Personal trainers can incorporate yoga into a fitness program and more easily navigate the many asanas (yoga poses) by studying the history and essence of this age-old practice. It may seem overwhelming, so let’s start with the basics! What are the essential...
Alexandria Clearwater
Alex has her A.S in Exercise Science and is a certified Personal Trainer with NFPT and NSCF. She recently traveled to India to gain her 200 hr yoga teacher certification where she studied the ancient practice at its origins. Alex has spent time teaching yoga in Spain while volunteering at a yoga retreat and is currently working at her local college instructing two fitness courses. Alex wants to share with her clients and students the mental, physical and emotionally healing qualities of exercise and movement. She believes everyone should have a healthy relationship with their bodies and strives to thread that concept throughout her career.
Destination Yoga Teacher Training Experience
You can expect a dynamic experience with both highs and lows if you participate in a Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) in a foreign country. I am finding this out first hand as I complete a YTT in India. Yoga is a discipline that has gained growing popularity and momentum...
HIIT Workout Plan for Personal Trainers
It’s ironic that High-Intensity Interval Training has the acronym H.I.I.T because it’s exactly how you feel afterward. It is a challenging style of class to teach and fuel your students want to keep going. When I started teaching HIIT I was intimidated by the timing,...
How Not to Plank
Planks are well loved for their ability to target most of the core musculature. But isn’t this possible without a plank? Don’t get me wrong. The plank is well loved for a reason. It works a slew of muscles all at once while improving core stabilization, which is a...
Weight Lifting for Weight Loss
Female clients can use weight lifting to their advantage when wanting to lose weight. I generally don’t encourage a client’s main fitness goal to be “weight loss” because it can foster an unhealthy relationship with their self-image, body confidence and the health...
Strength Training for Endurance Performance
Despite years of research showing the benefits of strength training for endurance performance, it’s challenging to convince a client to take precious training time to pick up some weights in the gym. Individuals training for marathons, duathlons, and triathlons can be...
Proper Squat Progressions and Alignment Corrections
Squats seem straightforward but teaching this movement properly with good alignment can be quite challenging. I’ve found this to be true especially with clients who are brand new to fitness. Identifying common errors, knowing how to correct them and progressing a...
Flexibility Training is a Must for Personal Training Clients
We’ve all been there, working with a client who claims they’ve never been able to touch their toes. We’ve all done the internal wince, imagining the discomfort and pain the client surely experiences daily. This interaction followed by the comment, “But it’s not a big...
Improve Client Flexibility With This Yoga Series
This 15-minute yoga series will do wonders for your clients. It targets every major muscle group and joint in the body. As professionals in the fitness industry, trainers are sure to know at least a bit about yoga, if not a whole lot. Many trainers are also yoga...
7 Qualities of a Good Personal Trainer
With the New Year people are looking for personal trainers. Here are qualities or markers of a good personal trainer. Do you have all 7? 1. Credentials and Education I’m going to begin with what I see as the most obvious area to maintain, and yet sometimes the most...
Instructions for Resistance Band Deadlift Row
Using a resistance band during a deadlift creates the ability to add a row and make this exercise a total body experience. At some point in every exercise program comes the need to progress an exercise to a more challenging level. Not everyone who works out likes to...
Instructions for Resistance Band Lunge
Sometimes you need to modify a lunge and other times a progression is what the client ordered. Using a resistance band to do a lunge is a fun way to add variety and challenge to this fundamental exercise. Using a resistance band when lunging makes the move a total...
Instructions for Resistance Band Shoulder Press
Using a resistance band to do a shoulder press is a beneficial strength training exercise for anyone who reaches up to place objects on shelves, like groceries, dishes, etc. Strengthening the shoulder muscles prepares them to reach up with confidence and strength when...
Travel the World As a Personal Trainer
The word on everybody’s lips is “travel”. As a young fitness professional, I am excited to see more travel incorporated in fitness business. With fitness becoming more popular and more widely recognized as a preventive method for chronic disease and premature...
How to Bring Mindfulness to the Gym
Incorporate mindfulness in to your personal training to make your job easier and the training more effective for your clients. How often have you asked a client how an exercise is feeling, and they respond with something equivalent to “I’m not sure, okay I...
Taking the NFPT Personal Trainer Exam
This month I officially became an NFPT Certified Personal Trainer. Even though I had my fair share of forehead slapping moments while preparing (I will share those in a moment), I really enjoyed the process. All of my study materials were available online or in...
Resistance Band Training – Train Your Clients Without Weights
Looking for a new workout routine to use tomorrow? Grab a resistance band and get your clients to add weight to their workout without actually adding weights. This tried and true piece of equipment gets left hanging, when it's actually perfect way to progress older...
Do You Improvise or Plan Your Personal Training Sessions?
When I was a new personal trainer my sessions were planned weeks in advance, test runs ensued and timing was calculated over and over. The aim for perfection was of high priority. But something that I discovered is that hitches in precisely laid plans will...