How To Handle Embarrassing Client Moments
We’ve all been there–your client does something he or she finds embarrassing and you must handle the moment with grace and aplomb. If you are caught off guard in such situations you could make the interaction even more uncomfortable, or potentially even lose your client, by reacting without thinking or failing to react at all. […]
Melissa Rohlfs–Personal Trainer Spotlight
Why did you decide to become a health and life coach? I got my fitness nutrition specialist from NFPT a few years ago and was really fascinated by the impact food has on our overall health {energy, mood, etc.} After having my own transformation in my personal relationship with food, I felt called to pay […]
BFR Training: How it Works and How to Use it With Fitness Clients
If you are immersed in the world of fitness, chances are you have already heard of, or seen, or researched blood flow restriction (BFR) straps and training, also known as occlusion training. What on the outset may appear to be a fitness fad, there is plenty of solid research backing up the efficacy of this […]
The Overhead Squat: The Best Movement Assessment to Expose Muscle Imbalances
Most personal training clients arrive with muscle imbalances that need to be corrected in order to make gains and prevent injury. The most skillful of trainers should employ initial assessments and be able to accurately assess most of these imbalances with a single movement: the overhead squat. This movement is the simplest, quickest way to […]
Interpreting Signs of Overhead Squat Assessment: Lower Extremity Dysfunction
After getting familiar with performing an overhead squat assessment (OHSA) and noting any signs of imbalance or dysfunction, you’ll have to know what to do with that information to be of any help to your fitness clients. Start from the ground up, since so much dysfunction is rooted in the lower extremities, makes good, logical […]
How to Perform an Overhead Barbell Press
Execution of a standing overhead barbell press may appear to be a simple movement, but technique is often difficult to nail down due to muscle imbalances and mobility issues. Teaching a personal training client to properly prepare for the movement, engage the core, and remain focused on form is no easy task. An overhead press […]
How To Do Bodyweight Dips
Performing bodyweight dips requires mastering your entire bodyweight just like its distant cousins the chin-up and the pull-up. Dips also require extensive shoulder mobility to perform effectively and without injury–probably even more so that the two former. The dip hits heavily the pectorals, anterior deltoids and triceps muscles. Secondarily, the lats are employed at the […]
Personal Training Client Types, Why They Hire You, and How to Knock Their Socks Off
For every year you’re in the fitness industry, there’s another personal training client type you will have assessed and categorized in the back of your personal trainer brain. Not that everyone you meet will fit neatly into one of these pigeonholes necessarily, but you can expect the majority of the folks you encounter to fall […]
Gunnar Walcavich–NFPT Personal Trainer Spotlight
Meet Gunnar: brimming with grit, determination, enthusiasm and confidence. And all this he hopes to cultivate in his fitness clients. Gunnar is a professional boxer with high aspirations while maintaining his passion for sharing fitness with others. Here’s his story: How long have you been certified with NFPT? Certified for a year and a half […]
The Pelvic Girdle: How Personal Trainers Gain a Deeper Understanding of Anatomy
It’s helpful for certified personal trainers to understand the bone structure and joints of the pelvic girdle given how much movement takes place through the hips, and also, how many issues tend to surface with clients’ form, function and even pain issues. Naming the Basic Pelvis Parts At the very least, every trainer should have […]