Calvin Cervoni has been a personal trainer and online fitness coach for ten years.
He grew up in Teddington and now resides in Hampton.
"I'm in Teddington every single day," he said, speaking about his job, which requires him to drive to people's homes and various venues in South West London, including Teddington, Hampton, Kingston, and Twickenham, to deliver his PT sessions.
As a PT, Cervoni offers his clients personalised sessions either in their homes, in open spaces, or via online video, and he provides any necessary equipment.
His clients who opt for an online session can either take the session at home, in a gym or in a public space, such as a park, of their choice.
Speaking about his online sessions, Cervoni said: "If I have a client who isn't familiar with how to do gym exercises or how to use the gym equipment, I'll video call them while they're in the gym and build a progressive plan for them to hopefully make them feel more confident and comfortable in the long run."
He also creates PDF gym workout plans for such clients, which they can download from their phones and computers and bring to the gym with them.
Cervoni explained that, unlike other PTs he has seen who merely provide names of exercises in their plans, he will provide a start and end image of each exercise in his plans and write out how to perform each exercise in bullet point form, so that "people can read it and feel as confident as possible knowing they're doing the exercise with the right form" without him actually being there.
He says that his clients are also welcome to contact him if they are stuck on an exercise while alone in the gym – he will get them to send him a video of what they are doing and will then offer advice.
All Cervoni's sessions are personalised to each individual client based on what their specific goals are.
He said: "Some people might have a more specific criteria or maybe they've got injuries or specific things that they can and can't do. So, then people will come to me with that, and I'll create a plan focused on what they've asked for."
He creates various fitness sessions ranging from cardio-based sessions to muscle-building to boxing.
After speaking to Cervoni and being a fitness fanatic myself, I was keen to book a session with him.
So, we met up on a sunny Thursday morning last week in Teddington's Udney Park.
Before our session, Cervoni asked what kind of workouts I enjoy doing, what I wanted to focus on, and if I had any injuries so that he could create a plan for me.
I told him that I enjoy cardio but wanted to work on my strength and core training.
Cervoni's plan was just what I wanted, we did a bit of a cardio warm-up, followed by some strengthening exercises using equipment he brought (dumbbells and a TRX rope which he tied to a tree) and some core exercises on a yoga mat.
The session was the perfect balance of being hard enough that I was sweating and could feel my body working, but not too hard as it was my first one.
And the best part was that Cervoni was there to make sure that I was performing the exercises correctly so that I wouldn't injure myself – I usually do classes in a busy gym, so my instructors often do not have the space to check my technique.
This, I believe, is important, and will be helpful to everyone, whether you are a beginner or a fitness fanatic.
Despite having had PTs previously, I was still quite nervous for my session as working out in front of somebody new can be daunting, but Cervoni made me feel instantly at ease – he is very kind and approachable and is clearly passionate about his job as well as being very knowledgeable in the world of fitness.
Thus, whether you are a beginner or an athlete looking to improve your techniques, or just want to get fitter, I would definitely recommend booking a session with Cervoni.
The fact that he is genuinely passionate about his job and clients, makes him stand out from some trainers who just see fitness as a "job", and his personalized plans / sessions help you reach the individual goals you want, which is harder to do in standard gym classes.
And for those of you who prefer working out privately, his home and online sessions are ideal.
Cervoni has been training a client once a week for the past four months who wanted to lose weight for her wedding last week – she lost over a stone.
He said: "I'm honestly so proud and pleased to see her transformation. It's just really rewarding to know that, hopefully, on the happiest day of her life, she's going to be in the best shape and be as confident as she can be.
"It makes me really proud, and I find my job really rewarding."
He has also trained people in preparation for distance running, such as 5km or 10km, to help them improve their speed.
He said: "These clients come back to me and say, 'I've just beaten my record', and that's really rewarding."
Cervoni says his journey to becoming a PT has been a "long" one.
He played football at "quite a high level" and sprinted for the country until he was 19.
However, he broke his leg during a football match and "never went back to sport".
Following his injury, he had a couple of years off and went on to do a degree in Fashion Design and a Master's in Branding.
During this time Cervoni got back into fitness. He said: "I was really lean back then, about ten stone, and now I'm 18.2.
"So, while I was at uni, I started weight training and got really into it as time went on.
I was training at Teddington Pool and Fitness, and I became friends with one of the PTs there and he was ginormous – this motivated me."
Cervoni and his PT friend then started going to a bodybuilding gym in Molesey called Physique Warehouse where he "really got into bodybuilding".
He said: "And then I just thought, you know what, I really enjoy this, I was still doing my MA at the time, so I contemplated doing a PT course once I finished my Master's degree."
Cervoni did do a PT course when he finished his Master's and "just got clients straight away".
He said: "My clients were all in Teddington and Twickenham. So, I used Twickenham Green, and I currently use Park Gardens a lot in Teddington just by the small Sainsbury's."
Cervoni has never worked in a gym but started training people either at their homes or in parks and "gradually built up the base from that".
The Personal Trainer is now doing a Level 4 Strength and Conditioning course so that he can become a full sporting coach.
This will enable Cervoni to work with professional athletes. He says he thinks "it's really important to keep upskilling in this job".
He recently trained the production team working on the latest Marvel movie at Pinewood Studios, which he said was "super fun". He hopes to be able to train the actors too.
Speaking about his career, he said: "I really love my job, I'm so lucky that I get to do something I enjoy."
Cervoni also started creating workout videos on YouTube during COVID and occasionally posts them now.
You can view his videos here.
Cervoni generally offers his sessions in groups of ten with the prices starting at £55 per session.
He says he tries to make his prices "cost-effective".
You can book sessions with Cervoni via his website, where you can also find out more information.
Alternatively, you can contact him via his Instagram or Facebook.
