INTRODUCTION:
Bob Glover is a personal trainer and lifestyle coach, who runs Base Fitness studio in Gildersome, Morley, West Yorkshire.
BACKGROUND:
Born in Belize in Central America, Bob lived in Catterick, North Yorkshire, before moving to Leeds when he was 18.
PREVIOUS JOBS:
Worked as nursery nurse at Busy Bees, then as a care assistant in a care home.
ROUTE INTO A CAREER IN FITNESS:
Aged 23, Bob decided to take his Level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instructing, which he did through Leeds City Council. He followed this up with Level 2 add-on qualifications in Circuits, TRX and Boxercise.
TRAINING WITH CMS:
Following his Level 2 qualifications, he asked his line manager at Leeds City Council if he could book on his Level 3 Certificate in Personal Training course with CMS Fitness Courses.
After getting in touch with Hadyn Luke at CMS, Bob spent two weeks training at the Huddersfield Giants ground, then completed his studies over the next six months, using online resources and working under tutors, meeting up with them every couple of weeks.
“By chance, one of the tutors was an old friend of mine, so it was good to be in touch with her again and to have her tutor me,” he says.
TYPICAL DAY AT WORK:
This can vary depending on the classes he is teaching but a typical day might start with a shift as a lifeguard at the 50m pool at the John Charles Centre for Sport in south Leeds, from 8am to 3.30pm.
In the evening, he is usually teaching classes at the gym he set up in Morley: Base Fitness. This has a studio upstairs and a gym downstairs.
Here, he trains individuals on a 1-2-1 basis and teaches a range of fitness classes, including Kettlebells, Metafit, Circuits, Fitball, Boxfit and TRX. He also sets programmes for individuals training at the gym.
THE LEARNING PROCESS:
“It’s really important to keep up with developments in fitness and I’m always up for gaining extra knowledge,” he says. “I buy books and magazines on fitness, which keep me up to date with what’s happening in the fitness world, such as the general trends staying the course, like circuits, which are still very much a big thing. I also look at fitness trends online, as well as updating my knowledge of nutrition.”
KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:
“Opening up my gym and seeing my skills being put to use.
“That’s what gets me up every morning: the challenge, marketing and helping people – each client is different. It’s great and I love it.”
KEY CHALLENGES:
“One of the key challenges was understanding that not every gym is suitable for everyone and learning that I’m not going to cater for all. Base Fitness is quite a traditional style gym with standard equipment, but I do my best by helping everyone to fulfill their fitness potential and seeing how much they can achieve.
“Another challenge is the business side of running a gym as I’d never done anything like this before – I just jumped straight in. Fortunately, my partner has run a business before and I also have a business mentor, who is one of my PT clients – he still comes and trains with me and gives me advice.”
BENEFITS OF TAKING A CMS FITNESS COURSE:
“For anyone thinking of taking a CMS course, they will help you to achieve what you want to achieve. As well as the training, there are quite few things I learned on the course that I’ve been able to put to use, for example on nutrition.
“But the main benefit of training with CMS is that the tutors are very, very helpful – more than any other course I’ve done. They are brilliant, they don’t want you to fail and will do their utmost to help you, whereas other courses only give you a bit of a hand. At CMS the tutors go the extra mile, answering every single question you have – all questions are good questions as far as they are concerned.
“The way I would describe it is, if you’ve been an instructor for a long while, it’s like looking through a pair of binoculars and suddenly someone takes them off you, cleans them and gives them back. You realise everything is sharper and you can see a lot clearer now. That’s what CMS did for me: things became much clearer and sharper.”