How to become a cardiac coach: Josh's story

My name is Josh and I'm a cardiac coach at CP+R, which stands for Clinical Prevention and Rehabilitation.

Josh:

(to patient) 12… Breathe. One more Rosie, you've got this. Big pull. 13. Hey, that's brilliant. Well done.

I work at a cardiac rehabilitation service, where we generally see people who have had heart attacks or heart surgery in the past. I coach my clients through what we call the four pillars of health: cardiovascular exercise, which is where we're getting the heartrate up, resistance exercise, which involves lifting weights, nutritional support, and also monitoring their daily steps.

Day to day, I see a number of my patients, mostly in person, but sometimes online. Before each session, we check blood pressure and ask about stress and energy levels, to make sure that we get the right length of activity. We use a heart rate monitor throughout the session as well.

(to patient) I'll just take this pressure to begin with.

Patient:

Right.

Josh:

I love the feeling of the impact that I'm having on people's lives, their health or fitness and just generally how they feel about themselves day to day. It's rewarding beyond explanation really.

Patient:

I feel I've had a really good workout. So thank you for that.

Josh:

That's what we're here for, isn't it?

I was always very interested in science, and I also love my sport, that led me to study a degree at the University of Leeds in Sports, Science and Physiology, and I always wanted to specialise in the physiology side of things. I had more of an interest in helping the general population than working with elite athletes specifically.

I find it fascinating that people can change their lives so much, just from the way that they can behave on a day-to-day basis. It led me to a dissertation at university looking at cardiac rehabilitation and CP+R came down to the university and did a talk, because of the dissertation and my interest in cardiac rehabilitation, it was a perfect match.

The application process was three steps, first of all it was a cover letter and a CV, then it was an interview over the phone, and then an interview in person and spending a day with the company. It was amazing to get the job but coming from a little village up north and then making a journey down to London I was a little bit scared, but it's been pretty good so far.

Matthew, employer:

Josh had some really good work experience which demonstrated his interests.

Josh:

I built up a portfolio of things that showed that I care about people. I did things like volunteer for a food bank at university, and I went abroad and volunteered for six weeks to build a school in Africa.

I think if anyone is working in healthcare the most important thing, regardless of how clever you are, is that you care about people genuinely.

(to Matthew) With Rosemary, we've been working on split squats, obviously after her knee operation we want to strengthen that right leg, so she's doing really well with that actually.

My advice to anyone choosing their options is to keep their options open, you want to make sure that you've got enough of the sort of core subjects that are gonna allow you to have different options down the road, but at the same time really do follow your passion whether it is art, whether it's sport, whatever it may be, if there's just something that you feel like is really right for you, then just go for it and just keep pursuing that, because you never know where it'll end up, and even if it's not exactly how you expect it.

For me, I didn't know if I was going to be a coach, like in football and sport, I've ended up in this and I absolutely love it.