Charlie’s Week in the Life on Placement with Longevity

Hi, I’m Charlie. I just started my second semester at the University of Sydney studying a Masters of Exercise Physiology, and I’m straight into my first clinical placement block! 

I just finished my first week of placement at Longevity’s Marrickville location, and have had a great start to my student placement so far.

Getting in touch early with my placement supervisor, Isaac, enabled me to read over some important notes for a smooth first day and also feel prepared with the Longevity systems and standards. Come 9am Monday, I met Isaac, Nat, Sarah and Callan, the exercise physiology team at Longevity Marrickville. Along with this I met the gym staff who run Anytime Fitness Marrickville, where the location is based.

Isaac ran me through what my placement would look like for my 6-week, full-time block, setting expectations, discussing my personal goals and explained to me how Longevity would plan to progress my learning week to week. 

From there I shadowed my first clients, learning how a Longevity session is run, and how each exercise physiologist blends the combination of the Longevity exercise protocols with their own unique training experiences and knowledge. The approach has been for me to build rapport and trust with the clients first, and then increasing my input into the sessions, building up the experience to having conversations around long-term behaviour change. This was really beneficial for me in the first week as I didn’t feel the pressure of having to critique the clients performance, and could put most of my focus into them as a person. This has helped me understand the clients goals, exercise history, personal life, and has really aided me in finding common ground, all helping with confidence having more input in the training sessions as the weeks progress.

For the rest of the week I improved on these skills and met more of the great clients here at Longevity Marrickville! To top it off, I ran City2Surf on Sunday 10th, and met up with the Longevity team and clients for a celebratory breakfast after the run. 

Onto week 2 we go!

Want to find out more about current job opportunities? Call us at  Longevity Exercise Physiology Ascot Vale, Burwood, Casey, Castle Hill, Coburg, Drummoyne, Edgecliff, Five Dock, Gladesville, Gungahlin, Kingsgrove, Liverpool, Macarthur Campbelltown, Macarthur Tindall, Marrickville, Neutral Bay, Penrith, Pymble, Pyrmont, Randwick, Rhodes, Rosebery, Springfield, Yamanto today on 1300 964 002 to book your personalised session or a 15-minute free phone consultation.

Written by Charlie (student)