It was great to finally get a professional opinion and action plan in place

My time with David at Star Being (which was previously Prestige Fitness) has been one of the best experiences of my life. Before starting personal training, I had a lot of offers from people I knew, but I wanted to work with those I felt would be right for me. Star Being is not just personal trainers; multi-talented wellbeing experts. And as I have seen before, some of the best in the business. They know how to take people with certain backgrounds, and fitness histories and change their bodies entirely. I had actually been following them for a while prior to training, and the style they trained people in, and their sense of professionalism were extremely impressive to me and inspired me to want to focus this time. “

I first met the head trainer and owner Dave, which was eye-opening. I learned where I had been going wrong for so many years, and yes I’ll say wrong because I was. I learned in my first meeting, how to make my diet fit me in a fresh and exciting way; and also how to do it properly for the results I wanted. For someone who has tried a lot of different ways of trying to lose weight over the years, I needed to know what was right and wrong.

It was great to get a professional opinion and action plan in place to hopefully finally change my body for the last time. It’s been a pleasure working with Star Being. The standard they work at is incomparable.

The enthusiasm they have just exudes through their team and you can have peace of mind you’re working with the best, and by best I define that as an absolute and complete service. I’ve had such a great time that even my Husband trained with them. And as a regular gym-goer himself, he was astonished by the transformation achieved for him too. If you want to be pushed and progress, I couldn’t recommend them more.

Sally’s new adventure

Changing the big girl inside

Sally:

I’ll be honest in saying all my life I’ve felt like a fat person inside. To me, yes that’s just how I felt. I spent years and I mean years trying to control my weight. Looking back at my pictures, I’m shocked at how I looked but equally excited as to how far I’ve come. When I was younger I wish more people around me told me I had a weight problem. You may say that is tough, but for me, it would have motivated me to do something about it.

The weight started to pile on in the early days. I’ve always had high-pressure jobs, which have been: long hours, early starts, leaving little time to think about what I eat. In my early 20s, I first started noticing my size was an issue by the clothes I was buying and where I had to shop to find something that fits! Yes, of course, I wasn’t happy about this, but never really seen it as a huge issue until I got older. I guess this is the same for a lot of people.

With being that big girl all my life, I kind of thought it was normal. I accepted myself and thought I was actually just big-boned. Looking after my diet, ok wasn’t all bad. There were periods where I did try to eat healthily. But over the years there was an accumulation of times where I’d just eat for the sake of it too. Learning how to live with that big girl inside was something I just did. But part of my new personal training programme was to address these internal issues and get rid of them forever. I can honestly say that was the old me.

Sally was very open about what she wanted to achieve. It was not entirely about the physical goals for her, but to achieve lifestyle balance too. She explained her background of being overweight all her life and having tried to lose weight so many times. Sally is bubbly and whips jokes seamlessly with her very enthusiastic personality. But we could tell being serious about the approach to this process was important to her and that’s why we were going to help.

Personal training, the first time!

Sally was in. She was excited to start training and start the journey of changing once and for all. The first couple of weeks we focused on conditioning; which means a combination of all types of training. This is to get her body use to it. After building her fitness levels up and overcoming some first tough personal training sessions, we talked more about running and that she wanted to learn how to run!

Sally always wanted to run! The idea of it really appealed to her; to be able to “just go out and run.” After 3 weeks of personal training, she plucked up the courage to start running as we agreed this would help with her training too. It was also yet another something new for her; but of course, she was up for the challenge and being Sally, thought it would the perfect opportunity to do a video!

Above you can find Sally talking about her thermo-joggers – I think she was more excited by getting to wear some funky training clothes than the running at first! She talks about learning how to get in that state of mind where you can just go out for a run one day and that’s ok. She’s never been able to do this, as either her breathing was getting in the way, or she just self-conscious she looked silly! We, of course, understand people have many hang-ups about exercise in general or running – but this is what we do, teach the correct ways and build confidence.

At Prestige we have a broad experience in all types of training. Coming from a sporting background, of course, we not only know how to change lives but train sports specifically too. From training professional athletes to all kind of sports, Sally wanted to get some top tips together so people like her can get up and go. We made a great video which depicted 5 simple techniques of how to get into running, and we’ve happily placed them below for you too. You can watch or read through these tips here from David Donaldson right here.

1. Warm-up

Admit it, you don’t warm-up, do you? Don’t worry, studies show 80% of regular gym-goers don’t either. It is important you ALWAYS warm-up for any type of exercise, as 20 years down the line when you develop tight hamstrings, knee injuries or training-related problems of any kind. You will say I wish I did it earlier. Warming up is a preventive measure to look after your body in the long term, and it’s something we should all get into the habit of doing. What makes the perfect warm-up?

. Pulse-raiser – you are about to start anaerobic training. So you tell your body this. Most people think you perform stretches first but no that’s incorrect. You need to perform a decent pulse raiser before start doing anything else. This can be straight forward such as: jogging on the spot. Walking on a treadmill. Perhaps some shadow boxing if you’re feeling like a champion or even some simple shuffling side-to-side…if that’s your thing too. Never forget, the pulse raiser always comes first.

. Mobilisation – Mimicking the movement you are about to perform. I.e telling your joints how they are about to move. Are you playing football? are you running or are you boxing? You can guess from which type of exercise you’re about to do – what key movements are involved in this type of exercise. So If you’re running – it needs to be movements which release the vital joints-regions such as the hips, back and knees. This will ease them out and place fluids between them safely, readying your body for starting to move more dynamically next.

. Stretching – After your mobilisation, this is when you should introduce static stretching. This will lengthen any key muscle-groups such as your hamstrings and quadriceps for moving more. Stretching also helps to prevent the build-up of lactic acid in muscles by allowing better blood flow too. Most people will jump straight into a little bit of stretching before training, but if you haven’t got better blood-flow to them first – it’s like trying to stretch a new elastic band; it needs to be more-pliable before use.

. Second pulse raiser – Most people haven’t heard of the second pulse raiser – most personal trainers to actually. The second pulse is the 4th component to your full warm-up and is the transition point into your main exercise. Sometimes as you perform the static stretching phase – your body cools down a little bit. So it’s advised to perform a second pulse raiser to fully ensure blood is pumping through the muscles optimally just before you enter your main exercise. You can perform the same movements again from your first one pulse raiser, or perform more intensive movements like sprints on the spot, shuttle-runs or squat-jumps.

2. Breathing

Sounds obvious right, but do you know how to breathe properly when running? Most people we train, don’t know how to control their breathing at first; they allow their breathing to control them. The video talks about imagining your self at the count of a beat, for example, count: one, two, one-two. You want to place a tempo in your mind and run to this beat. Keep a consistent tempo with you’re running and control your speed levels around this. It’s something to focus on. With time it becomes second nature, and you will no longer be relying on ‘how long you can last before stopping,’ but more how long your legs can sustain because your breathing won’t be a problem.

3. Gait

This is something we all need to know. How do your feet land? Well some of us can roll out and or some of us roll in. These are both perfectly fine, but you need to be aware of which foot-planter you are so you can tailor your footwear accordingly. Having the correct footwear will improve your running technique and will give you more comfort and maximise performance. You can go to your local run store and ask them to do a quick running test. They will simply look at the way you run and recommend what type of trainer or insoles you may need. Gait is something you should definitely look into if you are serious about running in the long term as you’re probably going to need those feet for a while.

4. Posture

Does your butt stick out? No really does it? Which type of runner are you? The ones who are as stiff as a board. The ones who are bouncy like a spring. Or the one who kinda just flops all over the place at best. Posture is important for many things in running, but breathing and efficiency in posture are crucial. Some people run with their head facing down which restricts breathing flow. And some have their shoulders too far back which is a waste of energy. Even though there is recommended ways to hold yourself when running, ultimately you will want to find a happy medium that is best for you. But do try not to whack any passers-by with them swinging-arms if you do take, “the best for you” literally.

5. Pace

The pace is something you need to measure to become better at running. It’s a useful practice to get into – to measure how fast you are running per kilometre or mile. Luckily we have mobile apps now that can do this for us and even set you personal-best challenges too. If you are racing in any future events such as a short 5k, or intermediate 10k; you need to start pace-training very early to understand how to gauge certain variables such as breathing, speed, and even the correct music playlist. For more information on different types of running training you can do, head over to our blogs for lots of unique and more advanced techniques you can apply. PS, we get asked a lot, is running effectively for weight loss? Yes, but we’d recommend no more than 3 times per week at any distance.

How Sally lost 4 lbs and 7% body fat in just 3-weeks

Sally’s personal training has been going great! For the first time in her life, she was getting fitter, becoming stronger and starting to feel like a new person again. After successfully learning how to run, we wanted to set a new challenge. A body-transformation challenge and simply try to get her to look as amazing as possible. This was the big one for Sally, this is what she wanted to address for a long time too. She’d never been able to tone up her midsection but just lose a few pounds here and there. But this time hopefully with an intense 3-day per week personal training plan, she would see some big changes.

We set out to complete the challenge of how much she could change in just 3 weeks. This varies from the person and diet to diet, but golly did Sally do great! As you can see from the picture, she lost a lot of body fat, and 7 inches all around. Her midsection had slimed right down and for the first time she could really picture that beach body as a reality.

The diet was one of the most interesting sides of this specific 3 weeks plan. We asked her to go on a more strict diet than she has done before – but only strict in the sense that it was the first time she had proper guidelines. The aim was to draw out excess water retention, drop the pounds and to also understand a new day of eating that would be easy to follow long term.

The first part explained was sugar, well added sugar – “this has gotta go, like ALL of it.” The only sugar we left in her diet was low sugar fruits, to make sure there was still some in there. Secondly, we harnessed the power of protein! We always had long talks about ‘what’s the big deal with protein?’ and how some people can lose themselves in a faddy high protein diet. It was great points raised and we explained that “theres a distinct difference between simply increasing your diet to a higher protein way of eating” and being on a completely-high protein diet; which is more or less ‘keto’ dieting, of which you can guess we don’t endorse.

Fascinated with her new diet Sally explores some meal options enthusiastically!

In the first 14 days of her 3-week kick start plan, she had noticeable changes already coming through. She talks about feeling leaner and tighter, which is exactly what we wanted to happen for her. It’s a positive feeling when you see your hard efforts paying off – sometimes people diet really hard and still don’t get the results they’re looking for. It just depends on how you use that time and is whether the food you’re eating actually right for you? A lot of the time it isn’t and that’s where our experience comes in.

David talks on how it is she achieved these goals from the new specific types of training she had been doing. For example: for more body-transformation training, it’s very much unique to the person and their fitness levels. Some people we would introduce to weight training from day one, and others who need to build up a base, would do bodyweight-style training to build up basic-strength first. Sally did a combination of everything which included cardio and strength training.

We predicted in 3 weeks she would look amazing and she did. As some one who is strong-willed, she followed the plan perfectly and every day for 21 days seen results. This could vary from the way she felt, to the tightness in her abs, to even how well her skin was glowing. It’s a perfect reflection of what we say to our clients – “that when you execute your plan from us properly and as recommended, the sky is the limit and you should expect to change daily.” If you don’t follow something with 100% of your energy, you simply slow the process down, and that’s down to you. “Do you want a good body or great body”, we say! Sometimes frowned upon through the middle of some press-ups, but it does the job 🙂

3-weeks and the results were there

During this time Sally was able to achieve amazing results. She lost 4 pounds on the scales, 7 inches off her body all-around, and reduced her body fat by 6%! You can see from the picture, that her stomach area had reduced dramatically and even had definition too. This was the start of great things for Sally, and it proved to her what she can achieve with the correct training and motivation. She talks about this being her first kick start towards her wedding, but she was thinking long-term. She wanted to be in a place she hadn’t achieved before and that was now finally coming to fruition. Changes happen quickly on our programmes, some people spend years chasing what we delivery in literally weeks.

It was easy. I mean I did work hard! and Dave really pushed me. It’s great to have that support daily and also know what you should be doing. These 3 weeks for me was just a taste of what I can really do. And in the short time personal training, I’ve learned how to run, I’ve lost weight, I look good, and i’m feeling more positive than ever. The diet was really easy too once you get used to it. Your body starts working better – no more bloating, no cravings (weirdly) but actually, lots of new energy and my skin was glowing too! I’m hooked! Thank you again.

3-weeks and the results were there

Sally takes her training further with part two of her training journey. You can watch this inspiring video here. She explores the mindset of longer-term training. How this affects your lifestyle and even how to bring your friends into the mix. The deeper insight into social support, what people say about your progress, and how to use this for more motivation, she covers it all in an enthusiastic upbeat way.

This first step in her training was really profound in building up a newfound love for training again. When we work with clients for the first time, it’s almost like a challenge, to prove to them what they can really achieve when they put their mind to it. We do this time in time out. Deliver results that go beyond expected, but also results in that last a lifetime.

At this point, Sally had completed a few weeks of personal training – learning how to run and 3-weeks of a more focused body reformation plan. Part two shows training over the next 8-weeks and just how far she went. She continues to lose more weight, becomes even more toned, and continues her life-changing journey. Another huge success at Star Being. Click here for part two!

Star Being.com offers online personal training and we can help you to achieve any goals. Go to our shop to book your new programme or if you have any questions first, just fill out our enquiry form below and we’ll be in touch today!