- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 31/Aug 04:39

Trainer Tricia Thompson keeps seniors fit

IT’S not often you hear a personal trainer say they have a 92-year-old client. But for Tricia Thompson, it’s pretty common. She has been helping people 60 and over feel young again through exercise for the past 12 years. Thompson, 50, grew up in Shorelands with her brother and sister. She told Newsday she was quite the tomboy, especially during her days at the Maria Regina Grade School. “I was doing all things outdoors with my brother and with the boys on the street. I was rumbling and tumbling, running races, going into mossy drains to catch crab, swinging and jumping off trees, going on roofs,” she recalled gleefully in an August 28 interview. As she moved on to St Joseph’s Convent, she kept active, but her focus shifted to the field of business. “I studied accounts, principles of business, economics…I actually wanted to be a lawyer. I definitely wasn’t going to do sciences or history, geography…those things.” “My dad was an accountant and my sister was heading down that path, so I sort of just followed,” she added. She continued to pursue this interest for A-Levels at Daniel’s College of Excellence as well. And then, she made the bold move of pursuing tertiary education in Miami, Florida in the US. She enrolled in Florida International University and began doing the necessary prerequisites. “But then after two years, I bounced up marketing and I fell in love with it. So I came out of business and I did a degree in marketing.” Asked what made her switch, she said the writing aspect of the field piqued her interest. “I’m not a numbers girl like my sister or dad. I used to write just as a (hobby) and I fell in love with the marketing aspect of business.” Determined to shine in her field locally, she returned to TT after graduating and maintained corporate jobs for seven years. Explaining that she had met who would become her husband just before returning home, she then went back to the US “to do the whole big people life…to go, get married and do the whole nine yards.” [caption id="attachment_1175182" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Personal trainer Tricia Thompson looks on during a training session with Arlene Chow on August 28 at One80 Fitness Studio, Woodbrook.[/caption] She said while she was always a “gym rat,” she began going even more frequently. She joked that fitness was in her genes as her grandfather was the late local football great Ethelbert “Bertie” Thompson. “Some people in the gym started asking me, ‘Hey, do you want to teach some classes for us?’ And I was like, ‘Me?’ They said, ‘Yeah, you practically live inside the gym.'” She thought about it. And then she thought about how she had been considering doing her master’s degree as well. “I didn’t want to do anything with business, so I went to search for fitness-related things. I saw stuff like cardiac rehab, exercise physiology and movement science. And I was like, 'Great!'” She opted to do a master’s degree in movement science at Barry University in Florida. “So I signed up to start school in January of whatever year it was, and then I found out I was pregnant in November,” she revealed. “So I started off my first semester with morning sickness, the works. If you think of it, I had it…I almost got kicked out of the programme because you needed to have a 3.0 (GPA) or higher for your first nine credits. And, of course, with me being pregnant, I was having a hard time.” But when it was time for her first set of finals, she said something “clicked” and she really pushed. [caption id="attachment_1175183" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Tricia Thompson keeps fit.[/caption] “So for my last exam, which was the exam to decide, my advisor called me in and I thought she was going to tell me that I'm not going to be able to continue the programme, but she didn't. She said she went in there and fought for me and told the board to give me a chance because of my grades for the exam. “Of course, I cried. I jumped in the car and sat, called my mum, my husband, everybody.” She completed her course of study and she was thankful and proud. She also earned certification as a pre- and post-natal trainer with the International Fitness Professionals Association and as a health fitness specialist with the American College of Sports Medicine. She returned to TT once again, this time combining her marketing skills with her love for fitness. “I had some business cards made and I started training people…We did Mt Hololo, Lady Chancellor, the stadium, the Savannah…I was mainly training people around my age group, so 30s to 40s. Her areas of focus include lower back, rotator cuff, frozen shoulder, knee, sciatica pain relief, pre- and post-surgery strengthening, hip flexor issues, exercising through menopause and perimenopause, weight gain/loss, arthritis, balance, flexibility and general strengthening. She said she then realised a lot of overweight people had issues with exercising in public, owing to self-confidence, as well as in regular gym settings, owing to the size of the equipment. [caption id="attachment_1175184" align="alignnone" width="683"] Tricia Thompson at One80 Fitness Studio in Woodbrook.[/caption] This prompted her to open One80 Fitness Studio in Woodbrook, a private studio that targeted the overweight and obese, providing a comfortable space for them to exercise. It was going well. But one of her clients and mentors brought her attention to a group of people most trainers weren’t focused on: seniors. “I said, ‘Okay, let me think about it. He said, ‘There’s no thinking about it. I’m going to start sending them to you,’ and he started the ball rolling.” She continued, “And he was very, very correct because if you want to maintain any type of independence when you get older, this is the time to be in the gym, not just when you were younger.” While she still trains people of all ages, she has had clients ranging from age 60 to 92. “I had a 90-year-old, I now have a 91-year-old woman, and I am starting with a 92-year-old man. “Of course, when clients come to me, they speak about their age, their health, how they don’t feel as strong as they used to…and I also have to help get them into that mental space to believe they can do it.” She recalled a particular client who had been considering installing an elevator in his house as he “just couldn’t figure out why his right leg kept getting weaker” for eight years. He said he went to several other trainers, but to no avail. “That man started off not even being able to lift ten pounds with that leg, now he stacks up three to four 45-pound plates for the leg rest. So I do push them, but it’s very friendly. “They always say, ‘I used to be able to, I used to be able to,’ and I say, ‘I think you still can, but you have to allow your muscles to gradually get accustomed to certain things. And the more and more that you do it, it's going to just get easier." She has also had comments like, “I’ve been looking for somebody who would train someone my age for so long.” She noted, though, that there are sad moments when she may learn that a client died. And given the type of relationship she shares with them, she mourns. "I have pictures, I have their phone numbers and sometimes I just leave them in my phone, out of respect...until a couple of months go down the line, and then I go, 'Okay, Mr so-and-so, I got to let you go now.' "The other sad part of it is that every once in a while, somebody I get close to and train and see several times a week...you start to realise (changes) and the family comes and tells you that we kind of have to stop because mummy's going down, or daddy's going down. And then you get, later on at some point, you're going to get the news," she said. But she remains thankful for the opportunity to be able to help people within those age groups, as well as the stories she hears form them and the wisdom gained. "Seeing them become more confident makes me happy. At the end of it, when you actually see them get past something, get to see them excited about their progress, or just hearing them say, ‘When I went on vacation, I was able to do this, that and that.’” She said her clients enjoy being trained by her so much that they have even asked if they could come to training while sick. “And I have to (playfully) scold them because no,” she said as she laughed. One of her clients, 66-year-old Arlene Chow, told Newsday she was referred to Thompson by her orthopaedic surgeon. “I had pain all over my body, and I said, ‘Gym? No way. But I went and never looked back. She has been an actual lifesaver for me. “I have never been a gym person. But I’m enjoying this tremendously. I have improved my strength, my posture, my flexibility and my all over well-being. It’s a great atmosphere, friendly and encouraging, at the gym.” She said in speaking with other clients, the feedback on Thompson is the same. “I want to be able to keep up with my grandsons. This gym has given me a pathway to doing that. “I’m really grateful for her dedication to me. On good days and on not-so-good days, she keeps encouraging me to be my best self.”   The post Trainer Tricia Thompson keeps seniors fit appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.