Gemma sets sights on a personal best (From Gazette & Herald)

Gemma sets sights on a personal best

Fitness means business for a Ryedale personal trainer who is looking to build a client base stretching from Whitby to York.

Gemma Clifford, 24, from Great Barugh, qualified with a diploma in Personal Training including nutrition and sports therapy from Next Generation gym in York last year.

She went on to work in a gym in Selby before starting her own business, Body Excel.

Like many trainers, she spends time working as a freelance at a gym, Fitness First in York, where there is a ready-made client base.

But the rest of the time, Gemma visits clients at their homes to give them one-to-one fitness support, and this is a market she really hopes to build on in Ryedale.

"There really aren't many personal trainers in the area," said Gemma.

"I want to get business around the Ryedale area - stretching from Whitby down to York and Scarborough across to Helmsley."

She added: "I bring everything to the home and we work out a personal programme. It can be anything - going for bike rides and runs.

''If you're on your own it's easy to get bored and give up, but if you feel yourself setting and achieving greater and greater fitness goals with me, that's when you see the difference.

"I can have a really powerful effect on someone's life, and their delight when they start to see themselves looking more toned and fitter is fantastic."

Gemma used to work as a hairdresser in Pickering, and the people skills she has are vital in both jobs.

"You have to be able to talk," she said.

But she has always had such an interest in fitness, anatomy and improving the body that the move seemed inevitable.

She also offers sports rehabilitation for people with injuries or who have been ill or undergone an operation.

Gemma added: "It's the feeling of helping someone achieve their dreams that really makes this job worth it."

Updated: 16:54 Wednesday, March 15, 2006