Goals

I am a personal trainer (Can-Fit-Pro PTS), just getting started at Personal Trainer Toronto (www.personaltrainertoronto.com), a small company doing mainly in-condo training, and we also have 2 small studios. I'm fresh out of school (B. Sc. in Medical Physics) and still living with my parents (not my ideal situation, but I'm thankful that I have the option right now).

My end goal, career-wise is to work full-time in the Strength and Conditioning field. Exactly where, I don't know. I'd be happy in a school or high-performance training centre, but eventually I would like to run my own facility. I'm also interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine. I'm half Chinese, and even though I fought hard as a child to not drink my medicine (most of it is really awful tasting), I definitely believe it is the best medical system, as the focus is on prevention and making the body stronger.

TCM is on the back-burner for now though, as I am committed to making life as a personal trainer/strength coach work.

Professional development short-term goal:
Get my CSCS (I'm signed up for the exam on December 4th)

As far as my personal goals, no training blog would be complete without a mention of my own training, and physical fitness/competition goals. Long-term, I want to make sure I'm able to continue to participate in organized sports (hockey and baseball).

I love (Olympic style) weightlifting, and would one day like to compete, but right now, a coach isn't in the budget, and is necessary. I'd also like to get certified as a coach. For now, I'm going to focus on powerlifting.

Potential first meets:
Men's Provincial Intermediates and Bench Press Championships (November 20th in Ottawa)
Ontario Provincial Championships (January 22 in London)

These 2 are OPA events, and don't have Raw divisions. Since I've never lifted in gear, I don't think the Nov. 20 contest is realistic. I'm leaning towards the Jan. 22 meet. I'm going to look for other federations in the meantime, and hopefully find a raw meet.

My current training regimen:
I am currently doing the RKC Rite of Passage. I'm almost up to a full 5-rung workout with the 20 kg bell. Hopefully I'll get that next week, and move on to the 24. Once I'm there, I'm going to start training for the RKC Snatch test (100 snatches with a 24 kg kettlebell in 5 minutes), and hopefully get RKC instructor certified some time next year.

I'm going to add squats (3 x 5, 3 times a week on my non-kettlebell days) to my workouts. I want to keep the RKC workouts in for at least another month before I start a full on powerlifting meet prep. The presses and swings are doing a pretty good job of keeping my bench and deadlift numbers up at the moment.

So that's my story so far. I'm going to use this blog to write about my own training, as well as anything I learn from training clients. Hopefully, my writing skills will soon improve enough for me to try and get an article published. But until then, I'm just going to enjoy getting my thoughts down in print.

Enjoy!!!