“Plain and simply, a nice guy to be around”

We like to travel and keep active however have many of the ailments associated with arthritis and general aging. It was our good fortune to meet Rob not long after he started working at The Granite Club and he has been my personal trainer for the last five years and my wife's for about four.

Rob brings a professionalism and knowledge of fitness and training that is not only effective but fun even if we sweat a little (but never too much as he is very cognitive of age and abilities).

In both our situations we have some degree of balance and flexibility issues which have improved greatly with Rob's training and assistance. I had to have a total knee replacement about 18 months ago and Rob worked diligently with me to strengthen the muscles around my knee so as to improve the recovery period. Indeed before I left the hospital two days after surgery, I was able to bend my knee more than 90 degrees, which according to my orthopedic surgeon was very unusual. In the case of my wife, she was somewhat reluctant in the beginning to have a personal trainer as her previous experience was that trainers treated her as if she was 40 and pushed her to the point that she felt worse after training than she did before. With Rob, she has become a believer - he pushes and encourages her just enough that she has noticed a marked difference in her strength and agility without the pain.

Rob takes his profession very seriously and will be away 2 or 3 times a year taking courses to upgrade his skills. And it shows in his effectiveness. I am always amazed if I mention to Rob that I have a certain issue, i.e. neck pain with a headache or lower back pain to name the two most common ones, he is always able to give me an exercise that definitely lessens and often alleviates the problem, without having to go to physiotherapy. If I find that a particular stretch or exercise causes discomfort he is able to make a minor "tweak" that rectifies the issue.

On top of his skill and professionalism, Rob is just plain and simply a nice guy to be around. We both have 40 plus years on Rob and he makes us feel very comfortable (dare I say young) working out with him. Our loss is Picton's gain.