[Bill Hartman]

Well done JP!

The following is an exerpt from the book "Never too Old to Rock n Roll: Reenergize, Refocus, Refire your Life but never Retire Your Dreams" by Tom Hardin...

This is actually part of my contibution (I wrote the fitness chapter)prior to editing and rewrites (I can't put up the actual chapter...sorry)

It includes a test to see how much your personal trainer really knows...correct answers are good for 1/2 of a HARTMAN certification...

What Do I Need To Do Before I Start an Exercise Program?
Educate yourself
First, educate yourself. You need to understand:

• Exercise in general [For instance, how does exercise affect the body, especially the muscles?]

• The amount of effort it takes to reach a certain exercise goal [For instance, one hour of weight training burns about 300–500 calories while running or walking burns about 100 calories/mile. Therefore, it’s unrealistic to expect to lose forty pounds by walking a mile a day.]

• The specific types of exercise that you are considering. [For instance, how does aerobic exercise differ from anaerobic exercises (such as strength training)?]

There are a lot of books available for someone seeking such an education.

Get a professional assessment of your physical condition
Once you understand the basics of exercise, get a thorough assessment of your condition. Go to your physician, tell him or her that you’re starting an exercise program and that you are concerned about strength, flexibility and cardiovascular conditioning. Even if the physician is not an expert on exercise, he or she can still perform tests (such as treadmill tests) to evaluate you for health risks, cardiovascular condition, etc. If the tests uncover a heart problem, you will need to work with your doctor to design an exercise program that will not overly tax your heart.

Then, your physician may refer you to a physical therapist for an assessment of posture, range of motion, and any potential skeletal problems. This assessment will help you understand your current physical condition (the starting point for your exercise program).

Note: The cost of such an assessment is not usually covered by health insurance.

Find a trainer
After that, you need to begin an organized search for a trainer. You should not start a training program without some guidance from a professional.

Note: Launching a self-directed exercise program is a little like trying to perform surgery on yourself. Theoretically, you can design an exercise program yourself, but it’s also very easy to go wrong on your own. If you go wrong, you’re likely to become frustrated and quit, or even injure yourself.

Why Do I Need a Personal Trainer?
There are three main reasons for hiring a personal trainer:

1. With the assistance of a trainer, you’re more likely to attain the goals that made you start exercising in the first place.

2. A trainer can significantly lessen the chances that you will hurt yourself as you exercise.

3. A trainer makes the process of getting fit more efficient. You will save a lot of time and get better results if you seek professional help from the outset.

How Can I Find the Right Personal Trainer to Help Me?
Finding a qualified trainer can be a difficult task. You can’t just ask someone to recommend a trainer, because, even if he or she knows an excellent trainer for one exercise discipline, that trainer may not be the best for someone interested in another exercise discipline. For instance, someone who trains long-distance runners and is recommended by such a runner may not be a good choice for you unless you want to do long-distance running.

Also, you cannot rely strictly on credentials. Contrary to popular belief, certification does not qualify an individual as a quality personal trainer. There are no standards for or regulation of “certified strength training,” so there are many poorly qualified, poorly trained people who may have purchased “certification” from a company that does nothing but “certify” trainers.

Therefore, before hiring a trainer, you need to educate yourself. As I mentioned above, you need to learn about exercise in general, the amount of effort it takes to reach a certain exercise goal, and the specific types of exercise that you are considering.

Then, you will be able to ask intelligent questions to those trainers you are considering hiring. Once you have a list of questions to ask, call several trainers and set up interviews with them. If they can’t answer your questions, find someone else who can.

I’ve developed a set of questions that can help you assess the qualifications of a personal trainer. These cover a trainer’s background, experience, and basic knowledge of exercise physiology. As there are no standards of education for personal trainers, it is imperative that you test a trainer before hiring him. If he is insulted by your questioning, he is not the trainer for you.

Questions 1–6 are designed to discover your interviewee’s basic background
1. Do you have a college degree in an exercise-related field?

Comment: A degree just indicates that the trainer has been exposed to a wealth of information about exercise and fitness. It doesn’t mean he is a good or bad trainer. However, it does mean that you can’t study for thirty days and take one test to become knowledgeable enough to be a trainer.

2. Do you know CPR and have proof of your CPR training?

Comment: I realize this is a “worst case” scenario, but if you suffer a heart attack in his presence, a trainer should be able to apply CPR until help arrives.

3. How long have you been a personal trainer.

Comment: Experience counts…sometimes.

4. Are you certified? By which organization?

Comment: Currently, the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association are considered to be the “gold standards” of certifying organizations. They require you to have a college degree before taking their exams.

On the other end of the scale, there are companies that provide general exercise-related information and an exam for a price. In essence, you can “buy” a certification. To say that such certification is nationally or internationally recognized means nothing, since there are no uniform standards established for such recognition.

5. Can I get regular appointments that fit my schedule? How do you expect to be paid? What happens if I miss an appointment? What happens if you miss an appointment?

Comment: There are really no right or wrong answers here. However, the trainer should have established policies and you should be comfortable with them.

6. Can you treat minor injuries if they occur?

Comment: Any trainer should be able to treat injuries with RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation) and then refer you to a physician for further treatment.

Questions 7–19 are designed to discover what your interviewee really knows about anatomy and exercise physiology
Note: You should be sure you thoroughly understand the anatomy and physiology behind these questions, so you can tell whether the answers given are “good” answers, even if they don’t exactly match the answers I’ve given here.

7. In what plane of movement does flexion and extension occur?

A: The sagittal plane.

Comment: This is a very basic question. Anyone with even a limited knowledge of anatomy should be able to answer it. The sagittal plane divides the body in right and left halves. For example, reaching straight out in front of the body requires flexion of your shoulder. Kicking a ball requires flexion of the hip.

By the way, if the trainer talks about muscles themselves flexing, he doesn’t understand the term flexion. Muscles don’t flex; they contract or relax.

8. Name all the abdominal muscles.

A: Rectus abdominis (the 6-pack muscles), external oblique, internal oblique, and transversus abdominis.

Comment: Most trainers don’t know about the transversus abdominis as it is rarely trained independently of the other abdominal muscles.

9. What is the ultimate source of energy for muscle contraction?

A: ATP, which stands for adenosine triphosphate.

Comment: The answer is not fat or sugar (carbohydrate) or protein. These are substrates for enzymes that generate ATP via specific cellular processes.

10. Plantar flexion occurs at what joint?

A: The ankle.

Comment: Standing on your toes requires plantar flexion.

11. What is the Karvonen method?

A: This is a method for calculating the optimum training heart rate. It takes into account a person’s maximum heart rate (based on age) and current resting heart rate.

Comment: This information is in any exercise physiology textbook. Ask the trainer for the general explanation above or better yet test his math skills and have him actually calculate your target threshold heart rate.

The calculation looks like this for the minimum threshold heart rate of 60%:

HR threshold = HR resting + 0.60 (HR maximum – HR resting)

(In this equation, HR = heart rate.)

For example, if you are 34 years old with a resting heart rate of 60 beats per minute (BPM), the correct answer will be 136 beats per minute. [136 BPM = 60 + 0.60(186 – 60)]

12. Which of the following is more anaerobic: interval training using multiple intervals of a 1:3 work-to-rest ratio or intervals of a 1:1 work-to-rest ratio? Why?

A: A 1:3 interval is more anaerobic because the rest time is longer.

13. In general, which of the following training protocols will result in greater strength: sets of 4–6 repetitions, 8–12 repetitions, or 12–15 repetitions?

A: 4–6 reps because it allows use of heavier weights. In other words, performing a low number of reps (4–6) with heavier weights will lead to greater strength than a high number of reps (8–12, 12–15) with lighter weights.

Comment: This is a very easy question. No trainer should miss it.

14. What is a Valsalva Maneuver?

A: Technically, the maneuver is a forced exhalation against a closed glottis. In simpler terms, it’s a reflexive holding of your breath when you lift a heavy object. It is also responsible for a large, TEMPORARY increase in blood pressure and is not recommended for clients with heart conditions.

15. Knee flexion is accomplished by contracting which muscles?

A: The hamstrings (semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris).

Comment: Give him extra credit for being able to name each muscle.

16. In reference to exercise, what does the acronym FITT stand for?

A: Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type.

17. In reference to minor injury treatment, what does the acronym RICE stand for?

A: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

18. What two hormones antagonistically control blood sugar?

A: Insulin (that’s the easy one) and glucagon. Insulin lowers blood sugar and glucagon triggers an increase in blood sugar.

19. What is a synchronized lumbomechanical protocol4?

A: This is a trick question. There is no such thing.

Comment: This is a great question to test the integrity of your trainer. If he attempts to answer it, he is trying to impress you by attempting to appear technically educated. Enjoy watching him squirm. Then ask him to leave.

A few more considerations
Here are a few more of Bill’s comments about good personal trainers. You might want to keep them in mind, too.

• Preferably, a trainer should have both a medical background and an exercise background. For instance, someone who has worked as a physical therapist will know how to conduct an orthopedic assessment. He also will be sensitive to spinal and other problems.

• Some trainers tend to train people like they train themselves, and that’s really not advisable. That’s not an individualized approach.

Each client deserves an individualized program. If someone offers a “cookbook” approach applicable to you and to all exercisers, chances are that you are going to be in a very unsafe program.

For example, I’ve been in gyms where I’ve seen people who look like “heart attacks waiting to happen,” yet the trainer is standing over them and screaming at them to get them to lift a certain weight that they really shouldn’t be lifting in the first place. That approach is based on a lack of knowledge and experience. If you don’t have someone who can recognize people at cardiovascular risk, he shouldn’t be training anyone.

• Anyone with orthopedic problems needs to undergo a whole body assessment (i.e., from a physical therapist) before starting a strength training program.

• Trainers charge anywhere from $15 to $200 per hour. A reasonable amount to invest in a trainer should be about $30-60 per hour.