How Personal Training Has Revolutionised Lisa’s Lifting

Today’s StrongLife Success Story is about how personal training helped revolutionise Lisa’s training.

Lisa Duignan (no relation) hails from Annaduff in the might county of Leitrim.

Now I’ve had one or two from that area come train here before.

And it’s fair to say, they could be classed as a character.

But I had a feeling Lisa wouldn’t be as much of a lunatic as the GAA lads from there.

So during the summer, Lisa got in touch.

She’d been training for a few years now but was feeling a little stuck.

She was struggling for confidence when it came to Squats and Deadlift technique.

And she wanted to build herself up to do chinups and pushups with good technique.

So today, I’m delighted to share Lisa’s success story so far.

And now I’ll let Lisa take it away and tell you about her time here.

What Training Were You Doing Previously?

I was doing weight training 3-4 days a week for the last few years and love it.

Before that I would have done a lot of classes but found I was doing a little bit of everything and didn’t have enough routine to get better at any one skill.

What Made You Choose StrongLife Gym?

I was fairly confident in training and enjoyed what I was doing but had hit a plateau with some goals I was working towards.

I knew I needed a coach to push me and program my training differently.

Having looked into different gyms and coaches in the area but the approach at StrongLife was really flexible.

I could follow programming by Colm in my local gym and call into Boyle weekly, monthly, or whatever suited to keep an eye on how I was getting on.

As well as that, it’s a very good environment to be in.

Everyone who walks in the door is positive, it’s good craic, and you’re never going to leave feeling worse than you went in.

Unless Colm’s tried to convince you that other people love the assault bike (absolute lies!!).

How Has Training Under Colm Improved You?

It stopped me making excuses for the stuff I wasn’t any good at before!

Also, I have a better understanding of the weeks and months of work that could go into improving a certain lift by just a couple of kg.

My core strength and mobility has improved massively and that has a big carryover into everyday life.

What Achievements Have You Had?

One of the main goals I had was to get past 100kg Deadlifts.

I had such a mental block about it and needed a kick in the arse to (in Colms words) ‘just f*cking lift it!!’

I wanted to start from scratch with strict push-ups and chin ups because I knew it’s easy to do them badly compared to perfect form.

Mastering body weight exercises was important because I thought there’s no point being able to lift a load of plates off the ground if I can’t lift my own body.

It’s very slow progress but just as satisfying when it takes weeks of graft to improve something by one rep – you appreciate it more when you have put the work in.

Would You Recommend It And Why?

100%, strength training is so beneficial for the majority of people.

It doesn’t matter what age you are or what your starting point is.

Everything you do is relative to your own bodyweight so you can build on it over months and years and never stop learning.

If you have never walked into a gym before, Stronglife is a safe and enjoyable environment to learn the basics.

Or if you’re more advanced and are looking for more challenges and coaching support you’ll get that too.

No matter what kind of day you’ve had at work, college, etc, you can walk in the door and have an hour where you zone out and completely focus on something else.

How Lisa’s Results Rewards Her Work Ethic

So now that you’ve heard from Lisa, I’m going to add a bit more.

Lisa has been a bit modest in regards to her lifting.

For me, she’s been such an easy client.

She signed up to my Hybrid Coaching plan – she trains 3 days on her own and comes to Boyle once a week for a PT session.

So to do 3 sessions on her own means she needs to be self motivated and trust the plan.

Not once has she ever questioned anything, she just sticks on her gym gear, grabs the bar and gets lifting.

Week in, week out, no matter if she’s having a good or bad day, she gets her training done.

Because it means something to her and she sees the benefits it has in her life.

She’s never tried to give me any excuses as to why she can’t train (except one day when she got her hair done!).

Having a hectic work life with lots of driving along with becoming a new parent to a cute puppy named Charlie means she has to juggle her days a little to try and fit all in.

Not only that, but with life comes stress and challenges, yet she meets them all head on.

Lisa also has a great understanding of lifting too, so our conversations are always interesting too!

She’s very enthusiastic and genuinely loves lifting, so it’s so easy for me to coach her.

And to keep seeing her getting results is amazing.

Building A Strong Body With Personal Training

Our most recent assessments has her Squatting over 70kg, Benching 42.5kg and she took a nice 102.5kg Deadlift too!

But besides those, the most impressive aspect for Lisa is Chinups.

She really wanted to be able to do chinups without any assistance.

And if anyone reading this is familiar with doing them, then you’ll know how much work it takes to get them.

But now Lisa grabs a chinup bar and knocks out sets of 2-3 reps.

She’s getting stronger every single month and is developing lots of power.

And this has carried over to her pushups too.

She’s dead right in saying you should be able to lift your own body, not just a bar.

So to see her now smashing out 10 reps of pushups with her chest touching the floor is fantastic progress.

Dare I say it, but I think the key to her success is a certain level of sheer stubbornness.

Which appears to be common among the ladies in here!

And with Lisa due to get married in 2019, she’s in super shape and get stronger by the week.

It’d be fair to say, if she told you be home from the pub by 11pm, you’d be home by 10.30pm.

Massive well done Lisa!

2018 has finished strong and 2019 will only get better!

Keep up the great work.

Colm.

P.s. If you’re interested in a Hybird/Online training plan, just send me a mail on colm@stronglifegym.ie