Atlantis Leisure’s Katie reaches elite Les Mills status

Atlantis Leisure is well known in Oban for its Les Mills fitness classes, such as BodyStep, BodyPump and BodyCombat, and now one of its instructors has been chosen for the elite Les Mills UK presenter team.

Katie Galbraith joined Atlantis Leisure in 2011, teaching a variety of group fitness classes, but her main programme was BodyStep, and she soon achieved ‘elite’ instructor status. BodyStep is a fun, fast-paced workout using heightadjustable steps designed to burn fat, improve cardiovascular health and condition the muscles.

‘In 2014, I decided to take a leap of faith and go out to the home of Les Mills in Auckland, New Zealand,’ Katie said. ‘I spent 10 months working in the biggest gym in the world as an instructor. I was really lucky to be able to audition to teach classes, which is apparently very rare, and taught BodyBalance classes regularly in a couple of the Les Mills gyms. I also taught BodyStep along Mark N’uu, who is the choreographer and director of the programme.’

Shortly after coming home in August 2015, Katie entered a competition called ‘The One’, with a video of her teaching a BodyStep track. Out of the thousands of people who entered, she was one of eight people chosen to go to a Les Mills presenter boot camp London for the finals but, as she was almost nine months pregnant at the time, she had to decline her place.

But after a ‘lot of hard work and motivation to get fit again’, she entered the competition for the 2017 boot camp and was again successful. Katie went to London in February and took part in a two- day boot camp, learning what it means to be a presenter, getting feedback and participating in education sessions. ‘This is a huge part of Les Mills, as the science behind exercise is always developing and changing,’ she said. ‘We need to keep all our instructors up to date with this to stay at the top of our game, continuously giving the best and most effective workouts possible.’

Of the 35 instructors from the UK and Ireland who were invited to boot camp, 16 were taken on as presenter rookies, and Katie was one of only two from Scotland chosen.

Over the next six months, the rookies will attend quarterly certifications and deliver education and masterclass workshops, where they will be assessed by head trainers.

‘The next six months is where the real hard work kicks in, as the 16 rookies are kind of on probation,’ Katie shared. ‘At the end of June they will decide to keep me and move me on to full presenter status or not.

‘So far this is a huge achievement for me. I am now part of the Les Mills UK presenter team, which was recognised as Best Team in the World 2016. I hope to follow the journey to full presenter and, if this happens, I will then have the opportunity to become a trainer for BodyStep. It would be amazing to be able to offer initial module training for people to become BodyStep instructors within Atlantis, something I hope to achieve in the next 12 to 18 months.’

For more information or to find a class schedule, visit www.atlantisleisure.co.uk or call 01631 566800.