An enlightening weekend
acsm, personal training, certification, workouts
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For the past three days I have been attending an American College of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer workshop at Manhattan College in The Bronx.
The workshop is intended to help aspiring trainers prepare for the ACSM's certification exam. It's essentially a cram course that extracts the key concepts from the voluminous study materials published by ACSM for those planning to take the exam.
After trying to read and absorb the overwhelming amount of information in the recommended texts over the past few weeks, I was somewhat relieved to find that much of the workshop reinforced material that was covered in my WITS course last fall, in some cases going into greater depth on the science behind the material.
The instructor, Tedd Keating, is a professor of physical education and human performance at Manhattan. He presented the material in a lively and interesting fashion.
There were 12 people participating in the workshop for all three days, with two more joining us for the one-day session Sunday. It was a diverse group, including several people already working as personal trainers, as well as a couple of firefighters, an actor, a Jehovah's Witnesses volunteer, and, of course, one middle-aged journalist. I learned as much from my fellow students as I did from the workshop presentations.
For me, the most valuable part of the workshop came in Sunday morning's session, at which we were presented with several hypothetical case studies of people embarking on an exercise program. Using the information provided, we got together in small groups to determine each person's risk factors and individual needs, and then to design a workout program involving cardio, flexibility and resistance training. This is exactly the sort of exercise I'd been looking for.
Curiously, a case study we dealt with involved a client named "Homer," an overweight, 37-year-old nuclear power plant worker whose only exercise included walking to the vending machines, and whose hobbies included watching TV and eating. Got it? Doh!!
I definitely feel better equipped to tackle the exam after taking the workshop, although I want to get my internship out of the way and get the WITS certification first.
Unfortunately I had to skip the final recap session Sunday afternoon to go see my son in a college play, and then take the family out to dinner to celebrate Mothers Day. On that note, Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers out there!
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on 5/12/2008
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