Room To Move
The Sunday Age
Sunday November 30, 2008
Making space for personal training
In her 20 years in the exercise industry, Sue Whillans has owned her fair share of equipment. She also admits she's "not very good at getting rid of" equipment she no longer uses, so she's had to pay special attention to storage issues.Whillans prefers multifunctional and portable equipment to the big chunky stuff."A lot of equipment is too big ... you need something you can take to pieces," she says. "My father got all that equipment and never uses it, so it's just a waste of space. In contrast, something like a Thera-Band (a continuous resistance loop), which is used for lots of different things, is portable and you can take one on holiday."Whillans works as a personal trainer, gym instructor and massage therapist, so items such as portable massage tables are must-haves. But even with almost unlimited access to Yarra City's gyms, where she works, she still has her own home gym, compactly filled with equipment including medicine balls, bikes and boxing gloves."I changed the house around to get my exercise room," she says. Unlike many people who plop their treadmill or exercise bike in front of the TV, Whillans decided on a dedicated room for her workouts. "It's better for me to have a room so I can focus on what I'm doing." The smaller bits and pieces are packed into see-through storage containers that are easy to stack and one of her three exercise bikes has wheels so she can move it. Now that her home gym is sorted, Whillans, who takes exercise equipment to her clients, only has one problem: moving it. "I need to get a bigger car," she says. -- Jayne D'Arcy
© 2008 The Sunday Age