T2 Celebrates… Life Strong

At T2, the best part of what we do is seeing our students embark on a new career they’re passionate about and seeing their successes.

After a tough couple of years in her personal life, Michaela New studied with us in early 2019 and has shared her career journey from the corporate world to starting her own Personal Training business.

Here she shares her story to date, launching Life Strong.

1. What were you doing in your former career?

Up until July 2017, I was pursuing a career in Project Management in the rail industry while enjoying an active lifestyle in my spare time. This included taking part in running events, Les Mills classes and CrossFit.

On the 1st July I underwent emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy that I had no idea I was experiencing, and it changed my perspective on life. I decided to leave my job to take time to physically and emotionally recover.

Shortly afterwards, my grandfather fell ill, and I spent 5-6 days per week with my grandparents, nursing my grandfather and caring for my grandmother for nearly six months.

Exercise helped me manage my physical recovery from my surgery, as well as manage my mental health through the emotional recovery of the lost pregnancy and the difficulties I faced in caring for my grandparents.

When my grandfather passed away, I felt ready to work again. I knew I wanted to help people with health, and spent some time debating whether to become a paramedic, or to try to use my passion for health through fitness to inspire other people to live a more active lifestyle.

I decided to go with the latter and re-train as a Personal Trainer, and I qualified in January 2019!

2. Describe your fitness education journey.

Once I decided to pursue a career in fitness, I started applying for jobs in gyms so that I could earn the money to pay for my education. I was lucky enough to be offered a job as a gym assistant without any qualifications (other than First Aid) and after a few months completed my Level 2 Fitness Instructor course.

A couple of months later, I completed my Level 3 Personal Trainer course, and in July 2019, I will be completing my Level 3 Exercise Referral course.

A friend recommended T2 Fitness to me a few years ago when he re-trained as a Personal Trainer, so I didn’t look anywhere else for my education!

3. What have you done since becoming qualified?

I am still in the early months of my new career, and they have been quite rocky. My confidence has been up and down, and I have questioned whether I have done the right thing so many times!

I didn’t know whether I should try to pursue a career as a self-employed personal trainer, or whether to join a club and be guided by an organisation, or whether I could even do the job at all.

Then, during one of my toughest weeks, I was inspired by some podcasts, as well as conversations with people that I knew, and other people in fitness that I follow on social media, and I remembered why I decided to pursue this new career: to inspire people to live a more active lifestyle and to help people enjoy exercise, while improving their health and fitness and quality of life for the future.

I decided that an organisation wouldn’t be the right path for me, and launched my own business, ‘Life Strong’.

For me, ‘Life Strong’ isn’t just a way to inspire the clients that train with me. I want to inspire people everywhere and anywhere to get active, and to enjoy it!

4. What advice would you give anyone looking to switch to a career in fitness?

If you know why you want to pursue a career in fitness, don’t lose sight of that goal and don’t be distracted by what others are saying or doing. Not all advice you receive will be good advice, so go with your gut, and use others as sounding boards.

Some of my friends have been great in keeping my head level with their fresh perspectives when I have been panicking about things other people have said or done.

Don’t underestimate the amount of time you will spend doing ‘admin’, especially as a self-employed personal trainer! It’s not all sessions in the gym, and training yourself in between – but that said, don’t neglect your own training. There is a lot of time spent on the computer or staring at a mobile phone screen, so be open to new ways of training yourself so that you can fit enough time in for you, and still give your clients the best you can.

5. Finally, what has been your proudest achievement or biggest success since doing what you do now?

Every client that I have trained so far, every class that I have delivered, and every message I have received from followers on social media has felt like a success.

Clients have gone from not wanting to do much in their sessions to pushing themselves harder than I have asked them to… and have enjoyed the process!

Other clients have gone from being solely focused on exercise as a means to lose weight, to feeling empowered and proud of their physical strength.

People attending my classes regularly tell me how much they enjoy them.

Participants in an online walking challenge I have been running in March have been hitting 10,000 steps a day every day for the first time in years.

Just knowing that people are feeling positive and inspired, and enjoying being active, makes me feel like I am succeeding in my new career.

Let our readers know where they can find you:

Website: www.lifestrong.co.uk

Facebook: /wearelifestrong

Instagram: @wearelifestrong & @michaela_cf

T2 Fitness Education delivers high-quality education for the ?tness industry like no other. Since 2011, we've helped hundreds of students turn their passion into an enriching new career within fitness and wellbeing.

And that's because we offer much more than just textbooks and classrooms.

Studying with us means you become part of the T2 Community, and that's about ongoing support and continued development to help you succeed. View our courses and learn more at t2fitness.co.uk