Citruscide, some more questions about PT

[SlavikHavik]

Ive been working at the gym now for 5 days. Most of what ive been doing has been fitness evaluations and writting programs for people. Other than demonstrating a few exercises I havent really done too much training. Although, ive got a few clients booked for next week.

Most of the people i deal with are
Are men over 40 in decent shape, but with their fair share of joint problems. And badly overweight women who also have some joint problems.

Writting programs for these people has been some trouble. The biggest thing is injuries. The joint problems aside. Id feel uncomfortable telling someone just to go out and start squatting with no expierience.

The other is that they have no intensity by themselves. Especially the women. Most of my routines are very low volume, with a higher frequency. which work great if you put the intensity into the sets, and not at all if your just going through the motions.

so what do you do about telling people to do potentially harmful exercises, that require some practice? assuming your not going to be training people

and if you knwo there not going to be doing each set with much intensity, should give them more volume, just assuming theyll slack off on each set

again, thanks for all the help

 

[MikeNYCguy]

This is my take:

If you are writing a fitness program for someone that will workout unsupervised without a personal trainer, stick with a prescription that gives a lightweight, "cardio" paced (high volume) workout for the individual...especially if the individual has little experience.

Avoid exercises where the individual can easily deviate from using proper range and angle of motion--- use machines and select them carefully, and avoid prescribing the use of free weights especially on compound movements.

Good luck!