Your members need your help to design a program that will give them the results they want. Here’s what you need to know to do exactly that.
Fitness has become a very generic word. It can mean so many different things nowadays. What does it mean for you and how should you design a program to help your members improve it?
A program design will depend primarily on the objectives of your member, which will likely include one or more of the following:
• Lose weight
• Gain lean muscle mass
• Improve in a sport
• Rehabilitation
• Improve strength
• General health
In order to choose the appropriate type of workout, we must first decide which component(s) of fitness best suits your members’ needs. There are 5 components of fitness:
1. Body Composition
2. Cardiovascular Endurance
3. Muscular Endurance
4. Muscular Strength
5. Flexibility
People who are overweight usually wish to slim down or lose weight. This is a common misconception because what they really wish to do is burn fat. Body composition is defined as the percentage of fat, bone and muscle in the human body. For the sake of this topic, let us focus primarily on fat. It is the excess fat in the body that leads to the appearance of a larger belly, thicker thighs and looser skin. Also, fat is the primary cause of coronary heart disease and other serious illnesses. In my opinion, the healthiest way to lose fat is to incorporate a combination of three things: weight training, cardiovascular exercise and a proper nutrition plan.
Next, for those who wish to gain lean muscle mass, a proper resistance training program along with a nutrition plan is required. You may choose to follow a routine designed for muscular endurance, muscular strength or even a combination of both. It is possible to burn fat and gain lean muscle mass at the same time. In fact, often someone new to weight training will notice a slight weight increase at the beginning of a work out cycle. This is because muscle weighs more than fat. As soon as the muscle fibers adjust to a workout and their development stabilizes, this will reverse and weight loss will occur.
Third, to improve in sports, specific training usually implying plyometrics (a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements and improve the functions of the nervous system to stimulate a specific pattern of movement so the muscle generates a contraction as strong as possible in the shortest amount of time) and flexibility should be followed with the help of a coach or a sport specific trainer.
Rehabilitation usually requires exercising the muscles supporting the problem area and low resistance and slow tempo sets and repetitions. Light static stretching and cardio are also used on occasion depending on the severity of the injury.
To improve strength, a weight training program consisting primarily of low repetitions and high sets with a progressive overload routine (the gradual increase of stress placed upon the body during exercise training) is the ideal combination.
Finally, in order to improve your overall health, all of these 5 components should be improved; this is what we call a healthy lifestyle!
Alec Baltadjian is the Marketing Director of Atlantis Strength Equipment. He can be contacted at 877/454.2285 extension 250 or by email at abaltadjian@atlantis-fit.com .
