Meeghan Somerset
Copy Editor
How does a future marine biologist become a personal trainer?
For Keene State College senior and exercise science major Andrea Lynch, her passions shifted in high school after training with her basketball coach.
“It’s kind of funny because, in high school, I always thought of doing things like marine biology, which is very random,” Lynch said. “But I played sports all my life and I was sort of moving into the fitness part of it. In my junior year of high school, I remember my basketball coach getting me into personal training for, just like, the season. I really loved working with her (the personal trainer) and seeing what she did and that’s kind of what helped me fall in love doing a career like this.
That’s when I switched to thinking about exercise science in high school.”
Lynch found her way into working at BodyWorks like most of the other fitness specialists: through the required practicum class last spring. Lynch also explained that, because exercise science is one of the smaller majors at Keene State, by the time students get to their junior and senior years they usually already know one another.
“I think exercise science is not, like, the biggest major so it’s kind of nice knowing everyone who you are working with, which I think is really cool,” Lynch said.
Along with working with clients, Lynch is also one of three student managers at BodyWorks. The student managers assist BodyWorks Manager Charity Sweeney in more of the business and management side of running the gym.
“For us managers, we do a little more to help Charity [Sweeney, BodyWorks Manager] with everything that she does. So a lot of the time we will help grade stuff, we help plan workshop days with everyone. We also run the Instagram account and help with Group Fit classes, but other than helping with the behind-the-scenes stuff, all the fitness specialists are the same. We are all mentors to the practicum students.”
The fitness specialists also serve as mentors and teachers to their clients. They meet with their clients, usually, twice a week for an entire semester. An initial fitness assessment and a post-assessment at the end of the semester are used to help both the client and the trainer gauge what progress has been made.
Lynch explained that though she didn’t have a client last semester, she remembers the excitement she felt her first semester while watching her client get stronger.
“I remember her coming to me at the beginning and being like, ‘Oh, I can only lift the 12-lb weights’ but then the next week she was like, ‘I finally moved onto 15-lbs’,” Lynch said. “It was really nice seeing that progression. That was what got me super excited about getting into personal training, even outside of college because that’s something I am thinking about doing when I leave here. Just knowing that my client is getting better and they are feeling healthier is really cool to see.”
In terms of the type of training that Lynch prefers to do with her clients, she said she would rather do weight training instead of cardio.
“Right now, I don’t like cardio. Playing sports and intramurals is my cardio because I’m doing something fun and it’s not something that feels like I’m doing cardio if that makes sense. I do really like resistance training and I like doing that with my clients too. Resistance training is a lot of weight training and even doing bodyweight movements or using bands. That all kind of fits in that resistance training category,” said Lynch.
BodyWorks is still taking applications for Spring 2021 personal training. The cost is $50 for the semester for all students.
The application form can be found at https://www.keene.edu/life/recsports/bodyworks/. Students can also find fitness specialists at the desk on the third floor of the recreation center and they are willing to answer any questions that may arise about personal training.
Additionally, all updates about happenings in the gym can be found on BodyWorks’ Instagram @kscbodyworks.
Meeghan Somerset can be contacted at:
msomerset@kscequinox.com
