A lot can change in 13 years, especially in health and fitness. So when a personal trainer as good as Ross Hanbury has gone the distance, it’s something to shout about.
Five seconds after you meet your personal trainer you’re already being coached. Having someone walk 20m, says Virgin Active PT Ross Hanbury, is enough to tell what injuries they have, where their alignment is out and even their mood. This writer is extremely tight in the hips – and tired – apparently.
The length of the tennis courts at Bank Sports Club is enough for Ross and 13 years of experience to make his assessment. He is usually based at Virgin Active Hammersmith, where he has worked and trained since December 2003, but these pristine lawns have become a home away from home.
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Hammertime: Ross is Virgin Active Hammersmith's longest standing trainer
Two weeks each year he works to ensure a new generation of tennis players are poised to fight their way to Wimbledon. Perfecting the layout of equipment, working through recovery and top up fitness and – if the entourage allows – tweaking things here and there.
Hammertime: Ross is Virgin Active Hammersmith's longest standing trainer
Two weeks each year he works to ensure a new generation of tennis players are poised to fight their way to Wimbledon. Perfecting the layout of equipment, working through recovery and top up fitness and – if the entourage allows – tweaking things here and there.
“Any tennis coach in the world doesn’t want you to do anything wrong with the athlete they’ve been working with for 15 years,” says Ross – do they want the outside advice? “That’s the million dollar question isn’t it, that’s where you’ve got to be really careful and use all of your tact and experience definitely.”
Convincing people to put their fitness in your hands is a tall order, but a skill Ross has honed at Hammersmith. Working with such a varied clientele can be overwhelming, but routines and wants largely stay the same.
Only with the advent of social media are people’s training habits starting to change. More and more of what top level athletes are doing in the gym is being shared about the web. When you see someone training a certain way – and clearly getting results – you and the thousands of other followers want to emulate it.
“People still want the same thing,” Ross says as a matter of fact, “but people are so much better educated nowadays.”
The #fitfam are putting their PTs under ever more scrutiny as social media becomes a bigger source of fitness advice. But Ross is relishing staying ahead of the curve.
“In the last five years it has been huge. There’s now so much information out there – not necessarily all good – and so many people putting it out there in a simple and effective way to understand,” Ross says of the influx of overnight fitness pros. “People are bringing more to the table than ever before.”
“Even from the get-go people are talking to you about HIIT training, fast twitch fibers, slow twitch fibers,” he adds, “it just amazes me how educated some people are.”
Of course, seeing through the filters of these #fitfam folk takes a critical eye and a wealth of experience – and you just can’t beat the qualified eye of a star PT. Ross is quick to pick up on poor form, using too heavy a weight or doing something that might lead to injury. Perfect the basics and don’t get caught up in the latest fads.
“Take weightlifting, it hasn’t changed, there’s nothing new out there,” says Ross, “Nothing new that’s not been around since 1948 if you look at the research.”
But in Virgin Active Hammersmith, as all over the country, people are adamant about adding a little insta-glamour to the hard earned sweat of a PT session.
“You do need that Hollywood exercise, which echoes what people see on social media. To go back in the office and say I did a TRX-whatever,” says Ross.
People are pressing their PTs to film them, to capture their moments of success and ping it all over – something unprecedented in gyms ten years ago; “that’s the way it is and that’s the way it works for them,” says Ross, happy to build camerawork into his sizable portfolio too.
When Ross first started training people at Hammersmith, his first job in the fitness industry, the club was a lot smaller – with far fewer toys to play with. Whoever or whenever people are in the club, it’s the real life social side that drives people to keep training.
“It’s that old cliché,” says Ross, “it’s so nice to walk in where everybody knows your name, that’s massive.”
In fact, it’s the workout you do surrounded by people you know that is going to benefit you the most. It’s also why personal trainers like Ross take so much time to get to know you – making you feel comfortable and feel at home. Whether you’re an athlete or just starting on your fitness journey. It’s this that will help you keep going.
As for Ross, it’s easy to tell that the thing that keeps him going is helping people better themselves. Whether that be someone trying to lose a bit of weight, helping a group of future team GB stars or even those in need of the most help. It’s this that Ross is most proud of:
“It’s not in sport at all. That’s all ancillary. I would say. You get people who are pretty much on death’s doorstep coming to you. Diabetes, all kinds of cardiovascular complications”
“Doctors have told them that unless you set foot in a gym and start trying to change your lifestyle, you’re looking at a year or two left. Just working with people like that is far more rewarding then any kind of world title, championship, whatever – because there’s more important things than that.”
This undeniable care and understanding of the people make training with Ross the experience it is, and he’s keen to share it around.
“Making sure it’s all about them,” says Ross, “that’s the sales pitch really – making sure they walk into the gym feeling a million bucks and walk out of the gym feeling a million bucks. Maybe a bit tired.”