Owning his own Fitness Enhancement was the perfect way for Sam to take his career and his hobbies to the next level all in one package. Already busy with three dedicated staff handling much of the business Sam is off to a flying start!
Sam grew up in the UK and only moved to Australia a few years ago (in 2011). His main reason for moving was because his wife is Australian, but he says it wasn’t hard to move to a country with great weather that loves sport so much! He now lives in Hawthorn – just East of the Melbourne CBD.
Sports history
Sam always loved playing and being involved in sport. When he was younger that meant taking part in about everything he could fit in – tennis, athletics, football (soccer!), cricket, cross country, rugby and probably many more! As he got older he became more committed to rugby and played that for about 16 years, until he decided he’d had enough concussions and the injuries were taking too long to recover from!
Triathlons and Ironman
Since ‘retiring’ from rugby Sam has really been enjoying taking part in triathlons for a bit of fun, and managed to complete the Cairns Ironman in 2013 = a massive achievement! The Ironman consists of a 3.86 km swim, a 180.25 bike ride and a marathon run of 42.2 km. It is widely considered one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world! One day in the future Sam would love to complete the Arc to Arch triathlon in Europe, while his current aim is to complete the New Zealand Coast to Coast in 2018.
Training for success
Sam considers completing the Cairns Ironman in 2013 and playing Premiership rugby in Melbourne during the same year as his biggest sporting achievement. He says it gave him a real insight into how training and diet can impact on the body and how to try and get himself in the best possible shape for two very different types of exercise.
A lifelong leisure career
Sam has worked in the leisure industry since he was 16, and has held a range of jobs since that time. He started off as a lifeguard before working his way up to manage big recreation centres in the UK – with staff teams of over 100 people and turnovers in excess of £2M. Sam also worked as a sales manager in private health clubs and worked within local government, looking after sporting clubs and managing Council’s contract to manage and operate their leisure and aquatic centres. So you could say that his experience in the sport and recreation industry is fairly broad!
Joining the Fitness Enhancement team
The natural progression for someone who has always been interested in health and fitness and always worked in the industry, was to become a Personal Trainer, and Sam says being married to a Dietitian also gave him some extra motivation! Rather than going it alone in his own business, Sam is now the owner of his own Fitness Enhancement franchise and loves the assistance and support he gets. It allows him to have Trainers working for him so he can have a healthy balance of working in the business with clients and working on building his business to achieve his career goals.
Encourage and Motivate
Sam says his training style is to try and encourage people and to help them realise how much of an impact exercise can have on their life. He doesn’t believe the way to do that is by shouting and screaming – he likes to think that if he can make exercise fun and enjoyable it will motivate people and lead to them making some beneficial long term changes. Sam’s favourite part of being a Personal Trainer is helping people and seeing the positive changes they can make once they have some confidence and have seen the benefits that exercise can have on their life. Most of Sam’s Personal Training work so far has been with assisting people training for endurance events and he loves being a part of the satisfaction they feel when they successfully complete a challenge he has helped them prepare for!
Five questions with Sam:
Five questions with Sam:What is your biggest achievement as a Personal Trainer?
Probably helping a friend who has no running experience complete the London Marathon in a fantastic time of 3.05 with only 18 months worth of training. I’d say that’s my biggest achievement, obviously he was the one that did all the hard work!
What is your most memorable training session?
It’s hard to pick one out really. Any session where someone is giving 100% is great and I love those sessions where people break through barriers and do something for the first time – press up, sit up, chin up etc – those are really special moments to witness!
What is your favourite exercise as a Personal Trainer?
I think core exercise is great because it can impact on so much and can have a real positive influence on posture, which flows very well into benefitting daily life. Therefore my favourite exercises are generally core related – especially the plank.
What is your favourite exercise or sport outside of work?
Triathlons at the moment but I also still love my rugby and in fact I am a team Manager for the Box Hill Broncos, who play in the Victorian Premiership
What is your favourite quote?
“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as long as you don’t stop.”