Testimonials

We always look forward to Scotty's gym sessions. His sessions are fun, enjoyable and provide a huge deal of variety. He always shows honest enthusiasm to push us hard to achieve our goals. He holds a vast amount of knowledge that encourages us to continue to work with him. Whether we wanted to bulk up or trim down, albeit for aesthetic reason or for our rugby he was on hand to offer advice, encouragement and an excellent gym programme each time.

Without Scotty's input from such a young age (only 14 years old) I highly doubt we would be the rugby players we are today.

When I first met Scott I was very inactive and discussed taking a few sessions with him to kick-start my health and fitness regime, to tone up, and hopefully lose some weight. Thanks to Scott's encouraging and positive approach, he soon motivated me back into the benefits of regular exercise and as a result I quickly started to see the results I wanted. During my time with him I was diagnosed with Spondylolisthesis.

Against these odds, Scott sympathetically addressed my condition by concentrating on core strength training to help stabilise movement yet still providing a varied, enjoyable and very challenging exercise program to help keep me focused. Scott also helps with training at my own gym by devising a personal training program that he regularly updates along with valuable weight loss, nutritional and fitness advice.

I have been training with Scott for almost 2 years now and I thoroughly enjoy my sessions with him. I feel healthier, fitter, toned and generally better about myself. I could not have achieved such great results without his help, guidance and motivation.

Thank you Scotty!

I have been massively pleased with the results of training with Scott Hills as he has transformed me physically in such a short period of time. After having a serious knee surgery he has given me the confidence to train and push myself harder than I would have ever thought possible. Scott has been extremely helpful and supportive to me and I would recommend him very highly to anyone who needed help with getting fit quickly or rehabilitation.

Scott Hills is a very pleasant and enthusiastic young man. He is very passionate about his work and his encouragement inspires his clients to achieve many goals.

Well done Scott and be proud.

I have known Haley since July 2013 and during this time I have been astounded by her! I first contacted Haley and her partner Scott in June 2013 to ask them to work with our son in our home. My son sustained a serious head injury in July 2010 and now lives at home with us. We employ Haley to work with our son three times a week, an hour each session in her capacity as a neuro-physiotherapist.

It is difficult to describe the difference she has made to our son's rehabilitation without using the word "amazing"! She brings a staggering amount of knowledge and experience for one so young and this can only have been gained by her constant seeking of knowledge and her own personal experiences. We have found Haley to be hard working, dependable, flexible, positive, upbeat, intuitive, fun but also quiet when needed. She never promises what she can't deliver and never expects what is not possible. However she is constantly stretching our son to achieve more.

Haley has been supportive of us all as a family and we all look forward to her visits and like to think of her as a friend. Our son never wants to miss a session and always enjoys Haley's company as well as her treatment. It has been a huger pleasure getting to know Haley and her expertise is a vital part of our son's rehabilitation.

We wish her well in all she does and know that she will succeed and bring much to any task she undertakes.

My daughter recommended Scott to me and I have been working with him since June 2012. I am in my 70s and require appropriate encouragement coupled with a positive but non-threatening training programme. I believe I get well managed sessions from Scott who is non-judgemental, supportive and motivational. I feel comfortable with him and know that both my stamina and confidence are improving markedly.

The routines are tough but with his encouragement it is possible to achieve one's fitness aims. He is easy to work with simply because of the way he focusses on and motivates each client. He is able to redirect energies to great effect. Mind you, none of this stops me from sticking pins in his effigy!

It's good to know him and I look forward to continuing this positive and life enhancing relationship.

I had only been training with Scotty for just over 6 months when I lost 10kg in weight.

The very 10kg that I had been struggling miserably to lose on my own for years! He has developed a programme that really works for me and I could start seeing and feeling the results straight away – making me even more determined to keep going! Scotty is always cheerful and very encouraging and, since training with him, I have improved my fitness greatly and now regularly do 10km runs and have joined a football team.

This has also been a tremendous confidence and motivational boost for me. He has certainly whipped me into shape and although it has been hard work it has been really fun and totally enjoyable - making exercise no longer a chore.

When I was 12 years old I started with Scotty. After an assessment he found faults in my posture and muscle balance. I saw Scotty to help improve my rugby playing ability, and since working with him I have recently been chosen to represent England at under 16 level and I have joined Northampton Saints RFC. Without the work I have done with Scotty I am aware I would have been much more prone to injury and unable to train continually at a high level of intensity. So thanks to Scotty’s work with me with his dedication and professionalism he's got me where I am today!

Working with Scotty is always a laugh. Since training with him I have received many compliments on my bike handling and stability. He has been able to spot weak points in my body and core. Working on these areas in specific sessions has allowed me to become much more stable on or off the bike. I can really feel the difference when putting down the power and I've been protected from injuries which would in the past have prevented me from competing.

The ARNI Institute is a Registered Charity formed as a group in 2001, concerned with the rehabilitation of stroke survivors in the UK. The Institute works with highly qualified physiotherapists and personal trainers. There are currently over 30 ARNI Instructors in the UK. ARNI Instructors are sought out one by one by the Charity on the basis of their prior work and consideration by the Trustees after they have expressed an interest to help stroke survivors by initiating and supporting their rehabilitation.

The Institute collaborates with the major stroke charities, stroke networks, Councils, University Neuroscience Departments, hospitals and stroke units. It owns the first comprehensive collection of reality-based techniques yet produced which are fully grounded in contemporary neurological research perspectives. Its aim is to facilitate the rehabilitation of stroke survivors post termination of NHS provided physiotherapy. At this stage survivors are prepared by ARNI instructors to make training part of their daily routine to improve the quality of their daily lives. The Institute tackles this major problem via their Functional After Stroke Qualification and it is via this Accreditation that Mr Scott Hills has come on board and in two years, via the extra lengths he has gone to in all aspects of involvement, has made himself a trusted and valued member of our team. He has now achived Senior Instructor status for our Institute and is working closely with me at Seminars in order to support the training of Instructors.

Before I detail the kind of training Scott has been through, via the ARNI Institute Qualification and the kind of work he is doing now, allow me to explain the kind of essential work that he is doing with stroke survivors. More than 900,000 people in the United Kingdom alone are currently living with moderate to severe disabilities resulting from stroke. 85% of those who suffer a stroke survive the insult itself. We are now experiencing the largest cohort of persons surviving brain injuries and strokes in history. Over the last decade, the number of stroke survivors has increased 30%. This has largely been due to improvements in medical technology both in terms of the accuracy of diagnostic testing and in treatment options. Early detections of worsening neurological statuses have led to earlier interventions, decreased likelihoods of sickness, decreased resource consumption, and a shortened hospital stay. The incidence of stroke doubles with each decade beyond 60 years of age, but stroke is not just encountered by the older population. The incidence of stroke has increased dramatically in younger individuals - at least 20% of stroke survivors are less than 65 years of age.

It is a sad fact that continuation of effective rehabilitation is generally unavailable from the Health Service once sufficient movement to 'move around' seems has been achieved. If help is not found from other means, gains do not stay, but brain repair, neurogenesis and neural rewiring can be enhanced very significantly long after the short therapeutic window after stroke, where most return of function is seen.

Scott's training took an extensive period of time (14 months). He was fully sponsored by the Beds and Herts Heart and Stroke Network. He completed all the ARNI Institute requirements and immediately started working (for free) with a client base at the Chaul End Day Centre in Luton. His training of patients has been so successful that the site managers have worked out a saving of over £12,500, mainly due to the fact that Scott taught stroke survivors who were prone to falling, how to get up from the ground. To date, each time that happened, an ambulance had to be called in order that safe lifting could be achieved.

Scott also involved himself in the running of the Institute, particularly when we run conferences at the Royal Society of Medicine and advanced instructor workshops. He gives freely of his time and runs the Registration. He deals also with the transport of various essential stroke rehabilitation items of kit belonging to the Institute, and we are very grateful to him for doing this. He has also been given the responsibility for communicating with clients and instructors in the UK in order to collate training knowledge and news for the regular newsletters.

To date his greatest contribution to the Institute is that he has set up his own intake at his place of work, within Hills Physical Developments, which is providing a much needed service. He would also like to use ARNI training as the basis of delivering a service regionally within other premises. We trust Scott and his work ethic completely: when he says that he will do something... it is as good as done.

We are very grateful for the interest and help that Scott has freely offered, and will be very happy indeed to discuss further any aspect of Scott's work with stroke survivors and the ARNI Institute itself.

In October 2011 Trevor was diagnosed with a brain tumor (Acoustic Neuroma). Many months went by and Trevor lost his ability to walk, relied on a stair lift and any enthusiasm to enjoy life had gone. All he did was to sit in a chair and watch TV. He had no interest in even answering the phone or using his computer. Prior to suffering from the brain tumor he loved to play the tuba, but due to the deterioration in his breathing he was also unable to play. In November 2012 I contacted a friend who worked at the Stroke Association who recommended Scotty.

On 23rd November 2012 Scotty came and started working with Trevor beginning a program of 2-3 sessions per week. The change in Trevor by Christmas was greater than we could have ever imagined. Trevor was walking around the home with his frame, and his co-ordination was noticeably improving, despite the tumor not reducing in size. In late January 2013 things really started to come together. Scotty got a reluctant Trevor walking outside with his frame and within the house aided with a stick. Trevor is also now able to get up and down the stairs independently holding the banisters firmly, but without his stair lift. He is now capable of getting up and down from the floor by himself, which has allowed Scotty to add floor exercises to sessions.

Trevor's interaction and conversations with Scotty have led to him, once again, wanting to answer the phone and see his friends. Trevor is simply a different person from last year and it's all thanks to Scotty's hard work and professional advice. In February 2013 thanks to Scotty's persistent encouragement he turned on the computer again, wet shaved, helped with cooking and washed up. Scotty has made an enormous difference to Trevor's life, a difference noticed by our family, friends and at our most recent check-ups at the GP surgery. Trevor's GP has asked us to send a well-done message to Scotty, as he too is overwhelmed by the improvements.

Throughout March and April Trevor's confidence improved immensely. He has stopped needing a frame to walk and now uses only one stick. He walks around the house and from the church car park to inside the church independently. With Scotty for support and confidence Trevor can walk as far as 100m around the block. Also, within the home, Trevor can go up and down stairs using only one rail, balancing a biscuit on a plate in the other hand.

His walking is still a little stiff but what an amazing difference! I know he will achieve his goals with Scotty's care and support. Throughout May he has progressed further in the home and is now bringing me breakfast in bed with coffee. What a star and I think he is one in a million. Trevor is doing well in his exercises with Scotty. He has even greater strength and can now walk around Morrison's with a shopping trolley. Trevor now gets very tired at nights due to his more active days, but we know this will improve with time too. Without the help of Scotty, Trevor would not have achieved this progress in this time, or even at all we fear.

To have someone like Scotty coming into your home who is always full of fun and energy, always has time to talk, and always works so hard to help in anyway he can is beyond words. We have now recommended Scotty to two of our good friends. They too continue to progress greatly with Scotty. We all can't thank Scotty enough for all he does!