sets me up for a good day and the trick is to never miss a Monday.
The best way to keep myself motivated is by looking at my own progress photos. My fear is going back and starting all over again. So, I push myself harder than some might say I should. The way I find works to keep you on track is tracking your progress and making smaller goals. Do not aim for anything too big like yearly goals.
Keep with weekly or monthly goals. My family know gym and training is a huge part of my life so it never really gets in the way of family time or plans.
The biggest challenge when fitting in gym is around my 40-hour work week and mum life. But I try to get the workouts in and keep to the schedule as much as I can.
When I travel, there always has to be a gym in the accommodation. The one thing that scares me about training and training so hard is getting any Injuries to my lower back, ankles and knees. That is a huge fear of mine. I do not have the strongest knees so when I squat, I can’t handle heavy weight.
Also, I just know it will set me back on my goals if I did get injured, id put on huge amounts of weight and end up super low and depressed about myself.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
The main things I have been focused on during lockdown is my online work. This time has given me a break from my 9-5 and has allowed me to put more energy into my content on socials and creating my workout guides.
I recently created a guide called HIIT AT HOME, which came at a perfect time as gyms were closed and all that was needed was you and water. Now I’m working on creating more guides for when everything gets back to the new normal.
My five-year plan is to have my own studio. I’m really keen on mixing both my dance and fitness backgrounds and having them all under one roof. There’s a lot of work that needs to come before that but that is 100% my main goal and what I’m working towards.
My plans away from anything fitness-related is focusing on my daughter, making sure she gets the best life and has the most amazing childhood to remember.
I wish I started my fitness journey a lot sooner than I did. Because of my dance background I never felt I needed to be in the gym. But now after years of loving it I wish I attempted it into my dance training. So, the advice I would give to my younger self would have been to start making small changes early on. Getting into good healthy habits.
How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
On a recovery day, I normally do nothing workout-related whatsoever. But recently I have tried to fit stretching and yoga on the rest days.
Mid-week is normally crazy and too busy to fit a good stretch in after my main workout session, which is not ideal at all, so I have been trying to make a Sunday an active rest day.
I normally sleep about 7/8/9 hours per night on a good day. On a bad day it would be five hours sleep. Sleep is the one thing I need to track more of.
How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
My diet is the hardest thing out of my fitness routine, I can find one slip up messes up my progress. If I smell chocolate, it goes straight to my belly. About six months out of the year, I track my food intake by weighing each meal but I find that is hard to maintain, but works the best for me.
What has inspired and motivated you?
When I train, I do not listen to the go to gym latest hits playlist. I can listen to old school R&B or Slow Jams. I can literally listen to anything while training. At the start of my journey, I’ve never used to listen to my own music, it would always be what ever the gym was playing. So I can always get a good session in if I ever forgot my headphones.
Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
My main advice for anyone who is struggling with motivation and getting into things would be focus on yourself.
My main advice for anyone who is struggling with motivation and getting into things would be focus on yourself. Yes, it is great to have someone as motivation but really look deep into what you can do for yourself to keep you going.
You are the only person who is going to live with the results and work you do or don’t put in so make sure that in itself, carries you through before anything else.
Keep looking back at a photo that isn’t you best and work towards making a better you. Follow fitness accounts on your socials so that’s all you see rather than all the pancake and fried chicken pages that you might follow. Out of sight, out of mind. I find when people set unrealistic goals that’s when things go wrong.
Are you taking on clients right now?
At the moment, I would love to take on more clients. I also would like to pick up more online-based clients. My specialty would be weight loss and flexibility. I have had online and face-to-face clients see results within about three weeks of me working with them.
I defiantly think it helps that I have a transformation story myself and I know more than anyone how hard it is. So, what better way to connect with someone.
Where can we learn more about you?
Please feel free to follow me on Instagram @rea_fit and try some on my workouts as I spend a lot of time trying to put out content for people to follow along with.
