Thursday 16 June 2016

Client Story :: Laura

Meet Laura, a very good friend of mine and also a client. Laura and I have been working together for the last 18 months and to describe her transformation as AMAZING would be an understatement. When we began training together, Laura ate very little, drank a lot, pounded the pavement and overall wasn't in the best place. I pretty much bullied her in to coming and training with me, I am so glad I wouldn't take no for an answer.

Fast forward 18 months and Laura packed on 7kg of lean muscle, competed in her first bikini competition, trains with heavy weights five to six days a week, does very little cardio, eats more than most men and looks incredible. As a trainer, this is an amazing transformation to be a part of...


Laura also had some great things to say about training with me which makes me very happy...

"My name is Laura and I have been training with Erin Eleini for just over eighteen months now. Erin has been a good friend of mine for many years and I had always admired Erin's commitment to her training. When Erin was returning back to the fitness industry after having baby Frankie she asked me if I would be interested in signing up for a session per week, after a moment’s hesitation I agreed, after all I figured, What did I have to lose?


When I started training I was not in a good headspace, in fact I was treading water at rock bottom. I was 30 years old and trying to navigate my way through the devastation of my marriage ending to a man I adored. At 175cm tall I would have been lucky to weigh 55KG and my diet consisted of sugary snacks and take away foods if I even bothered to eat, on top of that I worked in a high stress job and would hit the party scene every weekend and drink most nights.  


From my first sessions with Erin I found myself learning so much about my body. Erin's approach to introducing me to fitness was to ease into a training program and continually show me new things. Erin would explain to me each exercise and what muscle it was training. Erin was nurturing every step of the way and would always ask me what I did and did not enjoy to ensure I was getting something out of each session.  It seemed like not long before I was hooked, and equipped with my personal training program put together by Erin I was hitting the gym each morning and seeing my body change in ways I could have never imagined. 


I have made this statement many times to Erin and I will stand by it that her personal training sessions saved my life! Eighteen months on and training is a daily habit that I look forward to. I see Erin twice per week and I am in preparation for my first  bikini completion. Erin also provided me with ongoing food education and I learnt that eating well not only supports a healthy body but also a healthy mind.


One if the unique qualities I found in Erin as my trainer is that she never tried to make me feel guilty about anything and constantly reminded me to be kind to myself. Her approach was one of nurture and guidance, not to make me feel bad that I ate that Chocolate bar or had a set back reaching my goal. 


While the training has been such a positive change in my life I would also recommend Erin to any person who is seeking total change in their life or who are striving for professional or emotional change. Training with the support of Erin changed my mindset and assisted me with battling my emotional sadness. Training has also given me the gift of being strong both mentally and physically and I know this contributed to my recent career successes. 


There have been highs and some lows during my fitness journey and I have been fortunate enough to have Erin by my side every step of the way and for that I will be always grateful."

If you are interested in learning more about how we achieved Laura's results please don't hesitate to get in contact. I would love to be able to help you with your transformation.

Wednesday 13 January 2016

strong for Frankie...

I haven't come here and spoken about my post baby fitness journey.

To be honest I haven't come here a lot since Frankie was born.

There is always something else to do and with a very small window whilst Frankie sleeps there are a million other things that need to be done around my home or admin work for my business.


I have sat her for half an hour trying to work out what to write so I thought I would write about how I have gotten myself strong after having baby Frankie.

At this point in time, I am strong...

I am the strongest I have ever been. I see a lot of girls on Instagram and Facebook who are super strong. I am not strong like them, but for me I am strong. Strong is currently in fashion. It is a good trend to be a part of. There is a hashtag on social media #femaleliftingarmy I like this hashtag, it makes me smile and think of deadlifting.

For the first twelve months after having Frankie I worked on re-building my body. I was left with a five centimetre separation in abdominals. I also had lots of work to do on my pelvic floor following Frankie's birth. I was weak and had done nothing but swim for the last six weeks of my pregnancy so I really did feel like I was starting from the beginning.

It took me a good nine months to start to feel any resemblance of my former fit self. I made a decision to not rush getting back to where I had once been. My prioritise shifted from wanting to be lean to just wanting to be stronger. When you are used to being strong you take it for granted. When your strength is gone you miss it, all I wanted was to be strong.

Training around a baby is hard, finding the time, finding the child care when your husband works, training through lack of sleep is horrible.

But I did it. I trained consistently four times a week; sometimes three, sometimes five.

I walked everyday that I did not train. Walked for an hour pushing Frankie whilst she slept.

I ate nutritious food and I ate a lot of it as I was breastfeeding. And the days I trained I ate more food. I stopped constantly obsessing about what I was eating and just ate good, wholesome food that served me, my training and most importantly my breastfed baby.

And then I was back. My body was back. I had worked hard but it was the consistency in my training and nutrition that got it back.

I was lifting weight that I was lifting before I was pregnant.

And then I lifted heavier.

And I realised that I really liked getting stronger. And as I got stronger I realised I was not caring so much about how I looked. I wasn't caring about how lean I was or how ripped my stomach was.

And the less I cared about how I looked the more I started to really like what I saw in the mirror. I actually like my strong body now more than I liked my ripped, lean body from before I was pregnant.

I have focussed for the last eight months on the three main strength lifts; Deadlift, Squat and Bench press.

I have written my own programs for these lifts along with the accessory exercises needed to continually improve my strength on these lifts.

My deadlift has gone from a shaky post-pregnancy 20kg to a 1Rep Maximum of 95kg

My squat has gone from non-existent due to a hip impingement to a 1RM of 72.5kg

My bench press from a 5RM of 25kg to a 5RM of 40kg

**

And these increases in these lifts have transferred across to every other exercise I do. I am literally picking up weights that used to be super heavy and finding them easier. Very, very empowering and I am filled with self-pride at how I have focussed on something and every week I am getting better and better.

This has also carried over in to how I am training my clients. I have a number of girls that have also been bitten by the strength training bug and I am getting them strong as well. Having clients that now train for strength instead of purely focusing on training to lose weight/fat is truly wonderful to see. And they, like me, are changing their body composition whilst doing training that they love.

Training becomes less of a chore and hitting numbers you've never hit before is f*cking awesome.

So where to from here? Would I love to powerlift....yes! Will I get there....one day!

x

** please excuse the terrible music on the video, the very funny camera man added it, yep I love myself <3