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SANDRA FERGUSON
PERSONAL TRAINER
Sandra continues to fill
group exercise classes, four
decades on from her first
one. Here she shares her
knowledge and advice
about longevity in the
industry and being the
trainer your clients need.
I’ve been formally teaching
exercise to music since the
1980s – and informally a
decade before that, which
probably makes my REPs
membership one of the longest
on record! – and have since
broadened out into Pilates
which, among other things, I
currently teach to busy classes
at three sports centres in the
Aylesbury area.
I’m also 76 years old, which
will surprise a fair few people
because the perception is that
older people attend fitness
classes, not lead them!
Yet there are many instructors
around my age, so what
changes about the job in
your later years? What can
you as a, probably, younger
fitness professional learn from
us older trainers?
14
FM
www.exerciseregister.org
now the injury risks. You
K
may think you’re invincible as a
young instructor but that’s sadly
not true, and it’s even less true
as you get older. A serious injury
can mean a big loss in income,
so it’s in your own interests to
train and instruct safely and
carefully.
Don’t over-teach. Looking
around the centres I work in,
I see some young instructors
doing five classes a day, which
is a horrendous workload in my
opinion. You’ll wear yourself out
mentally and physically doing
all that, on top of any private
clients you might have. There
are fantastic instructors out
there and it’s the best job in the
world to get paid for not only
teaching fitness but actually
keeping fit, so if you want
to have a long career, pace
yourself!