That’s me, Aaron Bolton. I have some strong views on the fitness industry and personal training in general and want to share with you the truth about why you are literally WASTING your time by falling victim to a commercial ‘health club’.

Now, before I get into that, it’s important that you understand that my training IS NOT for everyone. If you are happy spending your time skipping on a treadmill, or doing hours of endless crunches believing you will get a six pack then I suggest you stop reading now!

I pride myself in personal training & hard conditioning to help my clients reach their true potential. This potential isn’t reached by doing an hour of exercise here and there, it’s reached by persistency, sheer determination and the will to succeed! Again, if this doesn’t sound like you, then look elsewhere!

Reason 1

I think it’s disgusting how much most of these clubs charge in order for you to be a member! Most of you join a gym to get results, yet how do you justify paying some clubs well in excess of £80 per month? And the majority of them give you nothing more than fluffed up gym equipment like treadmills with TV’s, chrome dumbbells and padded cushions for barbells. Generally speaking, most of it is ill fitted to provide you with the training you need to reach your true potential. If, out of curiosity you ask management when the equipment will be getting updated, I can guarantee that you will only be told that they don’t have the budget or getting a power rack will attract the ‘wrong’ type of people!

Reason 2

Picture this…there you are doing your workout, earphones in trying to mind your own business when you notice the trainer with his clipboard. He keeps walking past giving you an awkward eye. He waits patiently and chooses his time carefully. After a while you lose focus on what you are doing. He realises that you are now more concerned with him and his clipboard.

THEN BAM!!!

He is in your face with “hello sir, how are you doing, are you interested in signing up for personal training or would you be interested in our aerobics class?”

You wouldn’t mind except for the fact that this is a weekly occurrence with a different trainer each time. And every one of them seems to have come off a production line… all, run of the mill, personal trainers that have very little knowledge about the training they are promoting!

Reason 3

You’re not allowed to TRAIN! You come in to the gym and your about to attempt a new personal best on the Deadlift. So you psyche yourself up, go to your bag and grab your chalk. You are just about to slap it in on your palms when you’re told by the same trainer who pestered you earlier in the week that you are not allowed to use chalk in the gym. Slightly annoyed, but more concerned about losing your grip on the bar, you decide to attempt the lift anyway!

The bar is half way up your thighs when you start grunting. You try your best to heave the heavy weight up and complete the lock. From the corner of your eye you see the cardio machine users look across at you in disgust! Their looks of shame make you feel uneasy. Trying to stay focused on completing the lift, you try your best to accomplish the lift. Unfortunately, you fail and the bar crashes to the floor. The peddle pushers, not even braking a sweat, tut and mutter under their breath.

After three minutes or so, you prepare yourself to attempt another rep. Seeking some motivation, you reach for your ipod only to find its out of battery. So you try to listen to the gym music but are unsuccessful in hearing much. Getting really frustrated now, you ask if the music can be made louder so the scrawny trainer turns it up one notch. Pleased to be able to hear the music now you think you will be able to complete the lift, so again you walk up to the bar and are about to attempt it again. Two seconds before you’re about to go, you realise that asking to turn the music up was a waste of time because now they are pumping out the same soppy rubbish that has been on repeat for the past three months.

In the end, you decide you can’t be bothered and walk off!

Reason 4

Not all, but the majority of trainers are teaching incorrectly by coaching unessential, unsafe and pointless exercises too often and coming away from the things that actually work. Customers come to a trainer for results, why do trainers get them doing something totally unpractical to serve their ego? My biggest bug bear is the way trainers are encouraging useless training programs in the hope of getting results. I truly believe that not enough trainers look to improve their knowledge and because of this I feel that they do not deserve to be in the industry.

So that’s my rant out of the way… some things you may like to know about me are:

I own my own Strength Gym (www.fitperformance.co.uk)

I am a very highly qualified Personal Trainer

I work as a Strength and Conditioning Coach

I take my training and my clients training very seriously and will always provide the best service

A few years ago I used to work at a ‘Health Club’ and I hated every minute of it! I was so passionate to help the members of the gym but found myself fighting a never winning battle. I can remember time and time again requesting the management to get some proper strength equipment so that I could offer a better training environment to my clients. They always refused stating that it was too much money (despite being a fraction of the price of one treadmill… and they had thirty of those) and that it would become a ‘meatheads’ gym!

This was shear ignorance. To think that providing the appropriate equipment to improve somebody’s strength, performance, fitness and functional ability would attract the ‘wrong’ type of people was an insult. It highlighted to me just how much they really cared for its members. On top of all that, any money I managed to make, by using the equipment I could, was literally robbed off of me by the company I worked for. It wasn’t long before I realised I had to do something about it!

After building a loyal clientele base that would follow my training methods and achieve REAL results, I decided to leave and open up my own Strength Gym! Here I could train clients exactly the way I wanted!

Here, you can be loud, it doesn’t cost a mortgage to be a member and you can actually TRAIN!!!

What I am offering you is this… If you are willing to see through all of the CRAP you see or read elsewhere, and you are committed to getting the results you deserve, then I honestly believe that the training I offer here at Fit Performance gym will get you there!