Tony Swift PT

After a few months of getting to know the physically-demanding instructor who teaches the BodyTone & Abs classes that I attend, I thought it was about time I trained one on one. I felt that by taking a Personal Training session it would really help keep my training on track, because no matter what level you’re currently at, it’s always possible to learn something new and gain a fresh perspective.

Whether that’s a new set of exercises, or perhaps a way of performing a particular movement better, I knew I would benefit from a Personal Training session with Tony Swift, from Liverpool’s Ben Dunne Gyms (my personal gym). Here’s how it went..

Before we even began, it was important for Tony to establish what my goals were and what I wanted to work on and achieve from the session. I am always thinking about this question and even though I always aim to improve on all aspects of my Muscle and Fitness development, two key areas stood out for me to push even further with: Arms & Abs, plus work on my overall fitness.

I started off with a gentle warm-up so that I would be ready for the Fitness training, and got the choice of which equipment to begin this with, I chose the Treadmill. Usually I would go with a flat incline and steadily increase the speed, however Tony explained that when you run outdoors it’s never flat, therefore to make the training more realistic I was warming up on a 1% incline.

Now that my heart-rate had increased and my legs and body had warmed up, we moved on to some Interval training. This is a personal favourite of mine because it allows you to really maximise your fitness in only 10-15 minutes. Again, using the incline and ranging the intervals from 10km/h to 14km/h each minute, really took it out off me!

Perhaps if I hadn’t had the session I would continue to assume that my fitness was up to a high enough standard, Tony proved otherwise! Before we moved on to Arms I asked if it was possible to do the Intervals right at the end in future, however I was informed that by doing them at the start and getting my heart-rate right up, I was able to burn off more calories throughout the remaining workout and even beyond it.

For Arms and Abdominal training I was introduced to a ‘Tri-Set’ – three seperate exercises that are performed on the same muscle group, with the final exercise until failure. Tony covered a Tri-Set for my Biceps, as well as one for Triceps before we finished the session with Abs, and by the end I knew I’d properly worked out!

The goal of these PT sessions is not only to put yourself through your paces, but to create an established, well-thought out training plan to follow over the course of a few months (depending on your goals). For a small fee, you’re not only given a workout that’s guaranteed to make you sweat, lose calories and improve your fitness, but to give you the correct guidance and focus each time you walk into the gym.

I’m writing this post 2 days after the session itself and I am still sore! Tony was strict, efficient and extremely motivating and I would highly recommend this type of training to anyone who is serious about getting a headstart on their goals. So thank you Tony for giving me that fresh perspective on my workout.

Adam