It is widely known that physical activity is of remarkable importance in the man’s life. Sport has a beneficial influence not only on our health, but also on our mood and appearance. Being a teenager I truly hated PE classes, which didn’t bring anything else besides irritation and boredom related to the exercises which I didn’t really feel like doing, but I had to do them anyway. This negative attitude was caused by lack of logical follow-up between my teacher’s demands and what I was capable of at a given moment. In this way, for quite a long time, the notion of physical activity was rather foreign to me. Everything changed a few years ago, when I took up running … don’t misunderstand me, it was no competitive running, I’d rather call it ‘semi-running’, which had a beneficial influence not only on my stressed mind, but it also allowed me to lose some extra weight. Everyone knows that the better we look the better we feel … maybe sometimes this statement is far from the truth, but in my case it had a particular application.

What if we could combine physical activity with traveling? It’s not really something impossible to do, on the contrary … the fitness level of our body can help us gain the wildest goals. In this way I’ve come across my new interviewee, who I’m really happy to introduce to you today. Mateusz Spyt – a personal trainer and a keen traveler, who can definitely inspire lots of people with his great passion and motivation he presents. And I dare say, if such a trainer had got in my way, maybe my attitude towards sport would have been different in the past … and who knows … maybe, I’d be in a totally different place right now?

Passion Piece: Could you tell my readers a few words about yourself?

Mateusz: At the very beginning of our conversation I’d like to thank you for inviting me to this interview. I’d also like you to know that you really surprised me with your message. I’ll be truly happy to answer your questions, as well as to share my thoughts and plans for the future with your readers. Getting back to your question, I’m Mateusz Spyt, I live in Jaworzno and I lead personal and group trainings in the region of Silesia. People, with whom I’ve got the opportunity to work, present a good cross-section of society – from people with serious health problems to sportsmen who want to improve their results. Besides work, I try to spend every spare moment with my family. When I feel that my organism needs some rest, I take a map and I start looking for a place which I’d like to visit. This, in turn, makes me do everything possible to go there.

Passion Piece: What has made sport an integral part of your life?

Mateusz: From an early age I wasn’t incredibly gifted when it comes to sport, however I never lacked ambition. After graduating from primary school, at a very young age, I went to the gym to strengthen my body. I wanted to finally do some pull-ups well. As I’ve already mentioned, I wasn’t an outstanding sportsman, so it had taken me some time before I managed to reach my first goal, and consequently, I put down some solid roots at the gym. Basically, I was attracted to sport, because it didn’t come easy. When something requires much effort, it gives lots of satisfaction, at least in my case. Sometimes, while taking up a given task, I ask myself a question – what do I need it for? – I hesitate whether it was really a good idea or not, but when I achieve my objectives I am truly happy. It’s worth noting that in those days there weren’t people like me – personal trainers – everyone learned from one’s own mistakes, from the Internet forums or by observing older friends. At the gym reigned bodybuilding, and the vibes of this kind of places differed much from the ones we can experience while going to the fitness centers now.

Passion Piece: Why did you decide to be a personal trainer? Are people willing to make use of your services?

Mateusz: I made that decision during my first year of administration studies at the University of Silesia. I realized that it wasn’t clearly for me, I resigned from studies and I focused on gaining knowledge needed in the work of a personal trainer. Actually, I’ve been getting this knowledge all the time, and looking further ahead, I’d like to still improve my coaching skills. In this type of profession constant development is a must, learning motivates me to take actions, which in turn results in positive reception among people who are under my care and my potential clients. It’s been almost 3 years since I started running a company related to this kind of services and it’s been almost 6 years since the moment in which I started working at the gym. I feel awkward, when I’m supposed to say something on the behalf of other people, the ones who train with me. It would be best to ask them a question whether they participate willingly in my classes. I think that we find common ground, we draw some satisfaction and we get motivated when we see even the smallest progress we make. I feel I’m bonded with my clients and we hang out quite often after work. Oh ok, it might not sound too modest, but I’ll say that – yes, people are willing to train with me. However, it all demands lots of work and mutual understanding.

Passion Piece: How long should a training session last to be effective? How do you adjust it to the needs of your clients?

Mateusz: One training session, together with a proper warm-up and post-training relaxation, lasts for around 90 minutes. Before starting my work with new clients, I interview them to get to know their stories, incentives, goals and estimated time during which they want to gain all of their objectives. After such a conversation, I’m able to adjust a proper set of exercises to my client.

Passion Piece: How important is diet while exercising? What should we remember about?

Mateusz: Depending on the goals we want to achieve, diet is of big or of key importance to us. Providing our organism with the right amount of calories and micro-macro elements will influence positively our regeneration, will improve our build and will allow us to gain better training results. Everything is for the people and we should remember about that. However, we should approach the issue of food we consume wisely. There’s a great number of educational programs, dietetics studies pop up like mushrooms, but the awareness of people, with economic development and increasing pace of life, has slightly decreased or it has disappeared somewhere in our busy daily lives. From what I observe, nowadays people lack time to eat healthy. We make use of what we have at hand, and most of the times these are not healthy products. If in every shop we can buy packed in plastic instant dinners, it means that there are people willing to buy them. I remember that 10 years ago there were no products of this type on the supermarket shelves or there were much fewer of them. Today, in popular shop-cafeterias or post offices there are whole fridges filled with ready-made food, which we can just reheat in the microwave. I don’t know what sort of ingredients are used to produce this kind of meals, but I don’t trust them too much.

Passion Piece: You’re a very active person, besides sport you also love traveling and you’re willing to talk about your trips. How did your adventure with traveling start?

Mateusz: Thank you very much for these kind words. I think that my adventure with traveling started with first holidays, which I spent abroad on my own. Namely, I went to Montenegro by car. However, let me explain why being on the road is so attractive to me. Trips as such, depending on the personality of people, can satisfy various needs. Some individuals can relax at the beach for hours, while others treat holidays as a good time for a party, going further there are also people who work hard and during their days off they try to spend more quality time with their families. It often happens that a trip is a good way to escape from your everyday problems. In my case, traveling gives me answers to many questions, which jump into my head while staying at home. Seeing different places allows me to satisfy my curiosity of the world. I am frequently inspired to travel by video clips, books, films or reportages, as well as by music and cuisine of a given country. I love being with people, getting to know their opinions on various subjects and everyday problems, because I want to build positive relationships. I’m interested in what people think about my country at the end of the world, and whether our opinions of others are supported by rational arguments. Traveling is a kind of adventure during which I start to feel like a child, especially while seeing something for the first time. This inborn need for discovering allows me to build my independent world view, which I share with others later on.

Passion Piece: Next summer holidays you want to climb Mount Kazbek and visit Georgia. Where did you come up with the idea of such a destination?

Mateusz: Georgia is a beautiful country, which has a lot to offer. Actually, it’s a kind of paradise for active people, who are not fond of all inclusive holidays – high mountains, rivers,valleys and the sea. An interesting location and difficult history. I’m even interested in the neighboring countries of Georgia. It’s a very picturesque piece of land with a good connection to Poland. It would be a sin not to go to that country. To all of this, Mount Kazbek – a high snowy mountain – technically doesn’t belong to the most difficult ones. However, it’s ideal to feel again like on the height of 5000 m a.s.l. in Nepal. It’s a wonderful stop before more demanding trials, which I’ve already planned for the future. So far something always got in the way, and in consequence we ended in different places. That’s why, we made this decision to go to Georgia last year, it was also the time when we bought our plane tickets.

Passion Piece: What kind of a preparation does such a trip demand from you?

Mateusz: When it comes to the mountain part of our trip, we will need to put emphasis on physical conditioning. We take care of our fitness in Fabryka Formy. 5000 m a.s.l. is not a walk upon the hills. It’s also worth mentioning that to climb such a mountain responsibly we need to get familiar with climbing equipment. To get the proper training it’s best to go to the Polish mountains during winter and early spring. Regardless of the fact whether Mount Kazbek is described as easy in technical sense, we need to remember that it refers to experienced climbers. There are winter conditions below the summit of Mount Kazbek all year long, and you need to climb it with safety measures. We start our climbing at night – 1.00 am – and it lasts until – 2.00 pm. The mountain, and in fact, accompanying it weather tends to be changeable, however our attitude is rather optimistic. When it comes to planning the whole trip, it’s important for me to focus on the logistics issues, that is where we will stay and what we will see. We plan to see as much as possible, from the oldest vineyards in the world through the most beautiful Georgian valleys and mountains to finally rest a little bit at the Black Sea. It was also important to find some media patrons and honorary patronage of the City of Jaworzno. At this point, I’d like to thank editorial offices www.jaworzno.pl and www.jaw.pl, as well as the newspaper ‘Co Tydzień’, television ‘dlaCiebieTV’, and finally the City of Jaworzno for their support!

Passion Piece: What motivates you to take up new challenges? What will you surprise us with in the future?

Mateusz: I’m motivated by my curiosity and willingness to experience something new or to gain some new skills. That’s one of the reasons why I agreed to take part in this interview – I’ve never done something like that before and I can’t wait to see the final results. New ideas pop into my head all the time – after careful analyzing I reject some of them and I leave some of them for the right moment. What will I surprise you with in the future? I will keep it a secret for now, otherwise it may no longer be so surprising!

Passion Piece: Do you have any other passions besides sport and traveling?

Mateusz: My greatest passion is taking good care of my dear ones.

Passion Piece: Which motto would you like to share with my readers?

Mateusz: The longest journey starts with the first step.

Passion Piece: Thank you very much for this truly inspiring conversation. I look forward to hearing from you after your summer trip to Georgia.

Mateusz has undoubtedly answered lots of questions you were interested in. I hope that he has also managed to encourage you to increase your physical activity, as well as to be more courageous while choosing your holiday destinations!

See you around!

Yours,

Passion Piece

Photos by: Active Mind