Emma Goodhind

Emma is a busy management consultant. A former competitive runner her 10km best is 36 minutes. She lives in London and is in her thirties.

Why did you work with Ben, what were your goals and what had you tried before?

In the summer of 2006 I had a very bad fall where I broke my pelvis in four places and my back. This left me bed bound for months followed by being on crutches.

I have been lucky enough to never had a serious injury before and it was a real shock to find myself unable to even walk properly let alone train! I lost my confidence and was scared to step foot in a gym as at this point had just come off the crutches, still had a severe limp and the medics were telling me I may never run again!

At this point I decided to look around for a personal trainer but wanted someone who had the expertise to understand what it meant to rehabilitate from a serious injury. I needed to have the confidence that the trainer was recommending safe exercises but also understood that I had previously been a fairly competitive athlete and would push me appropriately.

I choose Ben because he had worked rehabilitating stroke victims yet also with top athletes and also because he made me laugh. Both factors were important as he understood both the physical side and boosted me emotionally.

How did you find the experience?

The personal training has been fun. We started off at a very easy level
focusing on my getting my deep stomach muscles and buttocks working so that they could stabilize my hips. At the same time we worked on flexibility and the overall strength of my body. The hardest thing was trying to walk without limping. In addition to this we also strengthened the muscles all over the body.

Over the weeks and months we gradually progressed the training to handle more and more within each area of exercise. I liked the way it was set to my standard and Ben pushed me enough to make great progress but not too much to over do it.

It was a great buzz when I started running again and reassuring to have Ben running along with me. It was rewarding to see myself increasing the distances of our runs and the speeds I could maintain.

What results did you get?

When I consider my consultant said it would take a year to be walking again and I may never run again. It is now a year this month since my accident - I ran my first 10K three weeks ago. admittedly 25 minutes longer than my personal best however I am running again. I do my first proper race this week. My consultant is amazed

My next goal is to gradually improve my 10Km - and an added bonus as I'm now not only focusing on the running (yes Ben makes me do weights even though I moan!) I have a more rounded fitness than I had previously.

Prior to this experience I had always been fairly skeptical about the benefits of a personal trainer. Now I would recommend this approach to anyone and I have now been training with Ben for 6 months which I think speaks for itself in terms of recommendation!

" My consultant said it would take a year to be walking again and I may never be able to run......I ran my first 10km three weeks ago (11 months after the accident). My consultant is amazed."