The new year is bringing new and exciting challenges for Ōamaru fitness and nutrition coach Melissa Smith.

Mel has been steadily building her business Melissa Smith Total Wellbeing, since her third son Albie was six months old. Four year later, Mel takes over the lease of the Ōamaru Rowing Club gym on February 1.

She will also be running a sports academy pilot programme for sport-focussed teenagers, mostly years 11 and 12, to help them train and fuel themselves with proper nutrition.

It’s been a steady progression for Mel, who took on her first personal training client in 2021 at the Movement Hub, to now.

Although she has degrees in physical education and science, with a majors in nutrition and exercise prescription, it was only since trying to figure out what she could do, that would work around her role as a mother, that she found her way back to her biggest passion - health and fitness.

Mel grew up in Ōamaru and went to St Kevin’s College, where she met her husband Craig, and where he is now deputy principal.

The two are equally passionate about their sport. Mel has achieved success in netball and athletics to a representative level, while Craig has had similar success with cricket. 

They have also managed to pass on their sporting genetics to their three sons - Louie, ten, Mason, eight, and Albie, four.

After graduating from university the couple moved to Invercargill so Craig could take up a teaching position. Mel worked for Sport Southland, then the Southern District Health Board, followed by the Department of Internal Affairs.

“It wasn't like I went to uni, did my degrees and then stopped using them, but . . . I kind of drifted away from it - using similar skills that supported groups who were sports bodies - but kind of went away from that core health and wellbeing side of it.” 

They moved back to Ōamaru so they could raise their children closer to both families.

When exercise physiologist and pilates instructor Stacey Pine started the Movement Hub on Harbour Street in 2021, she offered Mel the incentive to brush up on her nutrition qualifications and ease herself back into doing something she loved.

It was the push Mel needed, and something she says she is incredibly grateful to Stacey for.

“I was able to get back into it really slowly - I literally would have two or three clients a week and it was just all I needed just to get my confidence back up, because you always have imposter syndrome, you know.”

And as her children have grown, so has Mel’s business. 

A lot of planning and work behind the scenes has gone into the new pilot programme to make it a success. Photo: Sari Renee Photography

More equipment and space has been required, and Mel trained some of her personal training clients at St Kevin’s, before moving to the Rowing Club Gym in July last year to help out exiting leaseholder Karina Timpson.

Karina has moved away but wanted someone to have a presence at the gym and continue classes for existing members, Mel says.

“So it was a good opportunity to use a good space, and the women (Karina’s clients) were awesome, like they were all a really good bunch and I knew a lot of them anyway. 

“It's a nice, comfortable, quiet space which is what I like.”

Running a gym is a new challenge for Mel, but she is excited about taking it on.

The gym will be open 24 hours, and access will be automated, so she is not tied to being there all the time.

“So it'll be set up in a way that it kind of just works and it's easy and I can manage it from home. And if I can't get away because of the kids, or if we are away on holiday, then people can still get in and get on with it.”

Filling a gap for the youth

Mel says the sports academy is her way of providing something she wishes had been available to her when she was at high school.

“This teen sport space has evolved quite a lot, there's a lot more focus on things now than what there was back when I was a kid."

She has invited 20 mostly year 11 and 12 students (and one or two year 13s) to take part in a year-long programme, which will provide them with all the information they need to improve in their sport. 

“I'm really conscious to make sure there's no pressure on them. They don't have to reach a certain level or be in a certain team. 

“I've kind of picked kids that I know are sporty and are doing well, because I wanted the pilot kids to be motivated, so I can actually get it off the ground and going, and parents will be able to provide feedback. But long-term it's open to any kids that want to get better and improve their health and energy.”

Mel says her focus will be on teaching the teens how to “fuel for life and health”.

“And then that translates into improvement in your sport, because that's kind of where the mark’s missed. Kids get so focused on ‘what am I going to eat before my race or my game’, but actually, you didn't have breakfast, so start there!

“It's that good foundation in nutrition.”

As well as nutrition, Mel will focus on helping with strength and conditioning, and she has called on friend and former Ōamaruvian, Dylan Ross, to help with the mental skills side of the programme.

Strength training will make up part of the programme for the academy. Photo: Sari Renee Photography

“So he's done some work with the Highlanders . . . he's a detective in Dunedin, and he's done some sports psych stuff, so he can incorporate some goal setting and you know, finding out your why, like ‘why are you doing this, where do you want to go’, that type of thing.

“And it's just some personal development, habit-building and stuff that's going to set them up for life really. Sleep. All those lifestyle things as well.”  

The programme begins in February with some fitness testing and a meeting with Dylan, and then Mel will create a programme for each of the participants.

“Then I'll be there just to guide them through it.” 

The programme includes students from all three high schools and Mel has also partnered with the North Otago Rugby Football Union, which will fund five scholarships for rugby players - a boy and girl from St Kevin’s, one student from Waitaki Boys’ High School, one from Waitaki Girls’ and one other, Mel says.

The NORFU's rugby and game development manager Jason Forrest says it's a "huge opportunity" for them to partner with all the high schools, and he thinks what Mel is doing is "phenomenal".

"We just want to be a part of that," he says.

"We've always had scholarships and that sort of thing, but this is a little bit different in regards to, we are starting to keep a lot of our young kids around town, and we just want to show them a pathway. And you don't have to go to the big unions to do that - we can create something from our little community, our little town, and you know sometimes it's better being the 'big fish in the small pond'-type scenario.

"We just want to work a little bit closer with our high schools . . . and this is creating pathways for these kids in our own region."

Mel hopes her pilot group will want to stay on with her once the year is complete.

“Then they'll become year two and I'll bring on some new ones, but that first year will have developed from progress along the way this year.”

She thinks one of the biggest learnings she might be able to offer her young athletes is that less can be more.

“Sometimes I think it’s the structure of their training, and getting away from the idea that you have to thrash yourself - it's quality over quantity. If you have a good structured programme, you don't actually need to be doing as much as what you are sometimes.

“So it's working it around what you're doing and not doubling up on stuff, and actually having a good structured programme where you're hitting all the muscles that you need to, and you're working your body in a way that's gonna benefit your sport - and that's for anyone.

"Often sometimes people get better gains when they actually reduce it right back and rest and recover."

Increasing protein and eating enough also helps an athlete's recovery and allows them to train better to see improvements. 

“Reap the rewards from the efforts really.”