Fitness Coach Aaron Nominated for a Pride Award.
Fitness Coach Aaron was nominated and came runner up for “A Place to be Proud of – Basingstoke” Award for all his great work in the Health and Wellbeing sector. We were able to catch up with Aaron to find out more about what he has been doing and what the award means to him.
Aaron, 36, qualified as a personal trainer in 2008 and since then has worked in various roles in the fitness industry. He has worked in commercial gyms as a PT, as a strength and conditioning coach at a tennis academy and for 5 years Aaron ran his own independent gym alongside working at a secondary school in the PE department.
In 2017 Aaron joined the Aquadrome team and qualified to teach Level 4 Exercise Referral the same year. Since then, Aaron has run the Exercise Referral scheme at the Aquadrome alongside teaching Kettlebell classes and working as a fitness instructor and Personal Trainer.
During lockdown Aaron qualified as a Level 4 Diabetes and Obesity specialist and when the gyms reopened in 2021 the Basingstoke Leisure Trust funded him to complete his level 4 CanRehab Cancer Referral qualification which he finished early 2022.
The cancer referral qualification means a lot to Aaron “In my personal life I have lost people to cancer and seen the affect it has on people (I had already had some cancer patients come to me as part of the general exercise referral scheme over the years) so when the Trust had funding I asked if I could use it for the CanRehab qualification as it is a really new area in the fitness industry and nobody else in Basingstoke does anything like it, so I could see how it would be able to benefit lots of people in the local area and offer something new that nowhere else does. It is also exciting to really be at the front of a rapidly changing area of expertise in the fitness industry.”
Following this, “In late 2022 a local councillor got in contact with us to explain that an exercise group ran at a different gym for people with Parkinson’s was coming to an end as the other centre didn’t want to accommodate them anymore and asked whether we would be help. After a lot of work with the coordinator of the local Parkinson’s UK charity group we got the sessions set up and have been running them weekly for the past 3 and a half months. The sessions are fully booked and have gone from strength to strength both in terms of what we are able to do for the customers and in how much stronger the customers have got! We are currently trying to get funding for more sessions as we have a waiting list of people wanting to join.”
Earlier this year Aaron was nominated for “A Place to be Proud of” Award in the category of Health and Wellbeing, with his nomination stating, “Aaron consistently goes above and beyond to help everyone he can to live healthier happier lives”.
On 8th June Aaron attended the awards ceremony and was not only shortlisted as a finalist, on the night he won the runner up position in his category. This is for individuals or organisations involved in keeping the borough healthy and for people and places dedicated to caring for people in our community. Aaron says, “I am really honoured and humbled to be nominated and also a bit embarrassed! It is always nice to be recognised, but for me the most important thing I am hoping for win or lose is that it brings more awareness to the various projects we run, whether that be cancer rehab, Parkinson’s sessions or the general Exercise referral. The more we can get the word out the more people we can get in the gym and help to exercise safely.”