The beginning of my journey has roots planted far in my past. Forced into sports I did not enjoy, I remember sitting down as a goalkeeper when trying out for Watford football club. I took a high-speed baseball to the eye during summer holiday sports activities and, to be honest, I found even the sports I was good at pretty boring.
Physical education at school seemed to entail an awful lot of ‘waiting my turn’ in a school hall that smelled of hundreds of unwashed feet. All so that I could walk along a wooden bench or run between coloured cones. It wasn’t particularly inspiring to me.
Some time later, whilst friends at university were going into town in order to have another sordid night of indulgences, I decided that I would instead seek out the campus gym. I had no clue what to do, where to begin, and what half of the equipment was intended for. I sat on an upright stationary bike for an hour and a half, panting and gasping, gulping for air like a fish out of water.
Months later I developed pneumonia (unrelated I would like to add), and that wrecked my ability to walk for much more than five minutes, let alone perform decent cardiovascular work. I decided that I needed to rebuild my fitness, push myself in order to regain my health and strength, and work my way back..
My next attempt at a gym came whilst I resided in Cornwall. I still had little idea of what I should be doing, and social media confused me with a bunch of conflicting opinions. Do this! Whatever you do, do not do that! This is how many times you should do this in order to achieve a goal, but then another person built like a tank was telling me that I only need to do it this many times. I’d think that I had watched enough to be able to formulate some sort of plan, only for all the ‘advice’ to drown my mind when I was actually at the gym, and so I'd stick to the few exercises I thought that I understood.
If any of this sounds familiar, then I would not be surprised. The health and fitness industry can be an overwhelming place for newcomers. Social media is saturated with conflicting advice, questionable claims, and individuals more interested in generating ‘clicks’ than in generating reliable information. Separating evidence-based guidance from marketing can be surprisingly difficult.
It was, in all honesty, my hunger for the knowledge, coupled with my discovery that a decent means by which to manage my mental health was to push myself at the gym, that kept me going back, and drove me to seek the more effective methods of exercises. This, in turn, led me to want to understand the mechanics of the exercise.
Having worked as a head chef for a number of years in pub restaurants, I already had an established appreciation of nutrition. As I explored nutrition further, I began to appreciate just how important it was to support the work that I was doing in the gym. Exercise was only a part of the equation; what I ate, and how I fuelled my body, mattered a great deal.
I then began work as a support worker with individuals who faced numerous and diverse challenges each day. They were often forced into activities that they had little to no interest in, because it ticked boxes, awarded funding and, if we are being truthful, probably looked good to the parents. But I could see another route to supporting these individuals to feel fulfilment and self-worth; because it had worked for me!
Before long, I was supporting the clients to the gym, where I liaise with a personal trainer - enabling communication because of my use of BSL. The service users responded so well to training! They faced challenges both physical and mental, they overcame many, they pushed back more, and I watched as a sense of achievement settled on their faces, and they felt genuine pride.
Perhaps the most important lesson that I noticed from these experiences with service users was that progress looks different for everybody. An exercise one person finds easy or effective might present entirely different challenges to another individual. I learned not to try to force an individual into a predetermined mould, but to instead find an approach that allows the client to progress effectively, to develop confidence, and to recognise their own achievement.
I learned much from the personal trainer by observation and, admittedly, probably an unnatural amount of questioning. I was attentive and eager to develop my knowledge and skill-set. I would visit my own gym on my days off and put the things that I had observed and discussed into practice. I recognised that some things work for some people, but not for me. I came to the understanding of the importance of adapting things where necessary, and I discovered that I was very enthusiastic about this journey that I was on, and that I found it immensely rewarding to empower others with the tools to discover their potential.
The personal trainer became a friend, and it was he who suggested that I embark upon a personal trainer course! (Whether this was because he saw the hunger in me, or else, wanted me to stop asking quite so many questions, I will likely never know. But he introduced me to the right people and, as my unborn son was preparing to enter this world, I found myself being educated on just how little I actually knew - which to me was a wonderful experience! - it felt like chipping away at a piece of stone, each flake removing a fragment of ignorance, gradually revealing the desired form within.
My own path to success has indeed been fraught with difficulties, obstacles that I have had to face and overcome. But I can recognise that I am stronger for it.
I recognise mistakes that I made when I began, I have a list of things that I wish I had known, a couple of things that cause me to cringe a little if I think about them. I also can now recognise when others in the gym are trying their absolute hardest but, sometimes, not quite getting the results that they would like due to an ineffective method, or putting themselves at risk of injury. I think that they would benefit greatly from a personal trainer giving them some tips on technique, or some teaching points on form and posture.
I have started Michael Rowe Fitness as a means of providing advice, support, and guidance, with a mind to working to support local communities mental health and well-being. Driven by my passion to improve others’ personal health and fitness, their mental well-being, and to allow my enthusiasm and passion a channel. My goal is to create something real and sustainable, something that my son can be proud of his father for and, if at all possible, something that can be of help to others.
I want Michael Rowe Fitness to be somewhere people can approach without feeling intimidated, where questions are welcomed, individual challenges are understood and progress is measured by more than simply the numbers on a set of scales. Whether someone is taking their first steps into a gym, returning after a difficult period or looking to develop their existing abilities, I want to help them discover what they're capable of.