Gym-based exercise session review and analysis

Exercise Session Review

Record of Potential Risks or Hazards Encountered Prior to Session

Prior to the start of the exercise session, I conducted a survey of the facility areas that we would be using to identify any potential dangers and eliminate them. In that regard, I removed various pieces of debris including tissues from the floor, empty cups on the rowing machine, and a burst exercise ball. There was also a poster on the floor and a set of jump ropes on the rowing machine; I put the poster back up on the wall and hung the jump rope in an appropriate place out of our way. Finally, I collected several loose weights that had been left on the exercise floor and replaced them because they were an obvious safety hazard.

Corrections Made with Regard to Correct and Safe Use of Equipment

Before beginning lat pull-downs, I conducted a routine safety inspection of the apparatus and noticed that the straight bar attached to it had worn dangerously thin at the point where the bar clips to the cable via a hole for the clip. Instead of the usual uniform thickness, the upper part had worn down to only a few millimeters in thickness from wear and tear. Knowing that it would only be a matter of time before the remaining metal failed under stress, I replace that bar with another one and brought the worn bar to the gym manager's office and pointed out the problem.

During the pull-down exercise, my client needed correction in several respects. First, she was sitting too far backwards so I explained that she needed to sit all the way forward on the pad. That also solved the problem of her hunching her upper back on the downward pull and allowed her to maintain the proper position with her chest directly underneath the bottom position of the bar in the peak contraction position. Second, I reminded her to arch her back and keep her chest pointed toward the ceiling so that the bar touched just below her collar bone on the bottom instead of passing in front of her chest parallel to her body. Finally, I noticed that the client had a tendency to bend her wrists downward during the movement. I reminded her to maintain a firm grip and not to move her wrists during the exercise. Toward that end, I suggested that she visualize her hands as hooks and to imagine that she was attempting to touch an imaginary wall behind her with her elbows at the end of each full contraction.

Exercise Plan Changes Necessitated by Circumstances

Because an exercise ball was not available for us to ball chest presses, we used a plate-loaded chest machine instead. The client asked to do more lat pull-downs instead and I explained that pull-downs are not a substitute for any chest exercise because chest exercises involve a pushing motion of the pectorals (primarily) and triceps (secondarily) while lat exercises are strictly a pulling motion involving the latissimus dorsi (primarily) and the biceps (secondarily).