One of the downsides of social media is the upcropping of the fitness influencer. These “trainers” grow in number of followers and scientific blunders by the day. It’s time we, as the pros, call out the fit-fluencer red flags and teach our clients about real,...
The fitness industry is renowned for its passion-driven professionals who are committed to helping others achieve their health and wellness goals. However, maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be challenging making the process of setting boundaries imperative...
My experience as a health and exercise professional started in 2003 after graduating with my bachelor’s in Exercise Science and achieving my first certification (NSCA-CPT). Early on in this experience, I relied too heavily on the science of program design and...
Walking has clear benefits for the body and mind. It improves cardiorespiratory health, reduces stress, helps maintain muscle mass and bone density, and gets the blood pumping throughout the body. Walking is also weight-bearing, but low-intensity. It requires no...
Turning paying fitness clients into staying clients requires as much finesse as it does the appropriate application of science. Just because you get the client in the door or on the screen, is not a guarantee that they will stay with you for the long haul. Client...
The attention personal trainers have historically given their clients was primarily physical. With increasing light cast on toxic diet culture and body dysmorphia, nurturing clients' healthy mindset and cultivating body respect is increasingly becoming part and parcel...
When it comes to exercise programming and workout design, the basics still work despite what fit-influencers want consumers to believe. As exercise professionals, we should be mindful of balancing workout programs with challenging tasks and supporting those tasks with...
When new fitness clients think about the health and fitness industry, their thoughts are often clouded with their notion of weight loss, detox teas, secret potions, or fat-blasting supplements---basically, the elements of a fad diet. However, none of those are...
Progress forward towards any fitness or health goal looks different for each individual client. That’s to be expected. No two clients are the same, therefore they will not respond the same even to similar approaches. However, fitness clients, though different from...
The cardiovascular system is foundational to exercise, and our understanding as personal trainers of how it works and how things can go wrong is critical for the performance, success, and safety of our clients. Consultation with a medical professional and a physical...
The topic of food and what is “healthy” or “unhealthy” is always provokes interesting commentary from fitness clients (and, we’ve likely said or thought some of these same things). There’s this notion of “perfection” and the deceitful need to “be good” when it comes...
Group fitness is a fun and growing part of the health and exercise industry. Such settings offer a unique opportunity for socialization, group support, and encouragement. Although the scientific principles of exercise selection, form, and execution remain parallel...
The “active couch potato” is a real concern. Through research, we now better understand that too much sitting – even when an individual sets aside time to be physically active on a regular basis – is harmful to health. This means that even though our fitness clients...
The COVID-19 global pandemic rocked this world and continues to impact us all daily. Many professionals (and businesses) have shifted the format in which they operate. It’s not uncommon to serve clients who work most of the time from home or other remote location....
Exercise is a physical demand; it requires work and energy to complete that work. There’s this misconception that we need to “eat less” and “move more”, but progress (weight-centered progress) is not nearly that black and white. If it were, our jobs as fitness...
The holiday season is fast approaching, and we are entering a time where fitness clients experience extreme “overeaters’ remorse”. With an abundance of food and drink options (many calorie-laden in nature) and a decline in physical activity during this season, clients...
The world of diet culture primarily focuses on telling individuals to “reduce”, “limit”, “restrict”, “avoid” and “eliminate” certain foods and/ or entire food groups. When you break it down, messages of diet culture are inherently negative – it’s a “don’t do that”...
As a personal trainer, educator, and health coach, my students will express what they hear or observe on social media related to the toxic and damaging nature of diet culture. The messages diet culture promotes are sometimes overt and loud. Other times, these messages...