St Leonards Local Legends

Matt Shirvington

Not many of us can claim to have graduated in the same class as Olympic athlete, Matt Shirvington, but that was before he completed the Master Trainer program with the Australian Institute of Fitness earlier this year. Shirvington’s classmates can be forgiven for making the boast; after all, who would have thought that studying to become a personal trainer could see you sitting side-by-side with an Australian sprint record holder.

“I’d always had the idea of opening my own professional fitness business but it wasn’t until I retired from competition last year that I’ve had the time to pursue it. Throughout my career I’ve accrued a lot of practical knowledge of the human body but I knew that if I wanted to be a personal trainer I had to learn how to consolidate and transfer this information on. I wanted an internationally recognised qualification and I got that from the Institute. I also wanted to bypass years of university study, so getting qualified as a personal trainer in just eight weeks was an attractive option. I did a lot of research - trawling through the internet and speaking to family and friends who have had a connection with a personal trainer - and I came up with the Institute as being the best in the industry. With my career I always aimed to be the best at what I did, so it made sense that I wanted to go to the best people for my own qualification. I’d recommend the Institute to anyone who is serious about a careers in fitness.”

Michelle Bridges

If you’ve seen Channel Ten’s The Biggest Loser then you’ll know that personal trainer Michelle Bridges is no pushover. She’s a straight shooter who won’t take no for an answer, but there’s a soft side too – a strong sense of empathy and compassion for those around her. It’s a winning combination and one that has propelled her along an extraordinary career path to become one of Australia’s most recognised personal trainers. Michelle urges any personal trainer trying to grow their business to diversify and be multi skilled. Michelle specialised in Personal Training, but built her client base from her Group Exercise classes.

“I can’t tell you how many people used to come up to me at the end of a group fitness class and to ask if I personal train. Teaching classes also gave me the experience to adapt to all sorts of different situations: managing groups, training indoors and outdoors, boxing, cycling, doing different forms of weight training. I’d take the skills I learnt on the group fitness floor and apply them in a personal training setting.”

Michelle’s Message - “What drives me to keep going is that I want to be successful in what I do...I’m motivated by results and by the knowledge that I’m doing something good. If you’re passionate about helping people get fit, you’ll make a great Personal Trainer.”