How physical activity and diet change our personal training clients’ bodies is indeed top of mind in our industry. Low fat, low carbohydrate, high protein,…
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Category: Exercise Science, Biology, and Research
Understanding Connective Tissue: Fascia and Programming for Integration
The human body is a dynamic machine. We have been designed and created to move,react, create force, withstand being pulled, twisted, and undergo various stressors. However, when the human body exceeds a certain threshold, something gives way. This being connective tissue, ligaments, tendons and muscles. Making one thing inevitable, breakdown or injury. One important contractile element that places an essential role in withstanding stressors and provides static and dynamic support is called fascia.
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Why Sleep and Recovery Is So Important For Personal Training Clients
In pursuit of the perfect body, many people focus on things like workout routines and supplements, however, many fail to consider another vital component of training-recovery. Remember that training is the stimulus to which the body adapts, but sufficient rest is essential to allow time for the adaptations to take place.
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The Power of Endorphins
Runner’s “high” is so-called because of the euphoria associated with the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain, of which endorphins are one category. From…
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Bioenergetics: Aerobic versus Anaerobic Energy Production
While we are all familiar with aerobic activity, defined in the early 1970s by Dr. Kenneth Cooper as activity during which the cardiorespiratory system provides enough oxygen for muscular effort, most of us associate anaerobic activity with that very hard effort we do during intervals. The fact is that each non-sequential muscular effort, such as turning your head, entails some measure of energy production in the absence of oxygen, qualifying it as anaerobic.
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Biomechanics: The Science of Human Movement
As the fitness industry grows in popularity and importance, it is of the utmost importance that we as fitness professionals continue to develop a growing knowledge of the exercise sciences to communicate effectively with the established health professions and sciences on “common ground”. The following article, while at times technical, provides an integral part of that knowledge base necessary to facilitate such communication.
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Defining General Fitness: What Burgeoning Personal Trainers Should Know
After spending countless hours in the gym lifting weights and doing aerobics, how will you know when you’re physically fit? Many of your personal training clients will tell you they just want to get fit. Therefore, it is important to know just what constitutes a general state of physical fitness.
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Understanding Muscle Fibers and Function: The Foundation of Being a Personal Trainer
As a competent and effective personal trainer, who is equipped with the knowledge necessary to be considered a fitness “expert”, you need to know the basis of human movement. That is, how knowing the different muscle fibers and how they work.
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Understanding VO2 Max and the Altitude Challenge
When embarking on a new exercise program, there are many factors to keep in mind. One must decide on the frequency of workouts, their duration, and most importantly, their intensity. For more seasoned athletes, these factors are often broken down into much more specific areas; one such area is the consideration of VO2 max.
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What Is a Calorie? Personal Trainers Need to Know!
Weight loss to improve cardiovascular health is a high priority of the American Heart Association because approximately 34 percent of the population is overweight.
The most basic and fundamental law that governs whether you gain weight or lose weight is the first law of thermodynamics, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one type to another. For our purposes here, the most common unit of energy measure is the calorie.
Seasonal Affective Disorder: How Personal Trainers Can Help Clients See the Light
For those of us who are winter sports enthusiasts, the onset of colder weather signals the beginning of snow-related fun. Yet for others, the shorter days and colder temperatures trigger a cascade of symptoms that are anything but pleasant. Feelings of depression, anxiety, and moodiness are symptoms commonly associated with what scientists have termed Seasonal Affective Disorder, or quite aptly, SAD.
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Personal Training Heart Attack Survivors
Over the last 24 years, I have trained at least a dozen men who’ve survived a heart attack, and I’d like to share some of my experience with these men, as well as information from medical authorities.
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