I can back to it 14 weeks later and was so relieved to see that i had done most of the work already.

The friendly people at Future Fit gave me a 1 month extension on submitting my course work (them guys are seriously cool) and i need to get it down to them by the 17th June. Im aiming for next week though as ive only got to feel out the prescription forms at the end.

I got an email asking me what info i used whilst doing my study, which is a good question and to be honest i didnt use that much i dont think. In the manual you get on the 5 day course from Future Fit they give you a ton of reference of books that are worth reading, which is a good way to go, but to be honest, i found that the manual had plenty of info in it to help me on my way. I did stumble across these sites though, that have helped back up what i have done with my client and have reference the ASCM in my case study numerous times:

http://www.exrx.net/Aerobic/AerobicGoals.html

http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Guidelines.html

http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home_Page&TEMPLATE=CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=7764

I hope these helps anyone else doing a similar course.

Have a good weekend.

Due to the Volcanic Ash in Europe I was stranded in New York for 3 days… but that doesn’t really account for my absence over the last 4 months. I guess Ive been lazy busy.

So any news on my Personal Training? Well for the last 3 months i’ve been doing my Nutritional adviser course and case study and my Personal Trainer Course.

First, the Nutritional Advisor. For this I had 8 weeks to learn the material via Future Fits online learning system, which is great and also annoying. Then after the 8 weeks I had to get a real life client and begin a 8 week Nutrition course with them. This involved collecting Diet diaries, educating them on Nutrition and physical activity, making changes to there diet etc.

The course as a whole, I found, was pretty interesting and of great benefit to anyone wanting to become a Personal Trainer or Fitness advisor, as we all no that making changes to your body is 30% training and 70% diet. As they say, muscles are built in the Kitchen, not the gym. Whilst this course doesn’t teach you specific sport Nutrition (Future Fit has a separate course for that, which I will start in August) it does teach you the importance of Proteins, Carbs and Fats and what they all do to your body. You also learn about the Macronutrients (Vitamins and Minerals) and also how food is broken down by the body.

You then have to take this information and apply to it a client (family member of friend) and record your results and submit a case study at the end. The actual case study was pretty easy, even if you are unable to complete the course with your client (mine got lazy and hard to work with). The questions on the case study practically require text book answers, and that’s what I mostly gave.

The pass mark for this course was 80%. I received my score last week and passed with 83%. The great thing about the marking is that they provide you with comments on how things could be improved, so it serves for future purposes. Also, if you receive under 80% you can re-submit the case study and just amend certain questions you scored low on, so with the help of the markers comments, you should pass on the second attempt.

The second course im doing is my Personal Trainer course, this involved a 5 day work shop which I attended in January, followed by a 12 week case study with a client. Now if you’re an idiot like me and do both courses at the same time, id suggest using 2 different people for each case study, otherwise it gets confusing.

Im going to start writing my case study next week for this course, so will write about it here in my next post… which wont be as long as 4 months, I promise.

Thanks for reading.

As I mentioned, a couple weeks ago I had 2 1 day courses, 1 day was Circuit Training, which was fun and exciting, allowed us to get a good insight to how Circuit Classes are set up and the financial benefits involved. The “teacher” for the day, David Bland, a guy who has been in the industry for 20 odd years, was like a walking encyclopaedia. He knew everything about everything when it come to Fitness.

One thing he advised us about Circuits that has stuck in my mind is that you can make more money doing Circuit classes than you can Personal Training. He said its possible to charge between £6 – £25 an hour per class. With classes attaching between 4 – 12 people, that’s a lot of money for an hours work of shouting at people.

As well as going through how to set up Circuits for a class, he touched on Marketing. Creating different Circuit courses through out the year, targeting different seasons. I.e. Ski season, do a 12 week Ski Circuit, advertise it in Travel agents as a good way to get fit and ready for Skiing. Create the Circuits so they focus on muscles that are used whilst Skiing. Or do a Beach Body Circuit in the summer… who doesn’t want to get a 6 Pac for the Summer? So target all them people with good marketing and get them in your classes. The possibilities really are endless.

The second day, the more boring day, was Core Stability and Torso Training. Having no experience yet in the industry I didn’t really find this course beneficial, a lot of the theory went over my head. I think the course was more for people that have been doing Personal Training for a year or 2 and want to increase there understanding of the Core. For me, it was far to much info to soon.

Neither of the courses required any assessment, just turn up and you get your Certificate and REP’s points for your CPD (Continuous Professional Development).

So that’s me done now till November, when I start my Nutrition and Weigh Management course, which is an 8 week home study followed by an 8 week case study, which will tie in with my 12 week Personal Trainer Case Study. A lot of hard work.

Now, I’m going to get my CV sorted and start looking for a Part Time job as a Gym Instructor. I’m really starting to get fed up with my 9-5 office job. Role on Next March.

So here is what im doing tomorrow, on my day off from work

Circuit Training:

What does the module cover?

* Health and safety

* Designing warm ups and cool downs for a circuits class

* Circuit class formats and variations

* The safe instruction of cardiovascular, muscular strength and endurance exercises for circuit classes

* Class management

* Application of effective coaching skills

* The principles of overload

Fortunately there is no assessment for this, I will just get a Certificate of attendance, and that will allow me to teach Circuit Classes, simples. It will also give me a few extra REP’s points, which I still need to find out what exactly that is all about.

Sunday, I will be up bright and early and will learn Torso Training and Core Stability:

What does the module cover?

* Health and safety

* Anatomy and Kinesiology of the torso

* Muscle balance and posture

* The application of strength and stability exercises

* Traditional torso exercises

* Myths and misunderstandings

* Adaptations and progressions in various contexts

* Use of equipment such as stability balls, benches and steps

* Kinaesthetic awareness techniques

Not to sure how exactly this will fit in with anything, obviously having a good understanding of the Torso etc will come in handy for Ab classes and Power Plate sessions. Again no assessment needed for this.

Both courses are at the same place as my Gym Instructor course, over at Esporta Riverside (nice, poncy gym) and are through Future Fit.

Shall let you know how it goes on Monday (yes, 3 posts in 5 days)

Sorry for the late notification, but have been a tad busy with my new workout plan to post the good news. Sunday was the day of my Level 2 Gym Instructor Assessment with Future Fit, in which I had to show an Assessor that I was able to deliver a successful induction to a new gym member (my girlfriend).

The whole thing probably lasted about 30 minutes. A lot quicker than I was expecting, probably because I was so good

As previous mentioned, I had to get my “client” to do a warm up, stretches, main CV workout, Fixed resistance machines, cool down, more stretches and then some free weight exercises.

All though the complete programme was an hours worth, once the assessor had seen enough of one machine, he’d get me to move on to the next. So instead of dong 10 minutes on the Bike, my Girlfriend was only on there for about 2 minutes. Some machines she didn’t even need to get on to as I had demonstrated enough for the assessor to see in my instructions.

So combined with my Portfolio, which have a couple of errors, I was deemed capable of being a Gym Instructor.

Now with this qualification under my belt, I can start looking for a Part time job as a Gym Instructor which will help me with my Level 3 Personal Trainer qualification that I am hoping to achieve.

This weekend, im off on a 2 day course which is for my Circuit Training and Core Stability and Torso Training. Will post more on this tomorrow

Have been busy with my Portfolio which I need to complete prior to my assessment for my Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification, which is on the 30th August.

So what do I have to do for my Portfolio, well, the major part of my Portfolio is completing Session Plans. These are basically a description of each exercise that I need to perform to complete an hours workout for a beginner.

I.e. I need to write down in details, how to teach someone to use the Cross Trainer, The Rower, Chest Press Machine etc etc. In total there are about 50 Session plans that need completing. 1 for each Prep stretch, 1 for each Post Stretch, 1 for each CV equipment, 1 for each Fixed resistance machine and 1 for each free weight exercise.

I don’t have to do a session plan for every piece of equipment that has ever been made, but  I do need to complete one for every exercise that I would show someone in an hours session. So the hours session would look like this (this is basically what I need to show someone on my assessment):

Warm up
Mobility movements
Prep Stretches
CV workout
Fixed resistance machines
Cool Down
Post Stretches

So as I mentioned, in total there are about 50 movements/exercises that I need to do a session plan for. For my actual assessment though, I don’t need to show my guinea pig 8-12 pieces of Fixed resistance machines, just 5. So, although I need to plan for an hours long workout, I don’t need to actually complete an hours long programme. Just enough to show the assessor that I know my sh*t.

I’ll post a copy of a Session plan up shortly, so you can see what is required.

Until then, I need to crack on with my Portfolio.

The course went over the usual gym instructor basics, how to warm up, cool down, stretch and how to teach people to use the CV, fixed resistance machines and free weights.

Fortunately, I have used and am comfortable with all the machines that we were shown, so I had no trouble with picking up all the information. Some people on the course who wasn’t from a “gym” back ground found some of the machines foreign, but due to the excellent teaching by the Future Fit instructor, had no trouble learning how to use and teach the safe the safe use of all the equipment.

The class room learning was enjoyable and pretty straight forward, basically going over a lot of the stuff we should have learned on our Anatomy and Physiology course. Therefore, having passed my A&P exams last week I was familiar with all the information, however, out of the 11 people attending the workshop, only about half had actually completed there exams. This meant that had to work harder at the weekend to understand all the information. My advice; do the A&P course, in full first. Will make the gym instructor course a lot easier to follow.

It was good to see that the people training to become a Personal Trainer all varied in age and background and were all pretty cool people. We have all exchanged emails and are in contact on Facebook, so we can track each others progress. Its was good to meet people with the same Aims and objectives as me and the same interests.

In order to pass the course I have to go back in 4 weeks, with a completed Portfolio (basically a subscription of all the machines and what they do) and a friend/colleague (in my case, my Girlfriend) and show her how to use the machines and I need to deliver an hours long gym session for a healthy beginner. Im pretty confident I will pass and sure my Girlfriend will do her best to make it easier for me…. I hope.

In the meantime, I need to crack on with my Portfolio, obviously detailing every step here,  on my Blog.

Last Monday, I got an e-mail from my helpful Co-ordinator at Future Fit offering me the chance to move my Gym Instructor course forward to the 31st July, so I accepted that, as I didn’t fancy waiting around till September. Only problem was, this gave me 2 weeks to sit and pass my Anatomy Exams.

Feeling confident and after a quick read of my revision notes, I sat the exams in my bedroom on my laptop last Monday. The procedure is pretty straight forward, you have to do 4 exams, one after another, answering 25 questions per exam, with a time limit of 15 minutes.

To pass the exams I need to score 80% overall, but also score a minimum of 18/25 in each section.

Going in to the exams I felt confident that I would get the minimum of 18 in each section, but for some reason I completely forgot that to get 80% overall, I would need to average 20/25 in all 4 sections. So as I was sitting the tests, in the back of my mind I only thought I needed 18 right answers per exam.

The first exam was the Skeleton, a subject I felt comfortable in and thought I would do pretty well. The usual questions came up, what bone was attached to this bone etc. and I completed that exam in about 11 minutes.

Next up was the Muscles, something that I didn’t feel to confident on, I know where the major muscles are in my body (that’s simple), but it’s the theory behind how they each work and what they are made up ofI had trouble getting my head around when I was studying. Luckily most of the questions were straight forward and I felt I had done ok.

Thirdly, my hardest subject, the Heart and Respiration system, something I found hard to grasp whilst studying and a subject that would require some luck to pass.

And lastly, was the Introduction to Exercise, my favourite subject to learn and one I felt I would have no troubles with… how wrong was I? A few of the questions I got were pretty tricky, and my confidence on the subject was lost.

As I finished my exams, heart pounding, I started to Google some of the questions I was asked just to check my answers. It looked like I did ok, but wouldn’t find out until 2 days later.

Wednesday arrived and I got an email with my results… unfortunately I had only got 77%… Dam it. 3% out, 3 freaking questions out!!! Fortunately, I did score the minimum 18/25 in each subject, so this meant that I had the opportunity to increase my score by answering some oral questions over the phone. Well, that seems nerve racking!!

Surprisingly, I actually scored highest in the Heart and Respiration system. My results were:

Skeleton: 19/25

Muscle: 18/25

Heart & Respiration: 22/25

Intro to Exercise: 18/25

On Thursday I was contacted by a Distant Learning Tutor and was told I needed to answer 3 questions to pass. He said that as I was so close in passing that he would ask me the easier questions…

1) What bones make up the Shoulder Griddle

2) What muscle is used in an Arm Curl

3) What is FITT

I managed to answer these questions correctly, and completed the first step in becoming a Personal Trainer. Woop.

 So my next step is attending the Gym Instructor work shop, followed by an Assessment 4 weeks later. Will let you know how I get on this weekend.

My plan of completing my training last week and sit the exams this week are going to be pushed back. I will finalise the Anatomy course this week with the completion of Introduction to Exercise, and then take some material with my on holiday so I can revise for a couple of weeks next to the swimming pool.

I received my latest copy of Mens Fitness this week and saw an advert for this book which I feel would come in very handy once I am qualified and looking to train people in there homes or at mine, it’s a complete guide to home workouts (unable to find link at the moment). So am going to buy this before Saturday to give me some extra reading material on the flight, and also give me a few ideas of workouts I can do whilst on holiday. Have been working hard for the last 3 weeks with my Personal Trainer, so don’t want to undo all that in 2 weeks.

This includes:

Intro to Circulation and Respiration
The Circulatory system and the heart
The blood vessels and blood
Blood pressure and the pulse
The respiratory system
The mechanics of respiration
Exercise and the circulatory system
Energy and oxygen
Oxygen and exercise

So basically I learnt the process of breathing in Oxygen and exhaling Carbon dioxide, the use of Oxygen in our body, how the Heart works (amazing piece of equipment) and how the lung work and finally how exercise effect our Oxygen intake and our Heart.

I thought I did pretty well with it this week, unfortunately I had to cram it all in to 2 nights of studying as I was pretty busy last week, but I will do some revision before I sit my Exams.

Talking of the Exams, I found out that I have to sit these in my own time and do them online. Which got me thinking that it should be pretty hard to fail, as I see no reason why I cant use study material as I complete the exams?? Is this wrong? Are they expecting me to sit my exams in an empty room with no other visual aid and not to use the Internet? Or do they expect me to use my study material to pass the exams? Who knows? Either way, I have worked hard these last 3 weeks to learn all the material, so either way I expect I can pass the Anatomy exams and move on to my next course.

This week is the final part of the Anatomy course – Introduction to Exercise. This part is smaller than the others, so my aim to to finish this tomorrow night, and then on Thursday and Friday to revise everything I have learnt. I will then sit the exams either Friday night, or Sunday. With results taking 2 days to process.