Personal Training-Exercise Habits Personal Training in Physical

Personal Training-Exercise Habits

Personal training in physical fitness, especially in self-programming, requires a reasonable understanding of science and motivation, and a set of measurable goals that can be evaluated for assessing progress. A personal training client named "Self" underwent a review of personal exercise habits, established goals for performance and upon evaluation recommended changes to habits in order to accomplish goals

Exercise Habits

"Self" exercises with some regularity. A detailed log of exercise, goals and improvement is not available. Reviewing Self's calendar and schedule the following chart shows a typical week of activity:

Physical Exercise Activity Table for Self

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Rest Day

3o min

Treadmill

mph

3o min

Treadmill

mph

Rest Day

3o min

Treadmill

mph

Rest Day

3o min

Treadmill

mph

min

Light

weights

min

Light

weights

15 min

Light

weights

15 min

Light

weights

Table 1: Typical week of exercise for Self

Occasional circumstances including schoolwork, employment and unexpected activities can impact the schedule of exercise resulting in lost days, however a typical week has the totals of exercise including aerobic and non-aerobic listed above. Logs are not kept to track details such as diet, heart rate, and weights and reps nor is a current list of measurable goals provided that is referred to and reviewed periodically.

Exercise and Personal Fitness Goals for Self

Self was interviewed and would like to incorporate goals that provide the following benefits:

1) Loss of 15 pounds by end of 2012 allowing 6 months for this loss of weight which breaks out to 2.5 pounds per month

2) Increase in aerobic fitness

3) Increase in strength associated with general conditioning

Improvement of any aspect of physical fitness requires a mechanism to track improvement. The goals that self initially devised are admirable, however; only one is quantitative and allows measuring. If a fitness plan to achieve general increases in fitness for either aerobic or muscle development is to be developed then specific metrics must be put into place to allow measurement. The goal of "weight loss" is specific and allows easy measurement. Aerobic fitness is classically measured through heart rate and work capacity, however for the purpose of this exercise it can be measured simply by establishing a baseline treadmill rate for 30 minutes and improves that rate gradually through the 6-month period with regular assessments. Strength associated with general conditioning is typically measured with the amount of work over time and in this case a benchmark strength exercise can be used to record improvements.

Self has been following a static exercise program where the workout routine consists of a repeated exercise with 30 minutes of aerobic conditioning followed by repeated weight lifting. Improvement in any aspect of fitness requires attention to frequency, intensity and volume as adaptations are made to a fitness regimen (Feigenbaum 1997). Frequency is defined as the number of exercise sessions per given time. Volume is the number of units referring to such variables as number of muscles worked, sets, reps or types of intervals performed during a given session. Intensity is the total amount of work performed in the activity in a given time. It must be stressed that for beginner-level fitness participants, increases in any of the three variables at too fast a rate can result in injuries and/or fatigue from overtraining (Campos 2002). For the improvement that "Self" is seeking it is recommended that for the two months, alterations between low and medium intensity at a frequency of 3-4 per sessions per week with manipulations in the kind of aerobic and weight training with little change in that frequency (Buford 2007). Following that initial exercise plan, increases in intensity within the program can be incorporated with corresponding drops in volume and frequency.