This is the second of a 7 part series on the key elements of 21st Century Exercise Programming. Corrective Exercise involves providing activities for clients that either help resolve current issues with muscular imbalances, or to help with a protective effect for issues which may occur in the future. For this reason these exercises are often referred to as “Pre Habilitation” or Pre -Hab exercises. The difference between Pre-Hab and Re-Hab being that Pre- Hab is a proactive action designed to minimise the chances of an injury occurring in the future where Re-Hab is the process of using exercise to correct issues which have already occurred.

An examples of Pre-Hab for a client involved in throwing activities would be to strengthen the muscles of the rotator cuff. An exercise like Shoulder External Rotation (see exercise analysis section of this newsletter) done after the warm up and before the conditioning bout of a training session would be most beneficial.

Another great example of a Pre-Hab exercise is that of Single or Double Leg Bridging exercise. The reason is that most of the population have weak Glutes. Therefore, incorporating an exercise that helps to activate the glutes can be very beneficial when it comes to the correct firing patterns when doing other activities, i.e. running and jumping or compound exercises in the gym such as squats or deadlifts. The bottom line being that when muscles function as they should then the chance of injury is decreased.

If your client has had a previous injury or postural problem then the corrective exercise section of the program would address the particular issue that you would have picked up via the Fitness Assessment process. e.g. If you have a client who does a lot of computer work and they have a classic kyphotic posture then corrective exercise may take the form of simple scapular retraction exercises done with sub maximal loading.

The length of time you devote to the Corrective Exercise component of the overall program will be governed by your clients needs as well as their time availability i.e. it might be hard to justify spending 25 minutes of a 30 minute Personal Training session just looking at this one component if the clients goal is fat loss. However, a 21st Century Exercise Professional will typically devote somewhere between 2-10 minutes every session on this often overlooked component of exercise programming.

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Tips

Start with the forearm flat on the ground & the elbow under the shoulder.

The hips & shoulders should face forward with the neck in line with the spine.

Keeping the feet together, lift the hips up & down with small & quick movements.

Cautions

Do not round the spine or allow the shoulder blade to wing or lift off the ribs.

Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) answers the question of “why should I buy from you instead of your competition?” Some classic USP’s include “risk reversal” strategies such as money back guarantees - if you ever watch late night infomercials they use this one all the time. For many years video stores have used “get it first time or get it free”. One that I currently like is used by radio station SEN with their football coverage it simply says “first at the footy and last to leave”.

Once you have created your USP it becomes the central theme of all of you marketing. So what are some of the things Personal Trainers can use as a USP? The imagination is the limit, you might consider such ideas as “Great Results in Half the Time” if you specialise in 30 minute sessions. It could be “Putting the personal touch into personal training” if you pride yourself on customer service and client follow up. It could be the equipment you use and the benefit this offers your clients, i.e. you could be known as the “stability trainer” or the kettlebell trainer, etc. The bottom line is that if you have not already considered what it is that separates your service from that of your competition and then formulated a way to communicate this USP then you really need to do so in order to maximise your chances of business success.

This is the first of a 7 part series on the key elements of 21st Century Exercise Programming.

The major purpose of the warm up component of an exercise program is to elevate the core body temperature and to prepare the body as optimally as possible for the conditioning activities that are to come. For example, if someone with an intermediate strength training background is going to be doing heavy bench presses in the conditioning bout of the workout then I would strongly suggest that doing push ups as part of the warm up would be much more functional than riding an exercise bike for 5 minutes. Both of these warm ups will increase core body temperature, however the push ups will be preparing the relevant muscles and joints much more specifically for the bench press than the bike ever would.

A 21st Century warm up should ideally prepare the body in all 3 planes of motion (frontal, sagital, and transverse) and will take between 5 - 20 minutes to complete depending on how restricted the client is. An advanced client who has very good mobility of movement may be ready for the conditioning bout after 5 minutes through to 20 minutes for a client that is very tight and immobile.

An example of a functional warm up for a whole body weight training routine for someone with 12 months experience behind them might be:

• 10 x BOSU Squats
• 10 x Push Ups
• 5 x Linear Lunges (each leg)
• 5 x Lateral Lunges (each leg)
• 10 x Lateral Raise and Twist
• 10 x Single Leg Good Morning
• 10 x Rotational Cable Row

(Repeat Twice)

The beauty of this warm up is that not only will it increase core body temperature, it also puts the body through its major movement patterns, i.e. Push, Pull, Squat, Lunge, Bend, and Twist and in doing so thoroughly prepares the body at a moderate intensity for the conditioning bout that is to come.

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Tips

Take a firm grip on the bar above the head with the head, shoulders & hips supported & the feet off the bench.

Extend the knees in a leg press fashion while keeping the rest of the body stable. The angle that the legs are pressed may vary depending on the strength of the abdominal muscles.

Place a medicine ball between the knees or feet to increase the resistance for this exercise.

Cautions

Control all phases of the exercise.

Do not allow the spine to extend as the legs return to the start position.

All of you that know me know that I am a great believer in the philosophy that the “more you learn the more you earn”. Here are 7 tips to help you continue your learning and increase your earning.

1. Read Fitness book per month. Some quality books would include Strength Training Anatomy (Fredrick Delavier), Gold Medal Nutrition (Glen Caldwell), How to Eat Move and be Healthy (Paul Chek), Functional Training for Sports (Mike Boyle), and Train Tough (Jason Webber).
2. Read 1 business book per month. Some classics to get you thinking about your business include The E-Myth (Michael Gerber), Instant Cash Flow (Bradley Sugars), Getting Things Done (David Allen), The Sales Bible (Jeffrey Gitomer), and Raving Fans (Ken Blanchard).
3. Subscribe to membership programs - I personally subscribe to 7 membership programs. Of course I would recommend you take a serious look at the Career Fitness Foundations membership as a starting point.
4. Take on a mentor. Your mentor could either be a business one or a technical one - my mentor Andrew May has 8 mentors for different aspects of his business! My business has exploded since I started working with Andrew and I believe in the concept so strongly that I have started mentoring others who would like to increase their incomes while doing what they love in the fitness industry. Some advice I would give you when looking for a mentor. Make sure they come from the industry you are looking to do well in as some things are industry specific, ensure they have your best interests at heart, and remember that there is no substitute for experience. What you essentially pay a mentor for is to learn from their mistakes every bit as much as you learn from their successes. If a potential mentor ever tries to tell you they are perfect and have not mucked up along the way - run!
5. Ask clients for honest feedback on your sessions or classes. If you take on board honest feedback you can evaluate it and in the words of Bruce Lee “absorb what is useful and reject that which is useless”.
6. Get someone who you respect to critique one of your sessions or classes and actually listen to their feedback both positive and negative. Then run this feedback through your internal filter and again “absorb what is useful and reject that which is useless”.
7. Ensure you accumulate a minimum of 6 Professional Development Points (PDP’s) if you are registered with Kinect (Vicfit) or 18 Continuing Education Credits (CEC’s) every 2 years after you have finished your qualifications. Please don’t leave these update courses until the last minute as often instructors forget about this important component of registration until the last minute and then end up doing courses that don’t really interest them just so they can meet the registration requirement on time.

This article comes courtesy of Jason Ferruggia who is a well known Strength & Conditioning specialist and has summed up beautifully some of the typical fears women have when it comes to weight training and also a logical description of the benefits of incorporating weight training into an exercise program.

The first thing females have to understand is that the word “tone” doesn’t exist. Physiologically speaking, you can only make a muscle bigger or make it smaller. The same can be said for fat cells. That’s it. You can’t shape or elongate or tone a muscle. So what every female should be aiming to do is build muscle and lose fat. When you build muscle you will burn more calories at rest, meaning it will help you lose fat and get leaner.

Many females fear that they’ll look like Hulk Hogan in a matter of weeks if they start strength training but that would be impossible. Females simply don’t have the testosterone levels to build muscle at the same rate as males; not even close. With that in mind here are some training principles that all females should adhere to:

*Lift heavier weights - No matter what you have been brainwashed to believe from Oprah or US Magazine, females should not be relegated to lifting three pounds or less. You need to challenge yourself and give your body a reason to actually change. Kickbacks with a couple soup cans aint gonna cut it.

High reps with light weights do not burn fat or help you improve muscle definition. Moderately heavy weight training burns far more calories. It isn’t how much you sweat or even how many calories you burn during the workout that is important but rather how many calories you burn in the 24-48 hours after your workout, during the recovery period. Lifting heavier and building muscle elevates your metabolism to a much higher degree and forces you to burn far more calories all day long than light, high rep training does.

*Use compound free weight and bodyweight exercises- Stop wasting time on the butt blaster and inner thigh machines. If you want to build muscle and lose fat you have to focus on military presses, pushups, inverted rows, chin ups, squats, lunges and deadlifts.

*Follow the rule of progressive overload- Some people do the same workouts with the same weights for months or even years and never get anywhere. Once you do something new, your body will do all that it can to adapt to the stimulus so that it’s prepared for it the next time and doesn’t suffer the same shock and trauma. When you repeat that exact same workout you haven’t presented a new challenge for your body to adapt to and thus nothing happens; no results. You need to continually challenge your body. You can do this by adding more sets, decreasing your rest periods, or most importantly and effectively; increasing the resistance.

Females should not be afraid of getting stronger or increasing their training poundages. What could be a better feeling than looking sexy and feminine yet being strong at the same time?

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Tips

Lower the arms to the side then press the dumbbells above the head as far as comfortable.

Try to keep the forearms parallel to the ground during the press.

Do not allow the shoulder joint to externally rotate during the exercise.

Cautions

If you have a history of shoulder injury or other shoulder pathologies, seek professional advice prior to commencing.

One of the questions I always ask when interviewing for new Personal Trainers is “do you use a Personal Trainer yourself?” One of the things I find most interesting about the responses is that most Personal Trainers don’t believe they need one. Common answers include “I know all I need to know about training” or “I have enough motivation to train on my own”. What I find interesting is that trainers also say they believe passionately about Personal Training but apparently NOT so passionately that they would ever use one themselves! This is akin to becoming excited about buying a new Lexus motor vehicle and asking the sales person what model Lexus they drive only to be told that the sales person actually drives a Ford. What is the message given to the client in these situations? It is that neither the Personal Trainer nor the Car salesman actually believes in their product enough to use it themselves. If this is the case why should we expect potential clients to invest in our services?

When I talk to Personal Trainers about what we have discussed they often say things such as “I never thought about it like that before, I should use a trainer but I cannot afford it”. Does this sound like what many of our potential clients say? This response reflects show much someone actually VALUES our service. I have had many clients over the years who have not been financially well off, however they prioritise their Personal Training sessions over things like going out for dinner, or they sacrifice something else in order to be able to keep training because they value it so much. Another practical benefit of training with someone else is that you can learn. How are they different from you in approach? What things could you use that they do?, What wouldn’t you do? If you are already a qualified Personal Trainer you are in a unique position to experience all of the benefits of training with someone else without any money even needing to change hands by entering into a contra-agreement. The purpose of this article is to stimulate your thinking on just how much you value PT, because if you don’t how can you expect clients to. Also, remember that even Roger Federer has a coach!

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