Meet Lucy Grosvenor, a London based Les Mills fitness instructor!
Meet Lucy Grosvenor, a London based Les Mills fitness instructor! After becoming
interested in fitness in her early twenties, Lucy went on to train as a fitness instructor in the
hopes of inspiring others to enjoy working out! Lucy is now qualified to teach a number of
programmes including Body Pump, Body Grit and one of our personal favourites, Body
Balance.
Lucy is driven, competitive and continuously pushes herself to the limit - we were able to
chat to her about her road to becoming a fitness instructor, her goals and staying motivated
in lockdown.
What inspired you to become a Les Mills instructor? And what do you enjoy most about
it?
Purely the love of group exercise and how it impacted me! I joined the gym at my work
office when I started back in January 2017 and would do the normal treadmill and bike work
– not really sure what I was doing and giving half the effort most of the time. I then decided
to see what was happening in the studio and started to do Bodycombat and Bodypump that
both featured a couple times a week each on the timetable. I quickly became addicted to
these classes through the music and the group fitness atmosphere – working out to music
with my colleagues and friends that it really accelerated and complemented my fitness
journey well. It’s what helped me lose roughly 6 stone back in 2017 after spending the
majority of my life struggling with my own health and fitness! When I moved to London for a
new role I re-joined Nuffield Wimbledon, my local gym, which reignited my love of the
programmes as a participant and I quickly made friends and that same community feeling. It
took until May 2018 to realise, but I decided that I wanted to train up in Bodycombat to
share and inspire what I love to do to others that were in a similar position to myself – as
well as being that too enthusiastic front row participant in most of these classes. The
community that you make with group exercise is what I enjoy the most from teaching,
whatever mood I’m in that day – whether that’s from stress from my day job or otherwise –
knowing I’m helping others move and make a change puts a smile on my face.
What’s your favourite workout at the moment to teach and why (when not in
lockdown!)?
It really depends on what mood I’m in really! Bodycombat was my first programme I trained
up in, my true love I would say and what I enjoy teaching the most, but I had a 10am Sunday
morning GRIT class (essentially HIIT training) that is a very close second in terms of
programmes I teach as its such a hardcore workout to teach. I also had a 6:40am Bodyattackclass, which if you’ve ever done it would question why you want to do borderline happy-clappy aerobics essentially at that time – but I’d find it truly works well and had the sameregulars turning up that time week after week who loved it too!
How do manage to motivate yourself to workout when you really don’t want to?
There’s several ways I go about this for myself personally…
1. If it's an early morning session, take some pre-workout or a nice espresso and give it
15-20 minutes for it to work. Sometimes you just need a bit of time to wake up and
adjust before you go for it. I also put my clothes out before I go to bed each night
ready to go for the following morning as it means I don’t have to think about what to
wear so early, I get changed and mentally put myself in my workout mood and go for
it!
2. Find what time of day works for you. My preference is to do my cardio in the
morning before work to wake me up and if I’m doing a lifting session or some
yoga/bodybalance that day I’ll leave that for the evening using the food from what
I’ve eaten so far in the day as fuel for the lifts or to settle my mind and body before
bed for the latter. I’m such an early morning person naturally, for me I’d prefer to
get my main cardio workouts in first thing knowing I don’t have to do them later on
that day – but you might be the opposite, figure out what works for you and it
should be easier to be sustainable.
3. Plan plan plan! If I’m going to workout, I choose what workout I’m going to do the
day before/in advance so I’m not umm-ing and aah-ing beforehand.
4. Most important one – sometimes if you really don’t want to, its your body telling you
to rest. Here’s my tip, press play on your workout. If after the warm-up or the first 5-
10 minutes you are still not feeling it mentally and physically – then you know you
really need to rest. In those cases, I’ll stop, put my headphones in listening to a
podcast, and get some steps and fresh air instead. If after those 5-10 minutes your
attitude changes and you find yourself with a smile on your face and the motivation
to carry on – then great! Don’t put yourself down for resting, these are often the
most important times for your body to adapt and grow towards your goals.
Do you have any tips for anyone looking to establish a regular workout routine?
I’ve already mentioned it but try and find out what works for you. Additionally, try and find
workouts that you enjoy! If you really don’t like one form of workout, you will mentally
grow to hate that type of workout – making it harder to stick to. Whereas exercise you do
you enjoy, you’ll thrive on doing more and more making it a regular staple for your exercise
routine. Remember - any form of movement is good movement.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a fitness instructor?
It is such a rewarding feeling teaching in a group fitness environment. It might be daunting at
first, but soon it grows and evolves into something addicting once the fundamentals are
sorted! Whilst it is not something I do full time, it's such a great form of side income and
work that fulfils you and gave me purpose! I’d say, try to look to network with your local
gyms in the area especially as gyms start to reopen and gym classes start to feature back
again. There are many fitness instructor regional pages on Facebook to join as well. Make
sure you know what training is involved into becoming a Fitness instructor – Les Mills or not.
Most gyms will require you to have some form of insurance, as well as a minimum Level 2
Exercise to Music or Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification to be on their books. However,
many providers conduct these courses online now and can be completed in as short time
frame as 3-6 months that its really beneficial to have under your belt.
Lucy currently resides in South West London with her boyfriend. She is a trained Les Mills
Body Combat, Body Balance, Body Attack, Body Pump and Sh’bam instructor and Les Mills
GRIT coach. Before Lockdown, Lucy taught weekly classes at Nuffield Wimbledon and
Wandsworth Southside which she hopes to resume as soon as possible! We strongly
recommend that you book one of her classes as soon as possible!