Introduction

My work experience module has allowed me to explore the world of personal trainers further by shadowing one at my local gym. Being in a gym environment has always been an important part of my day to day life and has become a great way for me to escape daily stresses. This type of work experience has allowed me to gain the knowledge that I need to better my understanding of the work that goes into personal training. In the UK, almost 13% of the population is registered as a member of a private health and fitness gym or a publicly owned fitness facility (European Health and Fitness Association, 2014). This statement tells us that the role of a personal trainer is potentially in high demand, so learning the skills I would need from a qualified trainer will be beneficial for my future aspirations. 

Personal training has always been a career which I enjoyed the thought of, as it develops your personality through exercise. It allows a supportive, motivational and friendly session to aid the achievement of personal goals with professional supervision. A study by Mazzetti S. A,. Et al,. (2000) states that supervised training has been found to lead to greater increases in maximal strength gains when compared to unsupervised training sessions.

In this blog, I will be using Gibbs’ Reflective Model to help reflect on my experiences about how I felt and scenarios which arose during my time on placement. A study suggests that the purpose of reflection is to work out what is already known and add new information which results in a higher level of understanding (Paterson, C., & Chapman, J. 2013). The model is made up of 6 different stages including description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. These six stages aid a full reflection in many different scenarios. In the same study by Paterson, C., & Chapman, J. (2013), reflection is a vital part of learning from experience and it is also an integral part of developing deep learning. 

My blog is about to begin, and my reflection into working life is about to start. This time has allowed me to develop into a better person and I hope you can experience that with me.