Personal Training for Health and Fitness

Course details

This 4 days comprehensive course (24 CECs) is designed to provide the participant with the knowledge and skills needed to develop fitness programs for health, appearance and fitness. Topics are taught in a classroom setting and include exercise physiology, anatomy, detailed descriptions of the role of exercise and nutrition in weight control programs, health aspects of strength training, and strength program design criteria.

Course Details:

Section I: Anatomy and Exercise Physiology in relation to Fitness Training

• Muscle Fibers and Motor Units 
• The 4 fiber types 
• Henneman's size principal 
• Myosin isoforms and fiber type alteration with training 
• Energy Metabolism 
• Energy systems and metabolic pathways 
• Pyruvate and the metabolic choice 
• Co-dependence of metabolic pathways 
• Cardiac Adjustment to Exercise 
• Problems with 220-age heart rate formula 
• Cardiac drift, sweating and thermal load 
• Proper use of heart rate and the determination of training intensity 
• Skeletal and Muscular Anatomy 
• Overview of skeletal system 
• Overview of muscular system 
  

Section II: Exercise for Weight Loss

• Benefits and risks of weight loss 
• Manipulation of humoral factors to optimize weight loss 
• Respiratory exchange ratio and the determination of optimal exercise intensity 
• Interaction of fat, carbohydrate and protein metabolism during exercise and weight loss 
• Long moderate endurance versus interval training 
• Nutritional aspects of weight loss and the Canada Food Guide 
  

Section III: Weight Training Program Design

• Metabolic, neural, and structural causes of fatigue 
• The implications of high level of lactic acid to strength development 
• Volume, Intensity, and Tempo 
• Rest between sets and recovery between sessions 
• Exercise selection 
• Professional Program Design 

Section IV: Client Trainer Interaction

• Goal Setting 
  
• Short term, long term, dream goals 
• Factors determining adherence to exercise 
• Social learning theory 
• Operant conditioning 
• Needs Analysis 
• Occupational, recreational, and social analysis 
• Pre-screening 
  

Section V: Warm up, Cool down, and Flexibility

• Warm up and Cool down 
• Physiological benefits of warm up 
• General, Specific, and Passive warm up 
• Designing a warm up program 
• Importance of cool down 
•  Flexibility 
• Types of flexibility 
• Dynamic vs. Static stretching 
• Flexibility Programs 
  
• Stretching Controversies