Welcome to ‘The Art of Movement’ - my weekly newsletter!
This newsletter is not just an opportunity for me to touch base with my dear patrons and show my gratitude for your monthly support, but also to offer you a 5 minute, easily-digestible read around the world of health, fitness and exercise. Here I will troubleshoot many common difficulties my clients experience, offer practical, actionable solutions for you to put to work in your life immediately, and of course provide my weekly motivation in the form of a favourite quote, and a takeaway lesson from it.
Please send me your feedback, questions and curiosity regarding the newsletter via the messaging tool on my Patreon page!
Week 21 - Diving in the Deep End
So I’ve had an interesting week. From a personal perspective perhaps one of the more significant weeks in my life - as after 8 glorious years working as a personal trainer for The Hogarth Club in Chiswick, I decided that at the end of the summer I will be moving on and going it alone, doing what I do on a purely freelance basis.
A little bit scary, and a bold move (given the love, support and comfort bubble my place of work has always provided me), but a decision I feel happy and comfortable enough to make. I have been viewing my potential decision from a few different angles, and decided what the positives would be:
Liberating myself
Taking more control of my day-to-day structure / life around it
Pursuing something I have found worth doing long-term
Channelling my energy with better / sharper focus
Embracing the opportunity for more travel and adventure alongside work
Creating more time freedom to spend with my soon-to-be-wife, friends and family
One thing I obviously wanted to ensure was that the positives by far outweighed the negatives (the biggest negative of course being the prospect of leaving a place of work I have genuinely loved coming to every day, which is extremely rare for the average person to experience).
A ‘razor’ I really appreciated and connected with regarding these types of big decisions and crossroads was this one:
‘What is your head telling you to do? What is your heart telling you to do? What is your gut telling you to do? Side with the majority of the 3’ - Sahil Bloom
The purpose of creating these new working conditions for myself is to try and maximise the efficiency of what I am doing with my life, which I hope to mean:
Delivering PT and training programmes in more varied and remote formats
More innovation with business ideas (website, circuit classes, on-demand videos)
Generating new client leads organically and more proactively
It is a big dive in at the deep end, but one that I am ready for and very excited about! Your support of this newsletter is a small part of what has given me the confidence to move onto the next chapter, and I look forward to delivering many more new and improved editions over the coming weeks and years!
Movement of the Week: External Rotation (at 90°)
2 x 10-15 reps
This exercise is a great way to get rid of any upper back and shoulder pain - the activation of the external rotator muscles (teres minor and infraspinatus) creates better stability in the shoulder blade, which also allows for stronger pushing and pulling movements. Give it a try!
That’s all for this week! Please spread the word about my Patreon channel so more people can enjoy the videos and newsletters!
Thank you,
Gabriel