Aaron, my friend who has kindly agreed to be my Move-mentee is 19 years old like myself and is eager to change his ways around exercise and fitness and diet. I can empathise with Aaron as I am often of the same mindset in which I am dissatisfied with my current physique and am eager to make a change. Working with Aaron will be very enjoyable for both of us as we are friends and I have an interest in the area of strength and fitness. 

Upon completing the Myers Briggs Type test I have discovered that I am in the ‘feeling types’, this may explain why I am so empathetic towards Aaron and so excited about trying to help him. Aaron is from a rural area like myself and lives in the same apartment complex as me here in Cork which makes it easy for us to remain in contact. 

On my first meeting with Aaron he opened up to me saying that he ‘didn’t want to look like a stick insect anymore’ This makes sense, Aaron’s body type by speculation is that of an ‘ectomorph’, in fitness terms Aaron is what one would call a ‘hard-gainer’ which means he finds it difficult to gain weight be it either fat or muscle. As Aaron’s mentor this is good news for me as it keeps things simple. Both myself and Aaron clearly know what he wants and can set clear goals, as well as this with the 10 weeks we have this is not a difficult goal to achieve, Aaron simply needs to train regularly and be in a caloric surplus, in order to build muscle, simple.

I now need to sit down and make out a plan of action for myself and Aaron over the next 10 weeks and I will use design ‘Design Thinking’ in order to do so, key components of this for me will be the use of visualisation, a holistic view to Aaron’s plan and how to look out for Aaron’s physical and mental wellbeing, and from a mindset point of view I will need to be experimental and explorative (Hassi and Laakso, 2011)

Aaron is a 19-year-old 2^nd year Commerce Student in UCC. He does not play any sport but fancies himself as a bit of a pundit in soccer and is a dyed in the wool Arsenal fan. Aaron is from Mallow but lives in Cork during the week. As regards hobbies Aaron enjoys watching Netflix, watching soccer and listening to the Joe Rogan podcast. Aaron and I have a love of sport in common but not quite the same sports, he is also an avid UFC fan. Aaron also enjoys going for runs up the Lee fields in his spare time.

As I mentioned in my empathy statement, Aaron is eager to begin a training regime. Aaron has not been a user of the Mardyke, and I am keen to change that. From discussing this with Aaron it is clear that this is due to a confidence and a self esteem issue. Aaron is afraid of going into the gym and looking silly because he thinks he would be the smallest person in there and that his inexperience would lead to his ignorance of the gym atmosphere being evident and he is afraid that people would judge him. It is clear that I need to change Aaron’s attitude and sort out this self-esteem issue and assure him that his worries and concerns were only nonsense.

Aaron’s life has had a tragedy in it which may be a cause of depression and low confidence for him, when Aaron was in 6^th year his father got cancer in his brain and died shortly after. As well as being Aaron’s mentor it will be important to be Aaron’s friend also and be there for him if he needs someone to chat to. Aaron’s lifestyle is also something that may need to be focussed on over the 10 weeks. Aaron is a fun-loving college student who enjoys heading into town often with his roommates. However it’s when he’s going into town that most of his indulgence happens either in the form of fast food or doughnuts during the day or by going out to pubs and clubs at night time and consuming large amounts of alcohol. These unhealthy habits cause Aaron to be sluggish and unmotivated during the day which in turn impacts on his diet. Alcohol leads to dehydration which would effect Aaron’s exercise routine ‘Dehydration leads to reduced exercise performance. You need to be well hydrated when you exercise to maintain the flow of blood through your body, which is essential for carrying oxygen and nutrients to your muscles, thus maximising performance.’ (O’Brien 2013).

This lifestyle clearly effects Aaron’s diet also as he opts for frozen pizzas and Lucozade energy as opposed to a healthy balanced diet of vegetables and meat such as chicken. However, Aaron is eager so for that reason I think he will respond well to any proposed changes to his lifestyle from me, as well as this the odd frozen pizza is no harm as he does need to be in a caloric surplus. With regards to Aaron’s physique and fitness he is what one would call ‘lanky’ he’s 6ft 3” and is skinny however his cardiovascular fitness was quite good, scoring 9.2 in the Multi-stage fitness test. All in all Aaron has a lot to work on but clear goals and clear identifiable obstacles that can be easily removed.

We were all automatically signed up to be MoveMentors and trained by Fiona and Gillian. I found the training very interesting and learned some vital information how I needed to find out what type of person I was myself in order to be an effective mentor. In order to do this we took part in the ‘Myers Briggs Test’ a personality test based on questions about motives, I found out about myself that I was a ‘feeling’ type of person which was important to know as I would have to try mentor my mentee by being empathetic to his situation and in order to do so I would have to see things through Aaron’s eyes and in order to make that transition I would have to identify what type of person I was, this was a very insightful and interesting experience. I also used the ‘Onion Model of Reflection’ in order to learn more about myself.

‘Mentors are very busy with their primary profession (sports coaching) and are often untrained for their secondary profession (mentoring).  The basis for mentor development is the mentoring conversation (Tillema et al, 2015).’ From my training I knew that I would have to be empathetic and compassionate which meant I would also have to be patient, I knew from the outset that I myself would grow as a person for the better as a result of this programme also. I then had to focus on how I was going to use design thinking in order to come up with a plan on how to help my mentee upon receiving training from Gillian in the area of mentoring for physical health and fitness.

I learned in my training that there was three components of design thinking and they were ‘practices, cognitive approach and mindset’. Practices: The elements of this component which stood out to me were those of ‘human-centred approach’ and ‘collaborative’, what I took from this was that in this particular situation I would have to see myself as a friend of my mentee before I was his mentor.

Cognitive approach: The element of this component which stood out to me was that of having a ‘holistic view’, I knew that I would have to look out for Aaron’s wellbeing not only physically but mentally also and this is when empathy was very important. I didn’t bombard Aaron with things to do or hammer him on every single ting he was doing wrong as I knew by putting myself in his shoes that I would have to take small steps in order to achieve our goals and for Aaron to achieve longevity in his training. 

Mindset: The elements of this component which stood out to me were ‘being optimistic’ and being ‘future-oriented’, this meant that I had to always look on the bright side throughout the program from beginning to end, it was important for me to be optimistic as a mentor because how could I expect my mentee to be optimistic if I wasn’t. Being future oriented was important also as I wanted my mentee to change his lifestyle for the foreseeable future or forever not just for 10 weeks and then go back to normal. 

In order to come up with a plan for my mentee I used the ‘Chambers Model’ of design thinking. This four step model consists of 1. Compassion, 2. Ideate, 3. Prototype and 4. Implement + evaluate.

Once Aaron had agreed to be my mentee we agreed to get to work straight away. As a part of the programme our main objective was to get our mentee moving more, this was a clear and uncomplicated objective. This would be tracked using digital technology using GPS software on our smartphones on the Accupedo app. This was very effective as we simply just needed the phone to in out pockets and switched on as it always, and it did the rest of the work. I agreed with Aaron that he would send me on his steps every week so that I could out them into an Excel spreadsheet and send them on to Gillian. I would then look at Aaron’s steps and discuss them with him and see how we could improve them even more. We designed a ‘Physical Activity Plan’ together, I felt it was important to do it together because that was the kind of relationship I wanted for the mentorship. 

It was a good experience for me making a programme for Aaron and I have to say it was a new one and an experience that will stand to me as a PE teacher. I have to admit that I also found it challenging as I felt a lot of responsibility and felt that I wasn’t qualified or worthy to be giving advice, however that was just low self-esteem insecurity and it was a good experience for me trying to shirk that feeling and I can say with certainty that I did, particularly later on in the programme when I could see that Aaron was making physical strength gains which were quite visible both in the gym and in everyday life outside the gym.

As part of the plan our first session together consisted of testing which I took part in with Aaron to show that we were in it together, the testing consisted of measuring his footstep for the app, carrying out a ‘Multi-stage fitness test’ otherwise known as the ‘bleep test’ and we did a muscular endurance test in which I got Aaron to do the maximum number of push-ups and of chin-ups that he could do.

Aaron scored quite well in the ‘Bleep Test’, he scored 9.2 which is above average, I could see how this improved his confidence and the programme was off to a great start. This good start was exactly what he needed in my opinion. ‘Your self-esteem is made up of all the experiences and interpersonal relationships you’ve had in your life. Everyone you’ve ever met has added to or taken away from how you see yourself!’ (RMIT University,2009).My aim was to build Aaron’s self-esteem, I was going to do so by facilitating him with positive experiences and helping him getting rid of the ridiculous notion that he was too small to go the gym.

As part of the programme I brought Aaron to the gym to show him around, I also made out a beginner gym routine for him. This would be a full body routine which he would do 2-3 times a week, I left the number up to him however, I was happy if he only got in once. I also encouraged Aaron to join one of the many classes or clubs that are associated with sport in UCC or the Mardyke. Aaron agreed to join the boxing club which two of his roommates were also already members of. This was ideal as the boxing club do circuit training every session which was perfect Aaron, this greatly aided achieving my goals as it led to a complete lifestyle change for Aaron and would create positive experiences surrounding being active for him.

Aaron also began going to the gym with his roommates which was ideal, all his roommates are very active and go to the gym regularly but Aaron never used to exercise with them, this was great news for me as his mentor and proved that what I had set out to achieve was beginning to happen. This had indicated a clear lifestyle change for Aaron which is what I was trying to achieve.

In the classroom we learned a lot about mentoring also and about mental wellbeing, we had some very beneficial talks from Dr. Tania Cassidy and from Niamh O’Brien, Dr. Cassidy spoke to us about coaching while Niamh O’Brien spoke to us on the area of wellbeing and mental health, both very important topics for our mentorship. These talks were very beneficial, I particularly enjoyed Dr. Cassidy’s talk as she was from New Zealand and focussed on rugby and notable managers such as Warren Gatland and Pat Lam and educated us on their approach and taught us about the psychology behind, being a rugby player and a prospective P.E. teacher I found this very beneficial and interesting.

I kept a weekly meeting with Aaron for training or having a chat, this proved beneficial for the program for both of us as there was always information for me to gather and he often had queries or problems, the most predominant one was time management. The fact that Aaron was struggling to balance his time was a good thing in my opinion as it signified that he was attempting to change his lifestyle and if he was struggling to balance time it meant that he would be forced to cut out idle habits such as watching Netflix or playing the Playstation for long periods of time.

Millner and Rollnick, two clinical psychologists have outlined four main steps for carrying out the concept of ‘motivational interviewing’ which is a method used by psychologists in order for substance abusing clients to change their lifestyle ‘Motivational interviewing is a technique in which you become a helper in the change process and express acceptance of your client’. The four steps of motivational interviewing are something that I have implemented into my approach. These steps consists of 1. Engaging, 2. Focusing, 3. Evoking and 4. Planning.

Over the course of the programme I began by engaging with Aaron by empathising with him and putting myself in his shoes, once I had done that I was able to focus on him and what his problems and his needs were. I then worked on evoking change in Aaron’s life by looking at what he needed to change and what he could do instead and then of course we planned everything. We planned on what he would do to increase his steps, what he would do in the gym, how he would go about engaging in cardiovascular and muscular fitness training and we planned how he would manage his time to do all of this.

Overall I was very satisfied with the whole programme and with how my own mentorship, Aaron was clearly happy also and I could see by the end that his physique, motivation, fitness and mood had all improved, he was clearly happy with the programme also as he volunteered to be my mentee for semester 2 also.

 

 

Hassi E. L., Laakso S. M. , 2011, Conceptions of Design Thinking in the Management Discourse, Conference: 9th European Academy of Design Conference.

Millner W. R, Rollnick S., 1991, Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Abuse Treatment, Ch. 3, Motivational Interviewing as a Counseling Style, Available   from:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64967

O’Brien, Y. 2013, The Truth About Alcohol and Exercise, Irish Nutrition and Dietetics Institute

RMIT Counselling Service, 2009, Developing Self Confidence,Self Esteem and Resilience, RMIT University

Tillema, H., Van Der Westhuizen, G. T. & Van Der Merwe, M. P. (Eds.) 2015. Knowledge Building Through Conversations, Rotterdam: Sense Publications.

WHO, 2013, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Ireland, World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.