Get the Most from your Exercise Programme and Help Protect yourself from Injury Starting 15th Jan 2023

16 December 2022

We all know that exercise is good for our bodies and for our overall wellbeing – but often it feels like our bodies don’t want to play ball! We try exercising and end up with aches and pains or don’t seem to get the results we were hoping to achieve. This is something that Personal Trainer & Sports Scientist Mark Allen has identified from his work with clients, and so he has put together a 4-week programme to help members get the most from their workouts and give them the best chance of avoiding injury.

What’s are the Aims of this 4-week Programme?

The aims of the course are to:

  • Help you better understand how to prepare your body for a workout/exercise
  • Improve your overall body awareness and movement quality. 
  • Help you to reconnect and get in tune with your body and find the exercises that are best suited to you.
  • Teach you to exercise in a way that stresses your body less and therefore helps you to avoid injury.  
  • Enable you to take away a couple of exercise programmes that work for YOU!

Essentially, it’s all about laying the foundations to ensure that the exercise you do leaves you feeling great!

What are the Course Details?

The 4-week course will run on Sunday mornings, 8.15 – 9.45am on the 15th, 22nd, 29th January and 5th February. 

Here’s a brief summary of what the course will entail week by week:

  • Week 1 – Course introduction and movement screening

This will be completed individually via a series of exercises that will enable Mark to understand your movement quality and the areas of focus for you.

  • Week 2 – Breathing / foam rolling

Looks at the importance of breathing and how and why it influences your movement. Also introduces the foam roller to demonstrate how controlling and releasing tension in the body can aid recovery and improve mobility/flexibility.

  • Week 3 – Mobility / stability training

This week the focus is mobility and stability, based on the screenings from Week 1. You will be given a series of exercises relevant to your body that will help to improve both.

  • Week 4 – Warm up / core / power development

Building upon Week 3, Mark will focus on creating a structured warm up for you, adding in further beneficial core and prep exercises. This week will also see him adding in some upper and lower body exercises for power development (slams, hops, jumps etc..)

This week will see you develop a full body workout, using a circuits-based approach.

The course will be in a small group of no more than 8 people, allowing you time with Mark to ask any questions you have and also enable Mark to provide support as needed.

The class will take place in one of our studios, and whilst it’s preparing you for future exercise in the gym, the course won’t involve any gym-floor equipment.  It will involve foam rollers, mini bands and tennis balls all of which will be provided.

Who is this for?

Anyone who wishes to gain a greater understanding of their body and learn how to prepare a structured gym workout to optimise their results and reduce the risk of injury.

Mark has worked with men and women of all ages and fitness abilities, many of whom just wish to get back on track with their fitness and want to reconnect with their bodies. 

Or perhaps you’re recovering from an injury (or have a history of injuries) and need some help rebuilding confidence with how to move your body and how to exercise safely in the gym.

Or it might be that you haven’t exercised for some time and getting moving again feels quite alien. This course will help you to listen to your body and get moving again in a safe way.

What’s the Cost?

The full course is £120 which includes a foam roller to take home to put into the practice the movements covered each week. 

How do I sign up/find out more?

The course can be booked at Reception on a first come, first served basis.  Or if you would like to meet Mark or ask him any questions, please do get in touch on [email protected]

About the Course Leader Mark Allen

Mark has been with the Club for over four years now and is a vastly experienced Personal Trainer. He is a Qualified Level 3 PT and also has a degree in Applied Sports Science. Mark’s passion is to change the way people think about exercise and to help them to move freely and work with their bodies to feel good whilst exercising!