Imagine an intense soccer game: lots of running, kicking, and pivoting, all the typical elements of play, happening at top speed. The muscles taking the…
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Category: Physiology
The Kyphosis Learning Curve: How to Exercise and What Moves to Avoid
The human spine consists of natural curves, beautifully designed to keep us comfortably upright and maintain proper posture. However, too much curvature can lead to…
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Working with Chronically Ill Fitness Clients
Coaching clients with chronic illnesses requires more than simply writing fitness programs or offering health coaching. It requires a level of dedication that encompasses compassion,…
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Can Consuming Molecular Hydrogen Supercharge Your Fitness and Health?
Hydrogen, the smallest yet most potent molecule in the biochemical world, now seems to hold the promise of revolutionizing both health and fitness arenas. In…
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How Exercise and Diet Influence Key Hormones and Metabolism
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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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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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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