When seeking out a personal trainer, it is necessary for potential clients to feel confident that they will be training with the best fit. Below…
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NFPT Blog A free health and fitness resource for personal trainers
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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The Three D’s: Determination, Dedication, and Discipline
There are many formulas for success. Starting with and idea and building on it to the point that you are attaining your goal of the physique that you created is no easy task. During the journey you will have obstacles and these must be overcome. Otherwise success is delayed and failure is a possibility. Along the way of the Body Transformation Success Formula there will be hidden tools that will help you complete yourself.
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Exercise and Depression: How Personal Trainers Can Make an Impact
Depression is the "common cold" of psychological disorders. The World Health Organization considers depression a high priority concern and most everyone has been depressed or knows someone who has been depressed at some time in life. Its symptoms include sleep disturbances, loss of appetite or overeating, and anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure). While it comes in different forms and intensities, some of its characteristics are enduring. Depressed people think in different ways from their non-depressed counterparts. Their neuro-chemistry is different. They have low self esteem. They are inactive.
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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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Acromioplasty vs. Rotator Cuff Repair
The shoulder is one of the most complicated joints, having the ability to move in six different motions. The shoulder is therefore susceptible to injury because of potential trauma, overuse or degeneration requiring potential surgery. Two of the most common surgical procedures for the shoulder are acromioplasty and rotator cuff repair.
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Designing an Adaptive Program for a Client with Multiple Sclerosis
I currently intern in the Fitness department of the YMCA in Dublin, Ireland while studying for my personal training certification. I had an opportunity recently to take part in the development of a program for a client with very unique needs due to a serious, degenerative, illness: Multiple Sclerosis.
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Dying Tan
Picture yourself on a white sandy beach. A slight sea breeze sprays a mist of salt water across your face and over the crowded beach. You’re at the mecca for the area’s best bikini contest, Coconuts on the Beach, Cocoa Beach, Florida. It’s 10 a.m. and like a Thanksgiving turkey, you’ve planned to baste your day away in the heat of the sun.
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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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Training an ACL Reconstruction Fitness Client: What Personal Trainers Should Know
Many sports, such as soccer, basketball and football involve jumping, cutting and pivoting maneuvers. These motions place stress and demands on the ligaments that support the knee. One of the most common injured ligaments is the anterior cruciate ligament(ACL).
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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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