How long have you worked in
personal training?
REAL
WORLD
PT
JOE COSTA
CLUB AND PT COORDINATOR
VIC
I’ve been in the fitness industry for about
20 years, starting as a PT and then working
in various other roles. I currently oversee
the health club and various areas within it,
including the personal training program. I
also still personally train several clients.
Are you full time or part time?
Full time
Why did you become a trainer?
I have played sports and enjoyed being
active all my life. I found that I had a passion
for helping others do the same. I became a
trainer early on when I was a competitive
Olympic weightlifter and wanted to
continue improving at my sport and to help
teach others in the club. So I became an
ASCA certified coach. I am still genuinely
passionate about helping and teaching
people about health and fitness, and feel
grateful and fortunate to be able to do it for
a living.
Do you specialise?
I still enjoy passing on my knowledge of
Olympic lifting and strength and conditioning
and teaching that style of training. A lot of
my clients enjoy boxing, and I also bring
elements of my own Aikido martial arts
practice into my training sessions. It all
depends on what will work best for the
person I am training.
Do you have a signature style of
training?
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ARE WORKING, LIVING AND SHAPING THEIR CAREERS
Different approaches work for different
people. I’m a bit of a jack of all trades with
training. Through my Olympic lifting I was
fortunate to work and train alongside some
high level athletes from various sports and I
learnt from that experience. I’ve also worked
in strength and conditioning and over the
years have continued to learn about different
styles of training.
These days I lean more towards a
functional training style using the concept
of kinetic link training, looking at movement
patterns rather than isolating muscle groups.
How many hours do you train
clients for each week?
I usually train clients in and around my full
18 | NETWORK WINTER 2017