ABOUT ME MONICA PETROSINO
Since starting MPT Personal Training, my focus has always been on two things - Health & Happiness. Everything I do is aimed towards my clients achieving exactly that. My sessions are therefore built on an all-round progress approach. I have over 10 years of personal training experience, both 1:1 and group training. I implement a broad range of aerobic and strength exercises within my programmes, with a focus on functionality and transferability of skills into everyday life.
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I am also a Running Coach; with the hope of sharing my passion for running with others. Running coaching covers a full range of running abilities and terrains such as trail or road, and distances from 5k to ultra-marathon. I am a swimming instructor and I also offer nutrition coaching.
I previously represented Team GB Ice Hockey. I was lucky enough to be selected for the u16/18 England and GB women’s teams in my early teens, and in 2013 I was selected for the Senior GB team. I have a particular passion for working with athletes of all abilities to improve their performance, with a focus on strength and conditioning.
On a personal level, I have completely transformed both my mind and body over the last 10 years. I have successfully achieved a steady weight loss from size 22 to size 8. This has been a parallel journey to a happier, more resilient and confident mindset. I am currently studying for my BSc in Psychology.
Team GB
Athlete
I played ice hockey for 20 years. In my early teens I was lucky enough to be selected for the u16/18 England and GB women’s teams in my early teens, where I developed my play and experience. In 2013 I was selected for the GB senior women’s team and spent until 2019 within the Senior GB team.
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During my time as part of Team GB, I was fortunate to attend many world championships, winter university Olympic games, youth Olympics and other international tournaments. I also trained to become a qualified head coach and in later years coached the Milton Keynes ladies team and the GB u16s girls. Unfortunately my career was cut short due to a severe head injury (grade 3 concussion) and retirement became the only option for me in 2020.
Personal Training
TRAIN WITH PRIDE
I gained my Personal Training qualification as soon as I left school at the age of 18. I just knew how much I loved helping people and also had a huge interest in pushing the body and working out the recipe for success physically.
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In 2019 I decided to create and develop MPT Personal Training as it is today. Starting as a community kettlebells fitness group, I soon expanded to 1:1 Personal Training. Since then I have done further qualification in diabetes management, exercise for older adults, strength and conditioning for athletes, advanced sports nutrition, studied a degree in psychology and also became a qualified ambulance care assistant. This has given me a huge amount of knowledge and understanding of how I can help a much wider selection of the population. My personal training is based near Leighton Buzzard.
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The Ethos of MPT is "Health & Happiness". My sessions are therefore built on a foundation of an all-round progress approach. I am committed to supporting my clients to achieve their personal goals. All of my clients training programmes vary and are personalised to their own specific requirements. When it comes to transformations, I approach the mind and body as a whole, creating an improvement and sense of pride in our mindset will accelerate and drive the physical changes many clients are looking for.
Running Coaching
Running is my newest adventure!!! I started running myself in the first national lockdown - my first run was 3km and I was shocked by 2 things...how unfit I was but also how rewarding it felt to move my body freely outside with nature. I decided to make a deal with myself - I would keep running until I either got bored, didn't enjoy it or if it no longer bought me health and happiness. Three years later and I successfully ran 2000km in 2021 and raised £450 for TASC charity. Over 4000km in 2022, and I hope to exceed this is 2023!
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I have taken part in a number of races including the 2023 London Marathon. My personal bests to date are:
5k PB: 19:09
10k PB: 38:52
Half Marathon PB: 1hr23:48
Marathon PB: 2:56:42
50k PB: 4hr39
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I decided that I love this running so much and I am so absorbed by it that I absolutely wanted to help others feel that too. I completed my running coaching qualification and I am pleased to announce that I've launched MPT Running Coaching. This covers a full range of running abilities and terrains such as trail or road, covering distances from 5k to ultra marathon. My own running journey is one that I hope in the next few years will take me further afield for some huge adventures, so stay tuned.....
Swimming Instructor
In recent years I was approached by the health club I run MPT Personal Training from, to see if I would like to become a swim instructor. I must admit it is something I hadn't thought about doing, however the prospect of developing my coaching qualification and trying something new captivated me. I'm now a qualified Swim England parent and baby instructor and an ASA teacher. I absolutely love teaching parent and baby classes, I find it incredibly rewarding and fascinating watching such tiny humans develop so quickly!!
Nutrition
Nutrition is something that has always been an interest of mine. Sadly as a child, from the age of 3 to15, I was morbidly obese, through what seemed no fault of my own I was very overweight and as a result poor body image, low self esteem and self worth were all affected. However at the age of 14 I thought enough was enough and I needed to gain control. I didn't want to do any of these "fads" I saw around me but instead had the desire to learn exactly what I was putting in my body and how/why people gained and lost weight. The next few year I lost a total of 6 stone, almost halving my bodyweight and learnt some appreciation for how important feeding ourselves with nourishing food was for both our physical and mental health.
Since my own weight loss journey, I have embarked on numerous training courses to better help others. I have a HND in Human Nutrition, I've done extra development in diabetes management and sports nutrition. This, combined with my life experience, means I feel that I can help people not only from a professional direction but also "in person experience".
My Health
Whirlwind is the only word I can think of to describe my health journey - from the earliest memory of my childhood unfortunately I can remember hospitals always being there. I had severe epilepsy as a child, numerous other neurological disorders such as trigeminal neuralgia and TMJ. My whole life I had known issues with my digestive system but it was always put down to symptoms of my other conditions. However through my teens and early twenties, it became apparent that my bowel issues would just get worse and worse. I ended up having to have many surgeries and hospital admissions but was still labelled as "extremely unfortunate" and was none the wiser as to what was causing all of my symptoms.
Over the years things have slowly got worse and late 2021 I was finally diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a group of genetic disorders that affect your connective tissues — primarily your skin, joints and blood vessel walls. Connective tissue is a complex mixture of proteins and other substances that provide strength and elasticity to the underlying structures in your body. Due to the global effect the condition can have on your body it literally can effect every body system. For me my worse parts affected is my digestive system and my joints. For this reason I have to live daily with taking numerous medications to manage my bowels, my allergies and a few other bits and combined with having to use the Peristeen bowel irrigation system every evening.
Since diagnosis, I have found that I have felt such relief that what was always labelled as "unlucky" actually had a name and being able to accept that has got much easier, however it is a condition that declines over time so keeping a watchful eye on myself is always important. I take pride in doing all I can do to manage my condition and will keep resisting the urge sometimes to give in. I have been told by doctors before that "my hard work and dedication is probably what keeps me from being being in a wheelchair" and I see it as a life ambition to keep working as hard as I do.
Neurodivergent
ADHD and Autism - two words that I never thought would describe me. However I knew my whole life I was a bit "different". I really struggled with making friends, fitting in and even basic bodily functions like going to the toilet and realising If I'm hot/cold. I always hated loud noises and change of my routine would result in regular meltdowns. However in 2021 after a routine hospital appointment I was asked the question "so how long have you known you're autistic"....my answer "umm I didn't know!"
I was then thrown into a few months of testing, appointments and assessments with psychiatry doctors and was diagnosed with combined type ADHD and high functioning Autism. Unfortunately both conditions are hugely misunderstood, especially when it is presented in girls/women. However since diagnosis and starting medication for my ADHD, life has become so much better!!! I finally feel like I have a small understanding of who I am, and why I am the way I am and most importantly how I manage my conditions such as finding autistic friendly ways of living life!
