A Session with Graham (My Favorite Personal Trainer)
Watch Short Videos of New Moves, Based on the Latest Research
In another article about going to the gym, I mentioned that many years ago, I made friends with a personal trainer, Graham Fairley, who showed me the ropes and taught me how to use some of the equipment. He also taught me the basics of “functional movement,” strengthening and flexibility that involves whole-body multi-planar movements with rotation instead of just focusing on isolated muscles using static, one-dimensional exercises, the kind you would do in front of a mirror.
Graham runs his own gym, Prevail Studio and Personal Training, in Kensington, London. I catch up with him once or twice a year in his gym to check in with him, get his latest take on fitness and health, and learn new movements to train with. It is always an enjoyable, amiable, and useful session, full of hard work and sharing ideas. Here is some of what we covered this time.
I told Graham about my knees and my recent skiing adventure and what I did to train for it. He congratulated me and gave me another leg- and knee-strengthening exercise to do with an Olympic bar. In this exercise, I step and lunge, holding the 20kg bar, and then, once in a lunge position, twist from side to side. This adds balance to the equation and strengthens my legs even more than if I were just bearing the weight. Here is a video of this exercise:
Next, we did kettle bell swings. While I’m used to doing these regularly on my own, he taught me a “ladder” circuit with a cross-country ski machine at a pretty fast pace. Here’s the routine: 500 meters of skiing followed by 5 kettle bell swings, 400 meters of skiing followed by 10 kettle bell swings, 300 meters of skiing followed by 15 kettle bell swings, and so on until you reach 100 meters and 25 swings. Depending on the pace, it works as a high-intensity set as well. Here is a short video of part of the kettle bell portion of this circuit:
The aerobic portion can be done on a ski machine, bicycle or treadmill.
On to the Pulley machine.. This is a dynamic motion involving a step forward and a quick thrust of my arm in a punching movement. Pulling the other arm back gives the motion more momentum and maintains my balance. Notice that every part of my body is engaged in this movement, from feet to head, bringing my entire body into the full force of the movement. This is how our bodies move and, as can be seen, respects the gait or step cycle. (We also did a pulling version of this same movement, although we didn’t film it.) Take a look:
In addition to these moves, we worked on a few other exercises with bands and resistance. Graham is a big fan of loosening muscles and joints using rollers, lacrosse balls, and larger, hard balls to find trigger points. It hurts when they find the right spot, but rolling around on them and tolerating the pain does a great job of releasing the points of tightness.
We also discussed the Wim Hof breathing technique, which we both do every morning when we wake up. This breathing method lowers blood oxygen temporarily to boost the immune system. Comparing notes, neither of us gets sick very often, having dodged flus and COVID-19 several times in the past few years, despite being exposed. Graham is a certified Wim Hof instructor, having taken courses with Wim Hof himself.
I don’t use a trainer regularly in my gym sessions. I find my own motivation to be enough to get me moving almost every day. But visits with experts who are as passionate about what they do as Graham is, and who are up on the latest research, are a great way to learn more, move more, and get even more motivated.
Here are Graham’s details, for anyone in London to contact him on:
Graham Fairley
+447879057687
