The Profession of Personal Training

I remember a popular television trainer telling a group of exercisers something very close to “no one stops until they puke or die.”

After having invested both the time and the money to have earned an Associate degree and a Bachelor’s degree in the field of exercise science, I would have to say that I know a decent amount about the subject of training and coaching people, and I have told clients in classes and training sessions that I do not want to see anyone puking or dying. If that happens, then it is quite likely that I have not done my job.

Initially, I was planning to begin my new career by simply studying for and taking the American Council on Exercise (ACE) exam. As I started to study the materials that I had purchased from ACE, I began to realize two things: first, I realized that I was basically memorizing questions and answers on index cards in order to pass an exam, and second, I realized that I would need at least some additional knowledge of anatomy and physiology, kinesiology, and training principles in order to truly be able to work as a safe and affective trainer.

Once I finished the Associate degree, I was beyond pleased that I had taken the time to prepare appropriately for my new career. With the degree, I was prepared to take and pass the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) certification examination. With the degree and with one of the most respected certifications in the field, I felt prepared to enter the field of personal training, but due to the practicum and internship opportunities, and because the competition for work in our area is intense due to the universities, my husband and I decided I would pursue the Bachelor’s degree.

This past week, I was able to watch a very good webinar on “Training Your Athlete.” When the presenter talked about central and peripheral adaptations to training, I knew what he was talking about. Before he even began to list peripheral adaptations to training, I was there: mitochondrial density, capillary density, and – the one I did forget, aerobic enzymes. I was able to follow completely the reasoning that central adaptations are increased most quickly though high intensity training while peripheral adaptations are increased through moderate intensity and longer duration training.

Classes like exercise physiology have prepared me to understand how to help a client or athlete develop and to understand the contributions of various energy systems to various activities. That foundation helped me to understand the further explanation given in the webinar regarding how to apply that understanding for the best results for the athlete or client.

Classes like strength and conditioning helped me to become aware of conditioning practices and for their applications in a variety of sports, and it helped me to understand the concept of periodization for training an athlete, or for training myself as I prepare for races or events.

Still other classes helped to prepare me to work with those who live with chronic conditions or face physical challenges ranging from metabolic diseases such as diabetes to challenges such as Parkinson’s disease.

Because of the solid foundation I received at the community college in particular, and because of the work I have put into my new career through formal education, practical experience, and continuing education, I am prepared to work with nearly any population from athletes to the elderly.

Thus far, this post may sound like an application or an advertisement for my services.

It’s not.

Personal training is so much more than wearing cute clothes that show the world how fit a person thinks she is, though she may be, and about yelling at clients to keep going until they puke or die. It’s about putting in the work it takes to seriously pursue a career in exercise science and to help validate its place in the world of allied health professions.

Having said all of that, prior to completing this post I completed an “employment exam” in ordered to even be considered for employment with a private training company. Unless I get a call from an interview, I will never get to see the results of the exam, thus, it is not a learning tool but rather a weeding tool, sorting out for this company those candidates who they determine do not know enough to work with their clients even though applicants must hold a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in the field and possess personal trainer certification from a select few organizations that are recognized to be the most reputable, a certification that requires passing both an extensive and an expensive examination.

In a way, I’m torn on the subject of the test. As I mentioned in the last few sentences, one would think that both the degree and the certification from one of the industry’s most reputable organizations would be enough to validate one’s credentials. Yet, in a way, I am pleased that employers do take the knowledge base of their staff seriously because that is, after all, what I said that I hope we as educated fitness professionals can continue to accomplish.

My first pass through that test caused me to feel that my knowledge base may not be enough, but as I worked my way through that exam, I began to recall much of the information, proving to myself that I did have a solid knowledge base in physiology and the development of energy systems especially, and the test also reminded me that I do have some areas on which I want to focus with my continuing education credits in the future.

The challenges and the questions that a personal trainer will encounter are as vast as the personalities and goals of the clients with whom we will work. It is not possible for a trainer to know everything there is to know about every scenario that could arise. Still, with a solid foundation and with the ability to find answers to those questions that we cannot immediately answer or to solve problems that are new to us, we can safely and affectively help people to achieve their goals.

We have chosen to invest in our careers because we know that our clients will choose to make an investment in their own health and fitness through making an investment in us.

Same Ol’ Girl?

“Ain’t it funny how your new life didn’t change things. You’re still the same ol’ girl you used to be.”

If you know the Eagles song “Lying Eyes” you know that the quote comes from that song, and you will know that it will be taken out of context a bit as you read on through this post, though perhaps not.

I heard this song again the other day while I was lifting weights. I’ve probably heard the song a good 100 times over the course of my life since I took a liking to music of many genres, but when I heard that line the other day, I wondered, am I still the same old girl I used to be?

The line I quoted above, at first hearing, may seem as though it refers only to the affair that the song talks about, but as one ponders the “new life” line, it could be referring to that or to the fact that “she” married a “rich old man and she won’t have to worry,” or to both. Whatever aspect of the new life the song intended to cite in that line, the implication is that while a person can change the scenery, that doesn’t mean the person has changed or grown.

My new life, a marriage – of nearly nine years now, a grand baby only a month old, another college degree, a new career – but not a job as of yet, a sense of independence I never found until well into my 20’s if not into my 30’s, traveling on my own to see new friends, choosing new challenges – the races I’ve run and the dance classes I’ve taken and the black belt I earned, all of these things seemed to have changed things. Still sometimes I wonder if I’ve really changed.

Often those old feelings of inadequacy challenge me as I attempt to move ahead in my life. Sometimes those issues of self-confidence haunt me as I commit to taking on a new role. Sometimes that intense, all-encompassing fear grips me, and sometimes I lose to that fear, at least in the short-term, just like I did when I was a younger version of me.

It seems like most of us are destined to carry some baggage with us as we move forward in our lives. Why is it that we often leave some of those good things about ourselves in the past I wonder

The site Success.com speaks to the issue of our tendency to bring with us the negative but to leave behind that ability to hope and  to dream big that we naturally possessed as children. “Tiger kids become scaredy-cat adults, hampered by self-limiting beliefs that flatten our self-esteem, hurt productivity and dampen success.”

As a Girls on the Run coach, I have followed the curriculum and have enthusiastically encourage third through fifth grade girls to develop a sense of who they are, of what their values are, and of what their goals and dreams are and will be. For those who don’t know, I am such a fan of the Girls on the Run program and have coached for five seasons, yet, as I see those young girls, and as I watch them progress through the program, I have regretted that I secretly wonder what will happen when these girls enter high school or step out into the cold, cruel world. I often hope they can hold on to that idealism as long as possible because I know how hard life will try, intentionally or otherwise, to tear that away from them.

No matter how one is encouraged or what programs she has been a part of during her developmental years, it seems that somewhere along the way, we all lose a part of that wide-eyed belief that life is generally good, and that we can do whatever we set out to accomplish. Some would say that its part of maturing. I would say that it’s just a little sad.

While I went through a period where I felt like I was making solid progress and was becoming a better version of me, more recently I feel as though I have reverted back, but perhaps not far enough back – not back to that “tiger kid” but back to early adulthood when I had indeed become the “scaredy-cat adult.”

As a fan of the feline species, I rather like the analogy from Success.com but I do not like being the scaredy-cat adult, and I have been that cat more times than I care to admit. I’d prefer to be the tigress, powerful and purposeful.

Though I have been told we are a product of both nature and of nurture, for better and for worse, as I am about a month away from my 42 birthday, I would hope that I am not at all still the same old girl I used to be. I am fairly certain I am not.

From friends I have gained some hope in that I’ve been told that the coming years for me as a woman can be among the best years of my life. In about 10 years, I certainly want to look back at the person I am now and know that I am not that same old girl I used to be.

Thou Shalt Not

My long time friend and former roomie had called me and asked me if I would go with her – to an event I believe the older ladies enjoyed, but most of the younger women had come to dread. My friend had invited me to attend what we had dubbed “a Baptist bridal shower.”

Though I have three awesome sisters, this friend is truly like a sister by choice, and because I liked the person who was getting married too, I joined my friend at the bridal shower.

We found some of the older ladies whose company we did enjoy, and who, we came to discover, weren’t exactly prudes.They asked one of the other younger women for a hymnal so they could join us in adding the phrase “under the sheets” to the names of the many hymns found in the thick, old books. We had a fine time laughing in the back corner of the fellowship hall while most of the rest of the crowd remained fairly clueless to our activity as they watched the bride open her many, many gifts.

When the time came for the young bride-to-be to take her seat in a nice chair on a little platform, we quieted down to listen to the devotional. My friend and I both wanted to hide for the bride when the speaker, one of the more – uh, devout, of the older ladies said, “When your husbands wants to be intimate with you, don’t make excuses. Don’t say you have a headache. You take an aspirin, and do your duty.” Oh, and this advice came from the woman who would soon be her mother-in-law.

It was from events such as these that the legend of the Baptist bridal shower was born.

Growing up in a very conservative church, which happened to be Baptist, the only things we really heard about sex, from the adult ladies was “don’t do it young person,” as we used to say in the youth group among our friends.

And so it was that sex was considered very sinful, until one was married of course. Then it became your duty as a wife, and you had better stock up on the aspirin to get ready for it. It would begin immediately too.

As young couples left the church for their honeymoon night, one could almost hear the giggles because “everyone knows what they’ll be doing tonight.”

Fact of the matter is that aspect of the event is one of the more normal things in life; most people “know” what the bride and groom are doing on that night. It’s just a matter of some knowing a lot more about what they’re doing than others know.

It seems like even the most naive people figured it out because lots of baby showers happen within a year or less of there being lots of church bridal showers.

With all of the secrecy about sex and the weirdness about the way in which it is presented in situations like the Baptist bridal shower, I think many of us have still managed to arrived at a healthy place regarding our sexuality. Still it took time to find ideal ways from which to gain insight.

While I was still a “single” in my mid 20’s, I found a “Christian Singles” message board on the site IVillage. It was not a dating site, but rather a message board community. The group of regulars were fun and interesting people, and mainly women, with the exception of one regular who went by the name “Vanmorrisonfan.” One day when the topic turned to that of sex and the church, I decided to tell the Baptist bridal shower story. I was hoping for input from Vanmorrisionfan, and we did indeed hear from him. Basically he told us that he wouldn’t want to be considered duty, like a chore that ranked right up there with mopping the floors. He felt like he and the wife he hoped to find one day should give to each other, because they wanted to.

Intimacy wasn’t really discussed among the conservative women in our lives growing up, and fun certainly was not something that was discussed in the duty based presentation of sex in the church. It was that simple statement by Vanmorrisonfan, though, that helped to affirm that a healthy sexual relationship involved a lot more than what we had ever been told.

Sex brings with it great opportunity for fun, intimacy, and comfort, as well as for frustration and exasperation sometimes.

So, while I am not going to go rated X, or even rated R, here, I will say that I have found the fun and the intimacy with my husband of nearly nine years, and I have found the other aspects to be true too. I mean, there really can be too much of anything – just sayin’.

While I have made peace with my own sexuality and with the work in progress that sex in a relationship always will be, I often think about what I would tell teenagers in situations like the one in which I was raised. I don’t think I’ll ever have the chance really, but still, I think about the unnecessary secrecy and about what I would have liked to have known.

If I were ever to be granted the opportunity, what I would tell young women is that sex is not a big, dark secret. It will be part of most of our lives at some point. While I would definitely advise the teenagers to wait to have sex, I would also be more real with them about the reasons why it would be ideal for them to wait. “Because it’s wrong” does it for some people, but I also believe there are better answers to the question “why wait?”

I would like teenagers to understand that they should start forming their goals for their futures, and that now is the time that they will want to be focused on those goals and not let anything stand in the way of achieving those goals.

I would like the curious teenagers, who live in those conservative settings where sex is still not discussed aloud, to realize that it’s so normal to be curious, but that there will be plenty of time – more than enough time – to explore that part of life, And finally, I would like the teenage girls to know that they should settle for no less than a man who is worth exploring all of life with, and that that man will understand that they are not there to do his duty for him but that the two share a “duty” to each other.

Now I find myself somewhere on the continuum between the Baptist bridal shower and the all out crazy bachelorette party view of sex, though more toward the bachelorette party…for the 40 something crowd – a classy kind of sexy, but with a touch of fun and not a sense of duty.

Greener Grass

It was a warm and humid afternoon when I went to meet a teenage runner who was my case study for my internship, though I should note that her being my case study was only the context for the forming of the relationship. We had developed a good, and even a friendly, working relationship as I coached her through the summer.

On that humid afternoon, as she put her hair in a pony tail, she made the complaint that I had expected she might, based on our past conversations, that the humidity made her “crazy, curly” hair even more crazy and curled. She lamented that her hair was not straight like mine was, even in the summer humidity.

During the late ’80s, those years of big hair, while I was in high school, I would spend hours with nasty products on my hair so that it would be curly because it was so straight.

Now I am fine with my straight hair.

Now, I could be okay with my situation in life, but I’m not exactly.

About five months ago, I completed another Bachelor’s degree and graduated with honors. My husband has a job with which he has made peace and at which he earns enough income that cash flow is not really an issue for us, though the debt we incurred so that I could complete the degree lingers.

While I can take my time looking for a good job, I still feel the weight of that unpaid debt hanging over me like a huge storm cloud about to erupt in a violent storm.

On a day-to-day basis, though, my life is pretty darn good. I can get up when I want most days, though I generally get up when my husband leaves for work. I can exercise when I want to; I can stretch and take care of myself after exercise; I can have lunch with a friend; I can even spend a bit of money once in a while to go have a 30 minute swim lesson.

In a way, I have a great deal of freedom, but in a way, I feel like I have very little freedom.

I cannot contribute to the paying off of the debt; I cannot decide that I want to spend extra money on a gift for someone because I have earned some extra money; I feel like I can’t spend hardly any money at all because I have not earned any money at all.

Now, my husband always says to buy whatever I need, or that I can keep up with swimming lessons, or that I can buy nice gifts as he is so generous when it comes to my family. But while I am not contributing, I believe that I should not contribute further to the debt either.

And so it is that while I watch my husband drive away for a day at the office, and I begin another day that I can plan almost entirely in the way that I want it go, that I wish I were the one going out to earn a paycheck, and I know that he is in the Prius wishing he could be at home planning his day to be what he would want it to be.

I know that he would like to retire and take care of some projects around the house and amuse the dog and play nine or 18 when the weather is good and go catch some fish and make dinner and pick me up after my day at work.

And thus it ever was. When I was stuck in a stressful job for which I had no passion, I wanted the chance to pursue the career that I thought would be ideal for me. When I was a student training for that career, I wanted to be done being a student. Now that I am no longer a student and have a chance to catch my breath, I want to run out and work again.

Having been taught that we are not to be envious, and that we are always to be content, I began to wonder if looking at the grass on the other side and wanting to go explore it was all that bad.

I think that, in some cases, it’s not so bad.

If we are looking that means that something may be missing on our side of the fence, otherwise, we wouldn’t be looking to explore greener pastures. I think it takes maturity to realize that the grass may only seem greener and to try to discern whether or not our desire to explore is based on temporary problems or on boredom, or whether the desire to explore is based on a real need to do something better with our life, our time, or our situation.

While it is ideal to be content with what we have, there is also a need to be discontented. Being discontented can, at times, inspire necessary changes.

After not only looking from a distance but after having taken some time to really consider all aspects of that move to the other side of the fence, I think that sometimes we all find that the grass really is greener over there..