Shadowing Part 3

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY

Although Joe says he will be covering a few more topics as far as the business coaching is concerned, we are pretty much focused on shadowing at this point. This week I watched as he worked with one his high school athletes from his sports performance program.

Joe was a scholarship football player and has a serious passion for sports. He tells me that working with athletes is what he wants to be doing with the majority of his time. Although he says he will always make time to work with people from all different backgrounds and needs, he believes he can do something really special working with athletes.

The athlete is a football player and will be entering his freshman year of high school next year. He is a safety and cornerback. He is injury free so far, and his dad wants Joe to mainly work on improving his speed. He made it a very big point to make sure I understood that even though they were working on a lot of mobility, jumping, sprinting, and agility, the absolute best way to improve an athlete's speed is to improve his strength.

In this situation, the athlete is doing most of his weight training at a gym that his dad works at with one of their coaches, so Joe is doing what he calls the "fine tuning". Still he does work in some weight training with him. He focuses on the trap bar dead lift with all athletes as it is easy to teach, safe, and more than any other exercises, directly improves speed.

His approach to sports performance training is to get the maximum results, doing the minimum amount of work, because it decreases the chance of getting hurt.

Even though I don't see myself working with athletes because I'm more interested in training body builders, it was a very fun and interesting session to watch. I could tell how much he loves this type of training more than any other.

Shadowing Part 2

BEFORE YOU CAN LEAD, YOU MUST FOLLOW

This week I shadowed Joe during another client session. He is trying to expose me to different types of clients with different profiles, goals, and challenges. The session was completely opposite of my first experience. 

Joe was training a male client in his mid-forties whose primary goal is to add muscle and stay generally fit for his recreational basketball passion. He is a married professional with no children who trains 2x week. He is in generally good shape and health but does struggle with some minor lower back issues that mostly express themselves through stiffness. Joe is careful to not overdue lower back focused exercises, like dead lift and bent over rows.

Currently they are in a mass building phase. Joe has him on a standard mass program, mid to high reps, moderate to light weight, and a lot of variety in exercises. The only difference in this clients program is that traditional strength work is mixed in periodically because he wishes not lose the progress he has made in his strength gains.

I personally have a passion for body building so shadowing this session was very interesting for me because it gave me a first hand look into a mass building session.   

Education

"EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS ALREADY INSIDE YOU" BILL BOWERMAN

To complete the formal part of our internship, in Joe's words, he saved the best for last. On the surface he said he was informing me of the basic education requirements and paths that I could take to equip myself to meet the minimum requirements of being a personal trainer.

Essentially, I can go to college and pursue a degree in exercise science with several different possible concentrations. Or I can go the certification route of which below are listed the 7 most common and respected nationally accredited certifications. In addition, I could do a combination of both college and certifications.

Digging deeper, Joe said the real secret to success in all things is a daily, life long commitment to education. Further he said the word education comes from the latin word educere, which means to draw out what is inside. He told me that everything I truly need is inside of me already, and if I am humble and educate myself everyday, I will uncover within me the answers to all I seek to know.

Education:

Undegraduate (Associate or Bachelor's)/Master’s Degree

Exercise Science

-physical education

-kinesiology

-exercise physiology

Certifications:

ACE

NASM

ISSA

ACSM

NSCA (C.S.C.S.)

NFPT

AFPA

Shadowing

CRAWL BEFORE YOU WALK, WALK BEFORE YOU RUN


After covering a lot of interesting and important information about the basics of personal training, Joe feels I'm ready to begin shadowing him during his sessions with clients.

This was my first time ever observing a personal training session. The client was a woman in her mid-thirties and her main goal is to lose weight. She is a single professional with no children. She trains three times per week. She is working her way through an ankle injury, so Joe is careful to check in with her about how it feels but also to include exercises like calf raises and step ups that help strengthen the ankle and improve its mobility.

This session's focus was on total body circuit training, which Joe says is the best approach the majority of time with weight loss clients. I noticed this client was very talkative and Joe used a lot of silent cues to keep the client working, like walking toward the next station and picking up the weight or equipment that would be used next. The client got the message to get to work without him having to actually say it to them.

As far as a first session goes, it was pretty basic, and I felt like it reinforced a lot of the basic info Joe shared with me about training programs and how to run a session. I'm looking forward to more of these experiences!

I was also left alone with a bootcamp class one day. This was scary and intimidating at first, but I ended up communicating with the clients and began to time them and give them spots as needed. This experience really made me feel like trainer!

Business Administration

STRICTLY BUSINESS

Joe talked about the business administration or management end of things. Joe describes this as "the least fun part of the work" but very important. You can't be a successful trainer or business if you don't do handle the matters below.  

Joe breaks things down into five major areas to help him organize his business and uses what applies specifically to him.

Finance/Accounting

Income

Expenses

Operation

Marketing

Facility management

Transportation

Information Management

Schedule

Records (business/financial/client/employee)

Communication (internal/external)

Human Resources/Personnel

Recruitment/Hiring/Firing

Employee training/development

Company policy

Employee review/counseling/discipline

Professional networking

Compliance

Payroll/benefits

Research/surveys

Legal/Compliance

Federal, state, and local laws required for business