Planning a move? You and your family may be able to enroll in health insurance

If you or your family are moving (or have moved in the past 60 days), you may still be able to enroll in affordable family health insurance this year through a Special Enrollment Period.

Travel and Vacation with Personal Training Clients

“I wish I could take you on vacation with me.”

Many clients say it aloud, while others are thinking it in their mind.  Why on earth you'd want a health nut on vacation with you is beyond me!  Vacation is a time for letting loose and splurging, right?  But, seriously – I do get it.

Nobody likes to get off track.  It's hard to back on.

Any good trainer sends their clients off with “homework”.  This could be body weight exercises, a cardio plan or a resistance band to aid them in staying strong while on vacation (and serve as a reminder).  Many personal trainers don't have the time to travel with clients and maintain their business back at home.  And some find it to be un-professional.

However…

There are personal trainers who successfully travel and vacation with clients while maintaining professionalism. Some go with a family or group for the week, others just a few days for an event. Think about families who bring child care with them on vacation.  It's a similar concept. Perhaps you have skills to do both?

If you're intrigued by the idea of getting out of the gym to see the world, there is potential for it to happen. First, decide how it fits into your lifestyle and work schedule. Then, let people know that you're available to do it and paint a picture for them of what it looks like.

Consider this:

• Can you take off work for a week comfortably?


•  Is the experience worth the possibly reduced pay?

Pay cut?

Most likely the person you're traveling with will cover your lodging, transportation and meals.  Some people can afford to pay for your travel and wages and happily do so, while others may not.  If they're going to a sporting event that you want to attend or on vacation somewhere you'd like to experience, it might be worth it to you to just for the adventure.  Sporting events can also be good networking opportunities.

Negotiating the details of travel and vacation

1. How many days are you willing to travel for?
   
   *Perhaps you can leave town for 2-3 days and shift your other sessions around.


2. Decide what it's worth to you.
   
   *Can you settle for a free trip or do you have an hourly/daily rate?


3. Write down the benefits for the client who is paying the bill.
   
   *Why would they want to bring you along with them?

Mixing work with pleasure

When traveling and vacationing with personal training clients it's easy to lose sight of the work relationship at meals and entertaining events.  There's a fine line between being fun and professional.

Here are a few tips to keep the peace:

1. Have your own separate bedroom.


2. Avoid alcoholic beverages at meal times or limit yourself to one if the client is having one.


3. Excuse yourself from dinner to have down-time shortly after the meal completes.  This will help you avoid joining any late night celebrating that happens.


4. Set yourself a curfew if you plan to go out at night.


5. Discuss expectations with your client.  Hours, meals shared, finances, etc.


6. Make time for yourself, it can be challenging to be “on” 24/7 while traveling.

Getting your first gig

Keep your ears open for clients who are competing in events or worried about falling off track when they travel.  You could casually say, “I'm available to travel professionally.  Would that be of interest to you?”  See where the conversation leads you.  If no one is dropping hints, then you can create a newsletter or flier that outlines your services as a traveling personal trainer and provide them to your clients.  Perhaps they aren't interested, but have a friend looking.

If it still feels too personal to travel with individual clients, but you're craving adventure in your career you can arrange an organized fitness vacation or day hike trip for a group of clients.

One last very important tip

Check with your insurance company and lawyer about coverage when you're out of town.  You might need a special liability waiver and insurance clause in case something happens to you or your client.  Better safe than sorry!

We're wondering….

• Have you ever traveled with a client?


• What interests you about personal training people on vacation?


• Share with us in the comments!

The post Travel and Vacation with Personal Training Clients appeared first on The NFPT Blog.

Gym Instructor Exercise Technique & Inductions – May 16

The post Gym Instructor Exercise Technique & Inductions – May 16 appeared first on Personal Trainers Training.

Prostate cancer 'linked to waist size'

Men with larger waistlines could be at higher risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer, a study suggests.

Combating Stress Adaptation With Variety

Do you or someone you know have a “routine” when you go to the gym?  Remember when you first worked out with these killer moves and were sore the next day? Keeping this routine with the same number of reps, sets, weight & plane of motion can quickly put your results to a halt.  Weird since your workout seemed to be so effective to begin with.  This is the result of something called stress adaptation response.

Stress adaptation response is experienced when your body experiences a level of stress higher than previously received.  Once stressed, the tissue  causes the body to pull in stress stabilizing proteins and beneficial inflammatory mediators.  After removal of the stress, the body generally returns to homeostasis within 6 to 48 hours.  At a fitness level, this means an increase in physical capability.  You or your client increase the  level of fitness and potentially body composition.   Failing to continue to exercise these muscles to the point of stress will allow the muscles to quickly adapt and therefore slow progression.

Whether or not you are needing to switch up your workouts or keep it fresh when you train clients, there are a multitude of ways to accomplish this goal.  I like to think of some of the basic type of movements and coming up with variations.  You can change things up by increasing range of motion, plane of motion, modality, plyometric or isometric movement, etc.  Go crazy!!!

Here are some examples I use for variations to the basics:

Move – Forward lunge

Switch – Lunge with kettlebell swing

Hold a kettlebell in the opposing hand of your lead leg. As you step forward to lunge, swing both arms forward and the kettlebell forward to eye level. Holding weight unevenly will challenge your balance, obliques and add dynamic to this exercise essential.

Move – Push-up

Switch – Push-up on dumbbells

Place dumbbells in an upright position and hands on top.  If your dumbells are unable to stand upright, you can also lay them flat.  With your hands elevated, you will increase the range of motion that your pecs have to work and add extra stress to these working muscle groups.

Move – Squats

Switch – Pop squats

Lower into a squat, stand up explosively and jump the feet together.  Jump the feet back out to lower into a squat.  Adding in this jump will activate more type II muscle fibers and a cardio element to it.

Move – Plank

Switch – Plank with feet on medicine ball

With both hands firm on the ground, place one foot on the ball with your leg fully extended.  Engaging your core step the other foot onto the ball and balance as long as you can.

As a personal trainer, I have found that varying workouts give a continuous challenge of balance, strength and stamina to my clients.  What are some of your favorite twists to a fundamental exercise?

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Posture Makes Perfect: Helping Your OA Clients Avoid Falls by Improving Posture

Standing in Line

You may have heard the phrase “military bearing,” that upright posture that service members adopt that sticks with them for a lifetime. As it happens, a soldier standing at attention is practicing the most efficient and least energy wasting posture. If you were to hang a plumb line at the level of the ear canal, its horizontal axis would intersect the shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. When standing and moving with optimal posture, you are less likely to lose your balance. However, as people age, they often develop poor postural habits that shift their center of gravity and predispose them to poor balance that can lead to falls and injury. Failure to exercise and remain physically active leads to muscle weakness that exacerbates the problem.

Balance is Basic

Your muscles pull against your bones in antagonism to other muscles to hold your skeleton erect. Think of a camping tent, where tension lines running from the tent corners to stakes in the ground enable the tent to stay upright. If one stake is unearthed, the tent will begin to sag and lean. Likewise, optimal muscle tension at your joints helps hold you erect and keeps you from sagging and leaning. To encourage good muscular balance, it is important to perform both stretching and strengthening exercises at all the major joints, along with trunk and pelvic floor exercises to support and align the spine. When your weight is optimally distributed around your center of gravity, you are not only less likely to lose your balance, but you are also minimizing wear and tear on your joints, bones and muscles.

Correcting Common Postural Problems

Weak muscles and poor flexibility contribute significantly to poor posture. Certain daily behaviors and practices can cause postural changes over time that may be difficult to reverse. Nevertheless, you can help your OA clients improve posture by identifying common trouble areas. For sedentary clients who spend most of their time sitting, tight hip flexor muscles coupled with weak hamstring and gluteal muscles can result in a forward pitch at the hips when standing or walking. Stretching the hip flexors and strengthening the hip extensors can help correct the situation. Exaggerated forward curvature of the upper spine, a condition called kyphosis, may result from slouching, reading, driving, spending excessive time on the computer or any other activity where you round your shoulders forward. The result is tight chest and shoulder muscles coupled with weak back muscles. Stretching the chest and shoulders while strengthening the mid and upper back muscles can help to offset the problem. Because the core muscles play an important role in supporting the spine and dictating pelvic alignment, core training should be well integrated into your workout regimen.

Resources

Educating yourself about older adult health is key to successfully working with this diverse population. W.I.T.S. has got you covered with certification and continuing education courses including Certified Older Adult Fitness Specialist, Able Bodies Balance Training, Certified Personal Trainer, Older Adult Fitness Foundations, and Exercise Program Design for Special Populations.

References and Credits

IDEA Health and Fitness Association: The Perils of Poor Posture

The Perils of Poor Posture

*Images courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net.

Three Fitness Program Ideas Catered to School Teachers

Many school teachers take the summer months off from work.  Some travel, but others seek to have “me time”.  This is where you come in.  Elevate your summer business by tuning into teachers unique needs and fill the empty time slots of your clients on vacation.

Program Idea #1 for school teachers

Start a group fitness class just for teachers.  All you need is a few from each school in town to get the word out.  They're a tight knit network.  Come up with a class name that appeals to them and structure it to be beneficial but fun.

A few ideas to get you started:

• Teaching the teacher


• Fitness for educators


• Exercise your way back to school

 

Program Idea #2 for school teachers

For those that want the personal experience, create a 12-week personal training program that's catered toward long-term success.  The school year proposes many challenges to staying in shape.  Carefully investigate the unique needs of the teacher client to identify what days and times they could commit to fitness in the fall.  

Ask these questions:

• Is morning, evening or lunch time best for you squeeze in physical activity?


• Do you have 20, 30 or 60 minutes to commit to workday physical activity?


• Are weekdays or weekends better for you to exercise?


• Do you have access to any fitness equipment or a gym at school?

Once you know their specific needs, you can spend the rest of your time together designing and tweaking a specific workout routine.  Teach them how to exercise on their own safely.

It might seem strange to instruct yourself out of a job by teaching them what to do.  But, if they're not going to have time to work out with you anyhow, why not give them the tools they need to succeed?  Then, they'll be more likely to contact you on winter break and next summer.

When you hold onto clients too tightly they feel smothered.  Provide them with freedom and independence instead.  They'll look to you as a leader and appreciate knowing that you have their best interest in mind.

Program Idea #3 for school teachers

Organize a walking, hiking or biking group for school teachers.  They're a social crowd and will enjoy being with like-minded people.  Groups naturally help motivate and hold each other accountable.  Be the fitness leader that you are and commit to a day and time each week.  This could be volunteer, by donation or for a fee.  It's your choice.

Finding school teachers

• Ask your current clients if they know any school teachers.


• Offer a free talk or sample workout to a local school.  (even though it's summer – people are around)


• Once you find a teacher, ask them for other ideas on how to locate their peers.

Do you have clients who are teachers?  Tell us what they love about workout out with you!

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