Personal Training and the Personal Trainer
Abiye Alamina NASM-CPT, CNC
The foundation of a successful workout routine involves continued interest so that it becomes a lifelong habit. This in turn is conditioned on two things: Getting results and Staying injury free.
Results are crucial – you have to see results for the activity to be worthwhile. That was the purpose behind engaging in the activity in the first place. Results are in turn conditioned on three things:
Having a clear goal or set of feasible goals. This includes setting measurable targets and some timeframe.
Having the proper exercise regimen designed to achieve that goal, or set of goals
Incorporating lifestyle changes especially nutrition and non-exercise activities that are crucial in aiding #2 to get to #1.
The specialized role of the personal trainer, my role in this Results area includes:
Helping clients set or fine-tune their goals, with respect to what is feasible and perhaps why that goal is to be a desirable one, assuming the client is ambiguous about what goals to achieve.
Creating a tailored exercise regimen including providing the personal training on proper exercise form, sequencing, and progression plan, and providing progression feedback.
Counseling on the importance of lifestyle changes, and discussion on how nutrition plays a crucial role and providing coaching on nutrition strategies consistent with USDA and FDA guidance and regulations and peer reviewed research in nutritional studies as appropriate to the goals sought and demands of the exercise regimen.
Staying injury free is a plus – One main reason for engaging in an exercise regimen is to get healthy and to reduce the incidence of avoidable morbidity and mortality. It therefore stands to reason that while exercise carries with it the risk of injury, it should not be such that it trades away one chronic form of discomfort for another one. Staying injury free is conditioned on four things:
Having an exercise regimen that is taxing enough to stimulate the desired change but is carried out in a safe manner.
Proper nutrition to ensure efficient recovery and cell development.
Incorporating adequate warm up and stretch activities to prep the body for the stress of exercise, and to facilitate the recovery process.
Effectively managing the exercise-rest/ recovery balance so as to avoid overtraining the muscles and unduly taxing the central nervous system.
The specialized role of the personal trainer, my role in this Staying Injury free area includes:
Teaching correct form when performing exercises and managing the exercise progression plan.
Counseling and providing coaching on nutrition strategies consistent with USDA and FDA guidance and regulations and peer reviewed research in nutritional studies as appropriate to the goals sought and demands of the exercise regimen.
Designing exercise modalities that incorporate periods for adequate warm-ups and stretching, ideally before and after respectively each actual exercise/training session.
Designing the exercise regimen in such a way as to ensure that there is adequate rest in-between training sessions and developing a way to get within period feedback on the effectiveness of a particular regimen.