Personal trainers

Focus on helping clients achieve specific goals through exercise, such as weight loss or building muscle. They create and lead workouts, monitor clients' progress, and provide guidance on form and technique. They may also offer advice on nutrition and lifestyle changes.

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Whilst having a  PT has been de rigeur since the 1970s, an unfamiliar concept is in town challenging conventional approaches to health and well-being.   

 

Anglo-Indian Lifestyle Coach and Yoga Teacher, Gina Clements aims her services at those clients who like to be ahead of the game and those whose fingers are placed on the wellness pulse.  Clients who are happy to look farther afield, beyond quick fixes and fancy using their cerebellum rather than grinding it out in the gym or living off restricted diets which suck the life out of life.

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Clements is a Chopra certified Coach, one of only 200 or so in the world.    She says, "being brought up in the UK, having experienced the death of her father aged six, I always felt something was missing."  But my path so far has led me naturally to my current role. In my twenties I was a student at the School of Oriental & African Studies, in London studying to become a Social Anthropologist and I went on to Goldsmiths University to do a Masters in Cultural Anthropology and Politics.  Following that I spent some time working in India for an NGO as a Consultant researching the migration patterns of working children.  Fast forward some 25 years and I became a yoga teacher.  I then discovered the work of Deepak Chopra, learning about and immersing myself in Vedic philosophy and in particular yoga's big sister science of Ayurveda."  My identity crisis was over, I have finally come home, doing what I love - the way this discipline is organised just makes sense.  Rather than adopting a symptomatic approach to health it goes to the root cause of physical or mental distress, making it preventative.  By viewing lifestyle as medicine we learn practices that help or hinder our evolution, our consciousness, our relationships, our happiness.  It is this I wish to share with my students both on and off the mat. I want to send the message that you don't need to feel trapped by life, as with all things in the Universe inherently built into us is creative possibility - we are more than a physical being, we are fields of intelligence designed to flourish.

 

The health and wellness sphere is saturated with different methods of keeping well and, increasingly people are making the mind:body connection.   Many of these with practices however are to be found in Ayurveda - a holistic system of health and healing, which has been around 5,000 years.  The new day charlatans have reconfigured it and are selling it back at a premium price faster than the chai wallers or street vendors can sell their wares in a Mumbai train station. Programme and packages brought to us by the ancient sages with no access to a microscope or a laboratory but who used their instinct and trial and error I imagine to, basically live and live basically in line with the rhythms of nature.  These days, despite the longevity of this science (5,000 years) credibility means on the whole "backed by science, Western science at that, probably because of colonialism, racism, an adherence to Western medical scientific methods as proof that  as the epitome of knowledge, who knows. .  And there are numeous studies and evidence  which are increasingly supporting its efficacy, think meditation, breathwork, sound healing, yoga.

 

Progress for the Western audience is no longer simply adopting a symptomatic approach to health, rather it is found  rooted in ancient wisdom traditions of the past, being holistic in nature, personalised , practical, preventative and participatory, Ayurvedic lifestyle coaching is the new thing - only open to a few discerning people at the moment.  

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They expect a bespoke services those in the know reach for something extra and a little more bespoke.

 

Grinding it out on gym equipment whilst counting calories and reading the back of packets for RDA, punishing yourself for that extra piece of cake doesn't seem like much fun either.   Undoubtedly some clients like to and do reach their goals this way but for those of you that are looking for something extra, lifestyle coaching may just be your jam.  

 

Whilst nutritional advice which involves dietary restrictions and which helps with weight loss until you yo-yo back to where you started is also unsatisfying and a short term fix.

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There is another way to reach your health and wellness goals.  This is by using an Ayurvedic approach to your lifestyle choices based on your personality since a one-size fits all approach to health simply does not work.  

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• Lifestyle coaches

  Focus on helping clients lead a healthy lifestyle by changing their overall lifestyle. They may offer broader support packages that include healthcare and lifestyle advice, and encourage clients to make more decisions about their own schedules and routines. For example, a health coach might help a client with a condition create a safe exercise plan, or provide guidance on stress management strategies