Love your body

For personal trainer Hayley Roper, achieving optimal health takes a three-fold approach. By focusing on the emotional, nutritional and physical aspects, she believes everything can fall into place if you maintain consistency. Here she shares her own health journey and some advice for those looking to make healthy inroads of their own.

Tell us about your experience in health and fitness?

I have been working in the industry for 15 years. My mum owned a gym growing up, which is where I spent most of my time. Going into the industry professionally was a natural progression and was all I ever wanted to do. I have many qualifications in the industry but most of my knowledge today has come from experience and piecing together everything I have learnt from my training and each client I have helped or struggled to help along the way. Each individual is different!

What are the keys things to achieving great health and wellbeing?

I think it’s important to focus on all three areas of wellbeing – emotional, nutritional and physical. If you place your focus on all three areas, everything else just falls into place. It is a lifestyle decision and requires consistency, but it’s a decision that is well worth it! You only have one chance at this life, why not make the most of it?

What have you learnt about health from the people you train?

One thing I have learnt is that everyone is different and unique in terms of the way they respond to nutrition and exercise. As you gain more experience you can pick up on the sort of person they are, how much motivation you have to instil in them, how hard to train them and what sort of diet to give them. Mostly, I find it is people’s mindset that lets them down, not a lack of education (most people know how to exercise and eat right) so I really place a lot of focus on helping my clients believe in themselves and get happy within. The rest comes easy!

If you could only do five exercises to stay in shape what would they be?

Squats, rows, push-ups, triceps dips and a core plank. But if I could choose six, I would add in lunges!

What advice do you have for people looking to make health changes?

Create goals and be realistic. Something as simple as increasing your water intake and adding in a bowl of green vegetables each day can make a huge difference. Never be too hard on yourself.

You have just published your first book, Lighten Up – what do you hope people get out of reading it?

I wrote my book purely for the purpose of helping others. For me, it is pretty daunting putting my book out there as it has a lot of ‘me’ in it, but if it helps just one person then my job is done.