The spring Bodypro client of the season is Paula Stephens. Paula started training at Bodypro in November 2014. Her goals when starting training was to get a flat stomach, improve muscle tone and to improve her fitness. Paula didn’t do any consistent exercise, she felt her main barriers for achieving her goals in the past were a lack of routine and financial restrictions, her solution in her own words was to shop less!! And come to Bodypro for a one 2 one session once a week and do the Bodypro fitcamp sessions on a Monday and Wednesday night. After her initial session Paula got straight into a routine of exercising of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Ben Set Paula the following targets after her initial fitness tests. Reduce Bodyfat by 5%, improve plank test to 2 min, increase watt bike MMP test, Treadmill cooper test and The Rower Oneil test by 20%. Other goals included improving Bench press and sit up tests by 10 reps. As with every client we assessed Paula diet and it was clear that she was addicted to sugar. One day of her initial food diary consisted of Breakfast: cup of tea and a scone Snack: 6 chunks of Oreo dairy milk Lunch: Chocolate cake Tea: Sausage sandwich and chips Evening snack: Birthday cake It was clear we needed her to make changes in her diet. The first step was to get her out of the sugar addiction cycle. It took a lot of effort by Paula to change her diet but over the course of 4-6 weeks she managed to break her sugar addiction and dramatically improve her diet. A normal day now includes the following. Breakfast: protein shake Snack: apple Lunch: chicken sandwich on a granary role Snack: homemade protein bar Tea: Steak and Jacket potato After tea snack: natural yoghurt During the first few weeks of Paula training it was clear that her upperbody strength was very low and she struggled with some exercises due to this. Ben decided that Paula should include this as one of her goals. “My goal to start with was to be thin, but after improving my fitness and body shape is realised that being fit is much more beneficial” Over the weeks Paula has been very consistent with her training she has only missed one fitcamp session over the last 4 month period. During her one 2 one sessions Paula mainly worked on high intensity interval training and full body strength training. “I enjoy the mixture of fitcamp and one 2 one training, I like the intensity I get from the one 2 one sessions and the social side of the fitcamps.” Paula’s improvements in fitness and physique have been noticed by all the Bodypro trainers. After a recent fitness test and assessment it was clear just how far Paula has come in the last 5 months. The results in the following table speak for themselves. “I think one of the main reasons for me achieving my goals is that I’m reportable to someone, I feel proud that I can push myself in my sessions, and that I have stuck to my exercise routine.”AssessmentDate 7/11 (initial session)27/3 (Current assessment)Weight9 stone 7lbs8 stone 13lbBodyfat32.2%28.7%Resting heart rate66 BPMStep testMax Recovery183 BPM 139 BPM155 BPM 93 BPMSit up test/min2030Bench press test (3.75kg e/s)2037Plank test1 min 30 sec2 min 30 secTreadmill, Cooper test(12 min run)1570m Heart rate 189 BPM2080m Heart rate 160 BPMRower Oneil test746m (av pave 2.40) Heart rate 186 BPM877m (av pace 2.16) Heart rate 163 BPMWatt bike MMP test166 Watts Heart rate 199!!! BPM201 Watts Heart rate 166 BPM
The following has been achieved in just 5 months
85% increase in upperbody strength.
32% increase in her Cooper Test
21% increase in her MMP test
50% increase in core strength
33% better recovery rate
This just shows that anything is possible if you dedicate the time and effort to achieving your goals. Well done Paula we are all proud of your hard work and achievements.