Personal trainer Jeff de Pasquale says he’s determined to put the fun back into fitness.
The man behind the latest entrant to the fitness world – A Gym 2U – says he likes to make every session “a little different, keep it fresh, keep it new and keep it fun’’.
“A lot of people think of exercise as being tedious and painful, and doing the same thing week in week out, where I don’t like to do that,’’ he says.
“One of the warm ups, as an example, is playing tennis with a balloon. You might think that takes you back to your childhood, and have a laugh, what the hell.
“Playing tennis with a balloon can get very, very strenuous, believe it or not.
So that’s just one example of trying to keep things fun,’’ he says.
As well as putting fun back into fitness – and as the name suggests – A Gym 2U is literally a gym that will come to you.
“There’s not a lot of people out there who are mobile like me and A Gym 2U,’’ says Jeff.
“I figured a lot of people these days just don’t feel comfortable in a gym, especially people when they get a bit older they don’t feel they fit in the gym scene.
“So I am out there trying to help those people, get them into shape, give them the confidence to one day walk into that gym,’’ he said.
A media photographer for a long time, Jeff took redundancy from Fairfax Community Newspapers and decided to start a new career as a personal trainer.
“I had three passions as a young man, one was photography, another was cars and being a mechanic and the third was fitness, staying fit and healthy,’’ he says.
“As a young man I did all the wrong things of my generation: smoked, drank, things that now, thank God, I have left behind, so once I took the redundancy I thought I don’t really want to be a mechanic, a grease monkey at my age [early 50s] .
[social_quote duplicate=”yes” align=”default”]“I thought, well, fitness is something that’s going to help me throughout the rest of my life, so if I can do something along those lines that’s not just going to benefit me but a lot of other people who are similar to my situation.’’[/social_quote]
Jeff is a fully accredited personal trainer with Certificate III and Certificate IV.
He is also a member of Fitness Australia, which requires all members to accrue 20 continuing education credits every two years, to ensure they are up to date with developments in the personal training industry.
Jeff says A Gym 2U is all about what the client wants to achieve.
“If you’re serious about getting me on board as your trainer, I would sit down with you to do an appraisal, we look at any medical conditions, previous injuries, things that may impact on your training, then we’ll design a program that suits you, your body type and your goals,’’ he says.
“It’s all about what you want.
“If you want to lose weight, if you want to gain muscle, if you want to get fitter so you can play with the kids or grandkids, that’s what we’ll do.’’
A Gym 2U sessions are a little longer than those offered by other personal trainers or in gyms, and Jeff says there’s a good reason for that.
“A lot of others offer 30 or 60 minutes, but I like to do 45 minutes or 75 minute sessions,’’ he explains.
“I add those extra 15 minutes so we can give you time to warm up before exercising and cool down afterwards.’’
Enquiries: agym2u@gmail.com or ring Jeff on 0432 165 611.
