Keri McKibbin Personal Training

Fantastic start to the new programme, lots of new stretching and warm ups, and difficult versions of exercises we have already done. We have 4 weeks to get it right and get used to them.

As stated previously, it’s not just about learning new movements, it’s about doing really well at them and performing to your highest level in those exercises, THIS is when true progress is made, and the last 4 weeks have been mightily impressive on this front.

If you are at the 4 week mark and you feel you still don’t know how to perform the exercises, don’t worry, I am here to help always with them, and it may be advisable for you to stay longer with that programme, because changing for the sake of changing without really getting to grips with the exercises will not benefit you as much.

Also, some of you are on recovery programmes from specific injuries. The goal her is to do it safely, improve a little bit every time, and get a little bit better in range of movement of the joint.

If you don’t get stronger in the joint that may have been affected by surgery, then it’s unlikely to get better as soon as you’d like it to be so it’s always important to keep showing up for your sessions. 

If you can’t move your joint over a greater range of motion over time, then your muscles and joints will get weaker, and when they get weaker, they will degenerate and never recover their full strength, power, mobility and flexibility. This is why we focus on movement over a full range of motion which is the end goal, and every small step along the way is a great victory.

Lots of you have different goals and all of you are at a different level of fitness, strength, endurance and flexibility, you are all different and our message is that if you keep improving every session (no matter how small the improvement may be), then you are all doing fantastically well and are changing your life for the better full stop.

I was brought up in a sporting environment. I soon realised it wasn’t just the talent and on field performances that were key.

It was more about character in the team, which usually made the difference in tight matches, the ones with grit, the ones who encouraged you to dig deeper, often made the difference between winning and losing.

BUT also apart from winning and losing, there was ENJOYMENT and fulfilment.

The ones who were positive I loved being with full stop and look back fondly on.

Then I experience negative environments in teams. Team mates who would tear every one else down, would blame others when things didn’t go well, would play “the victim” when they were the cause of the problems in the FIRST place, never taking responsibility for their own bad behaviour.

I have always endeavoured to keep bad behaviour, negativity, lack of empathy, selfishness, attention seeking and needless drama  OUT of the gym.

That type of negativity can sabotage us, and all the good work we do can be compromised by a tiny, tiny minority.

I see us as a team, everyone of us has to live by high standards, we must encourage each other in good times and bad times, we must respect each other, have understanding for each other and be committed in our mission not only to perform well in our exercising, but in our own personal conduct too.

True team players make us better as a team, a gym and a culture, and NOTHING will EVER stop us achieving that every single day.

Our lovely and peaceful atmosphere in the gym I LOVE, it is special, it is uplifting and gives us great time away from all the daily stresses we are all exposed to.