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Program Design/Ex Rx/Sample Workouts

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Programming

May I Have This Dance?

client: Bert | personal trainer: Ann Heizer | location: Oceanside, California

Doctor’s orders. “Thanks for coming into my life and helping me deal with Parkinson’s disease,” says Bert, warmly sharing his respect for his trainer, Ann Heizer. “Working out with you has helped me stay positive and flexible.”

Primed to Squat

Why is it that so few people can squat correctly, yet my 8-year-old son squats perfectly? I’ve never taught him how to squat; he innately learned how, just as he learned to roll over, crawl, pull himself up and eventually walk. He simply needed the freedom to allow his body to move. Movement before strength is key.

Sample Class: Strength by Numbers

Do you love planning your strength training classes but need to find new ways to keep things interesting? If so, this is your class! Offer a challenge boost by adjusting your sequencing and repetitions. This approach helps students stay engaged and in the moment while getting more done in less time. As a bonus, you learn a variety of drills to apply to all your classes.

Strength by Numbers Details
Goal/emphasis: muscular strength and endurance
Total time: 40 minutes

Special Benefits of Group Exercise

Group fitness instructors may also want to approach medical schools with an offer to provide exercise classes for medical students. To support a pitch, refer to a recent nonrandomized controlled study in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association; it found that, for medical students, group exercise can reduce stress and improve physical, mental and emotional quality of life more than training alone or not engaging in any exercise program.

Fitter Kids Have More Brain Gray Matter

While much research has pointed to a relationship between kids’ fitness and academic performance, we now have a new piece of the puzzle: A recent study found that aerobic fitness and speed–agility levels among overweight and obese children aged 8–11 were independently associated with more gray matter in parts of the brain related to better academic performance.

Firefighter Fitness Status

A health promotion opportunity for fitness professionals may lie in working with local firefighters. A longitudinal study of fitness-­level changes among firefighters found that while they significantly improve health and fitness measures during firefighter training, many lose a lot of those gains as active-duty firefighters. Physical training is no longer mandatory once firefighters have completed their academy education.

Strength Training May Increase Life Span

Here’s more motivation for clients to add strength exercises to their fitness programs: New research shows that strength training plays an important role in reducing risk of premature death from all causes and, specifically, from cancer—and when it comes to cancer, strength work may be even more beneficial to health than aerobic training.

Question of the Month

With springtime’s seasonal change and momentum for renewal, are you or your facility offering any new spring training programs to build participation or recruit new clients? If so, please describe the program you’re promoting, your target demographic, and whether it’s indoors or outside. Also, let us know how it is received.

Share your responses with executive editor Joy Keller, jkeller@ideafit.com.

4,000 Steps a Day for Brain Fitness

By walking more than 4,000 steps a day, adults aged 60 and older can improve both attention and mental skills, according to a study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (2017; doi:10.3233/JAD-170586).
University of California, Los Angeles, researchers examined the relationship between physical activity and cognitive function in nondemented older adults with memory issues. For 2 years, researchers tracked the number of daily steps taken by 26 older adults and conducted neuropsychological tests and MRI scans to measure thickness of brain ­structures.

High-Intensity Workouts May Boost Memory

Next time you’re prepping for a test, consider high-intensity interval training as your study break of choice. HIIT workouts boosted memory in young adults, according to researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The team conducted a study to examine the relationship between brain training and physical exercise.

Shoulder Blades: The Right Moves

The shoulder blades, or scapulae, are critical links in the kinetic chain from the waist through the shoulders, up to the neck and down to the fingertips. Abnormalities in the position or movement of the shoulder blades—technically called scapular dyskinesis—can trigger pain and discomfort, especially among people who spend long hours sitting and using computers.

Programming to Prevent ACL Injury

Your new client, 16-year-old Alexis, is a competitive athlete who wants you to design a fitness program that will help her prevent a second anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. She partially tore her ACL while playing soccer and rehabbed it with a physical therapist, who cleared her to play again. Alexis returned to spring softball without an issue, but she would like to be as fully prepared as possible for the upcoming fall soccer season. She hopes to be recruited to play in college, but her parents are concerned she will sustain another ACL injury, perhaps a more severe one.

Range of Motion: Full or Partial?

Research shows there’s a time and place for both full and partial range of motion in resistance training program design.
Some training systems purposely use partial ROM for various exercises. Moreover, certain surgeries and orthopedic injuries require partial-ROM movements during rehabilitation (Pinto et al. 2012). It seems natural for personal trainers to wonder which is superior: full ROM or partial ROM? ,/p>
Two studies comparing the benefits of partial ROM and full ROM give a clearer view of the landscape.

Simplicity Steers Success

client: Jennifer | personal trainer: John Parker | location: San Diego

Keeping it simple. Every day it seems there’s a new supplement, food plan or training program that purports to produce unparalleled results. But all of these choices can make it difficult for clients to make wise choices and remain consistent in their approach. That was the problem faced by Jennifer, a florist and part-time kickboxing instructor, and it’s why she reached out to San Diego–based personal trainer John Parker, CSCS.

Sample Class: Center and Roll

This class is a mega movement multi­vitamin because it combines essential core training with restorative self-myofascial release techniques. Every movement recruits trunk muscles, creating a strong foundation for any physical challenge. The foam-rolling section helps attendees release fascial adhesions and, hopefully, prevent injuries. Participants will leave feeling strong, centered and relaxed.

Center and Roll Details
Goal/emphasis: core training and self-myofascial release
Total time: 1 hour

Multiple Planes, Many Positions

Participants may have a love-hate relationship with your core routines, but there’s no reason why you can’t make things fun while helping people to move, feel and look better. Ideally, the core-training exercises you choose will hit multiple planes from many positions (supine, prone, side-lying, sitting, kneeling, standing) while also stabilizing the pelvis, spine and scapulae. This functional approach prepares the body for the rigors of daily life.

What Fitness Pros Need to Know About New Blood Pressure Guidelines

New guidelines on high blood pressure made headlines late last year because they suggest that nearly half of all Americans have hypertension—up from about one-third under previous guidelines. This is big news for fitness professionals because regular exercise is an excellent tool for regulating blood pressure. In this issue, we’ll review what you need to know about the new blood pressure guidelines.

Pillars of Functional Training for Active Aging

Healthy aging is more than the absence of disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO): “For most older people, the maintenance of functional ability has the highest importance” (WHO 2015). Colin Milner, founder and CEO of the International Council on Active Aging in Vancouver, British Columbia, echoes these comments. “When looking at the healthy aging market today, the focus is all about function,” he says.