Fitness Instructing

So the latest news is that I am now a fully qualified Fitness Instructor! I have been working very hard since Christmas onwards doing lots of practical assessments and assignments all whilst working full time and training for a marathon which is not easy. I have taken the time to write a quick blog about what a Fitness Instructor is and how the process would work if you wanted me to design you a training programme.

What is a Fitness Instructor?
A Fitness Instructor is similar to a personal trainer that you would work with in the gym with just a few differences. Mainly that I wouldn’t be working with you one to one for almost every session you completed in the gym. On top of this I wouldn’t be providing you with as much nutritional advice and guidance as a personal trainer. However, one aspect to this is that you don’t have to pay out a high fee for someone to train you for every session whereas you could just get a four-week long training programme with me.

The Fitness Assessment
The first appointment with me would be your initial consultation/assessment. This typically lasts for 45 minutes to an hour. The session will begin with you filling in some paperwork (legal stuff to say you can begin an exercise programme) you will then fill in a lifestyle questionnaire which provides me with information about your hobbies, work life, diet, spare time etc. Once this has been completed I will ask you a few questions about your fitness goals; this could range from wanting to lose weight, improve body shape, improve performance in a certain sport or just feel healthier. I will ask some further questions about your diet, current training level and exercise preferences. After this, I will do a flexibility assessment, this involves me looking at a number of different joints in the body and finding out what movements are restricted due to muscle tension. There would be no point in me giving you exercises to work on your chest muscles if your chest is already tight and pulling your upper back out of position as this will eventually lead to injury! The final part of the assessment would be to ascertain some physical measurements, this includes your height, weight, blood pressure and measuring your waist, thighs and a few other areas.

What happens next?
After the assessment, I will go away and design a training programme just for you. As I know the hours you have free during the week and the number of days available to you I can make exercise fit in around your schedule. As I know your exercise preferences and dislikes, I will make sure that you are doing plenty of activity that you enjoy doing and not lots of activity that you don’t enjoy doing. This will be detailed over a four-week time frame telling you exactly what you need to be doing on every day of the week. This programme will be emailed to you along with some nutritional advice just for you. I will check in with you from time to time in that four-week period just to make sure everything is going ok and you’re not having any issues following the programme.
Motivation is a huge part of an exercise programme, so I will be setting you certain targets to be achieving along the way and be looking to reward you for good progress. I would also recommend speaking to a friend or family member about rewarding you with good progress.

The follow up
Four weeks on from your assessment I will repeat the same steps from your initial appointment and compare between one month in and when you started. You should hopefully see that you are well on your way towards achieving your fitness goals! Once we have run through this, I will design another programme for the next four weeks for you to be doing which will be a bit more advanced than the previous four-week period so that I am pushing you a bit more!
This process continues every four-week period where I would compare your results month by month and then change your training programme around for you until you have reached your ultimate fitness goals!

For any further questions you may have, do feel free to get in contact or alternatively if you are already certain that you want to get your fitness journey started immediately then contact me to book in for your initial assessment.