A week from hell
star-ledger, depression, workouts, adrenaline
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Please bear with me while I vent. I promise there will be a fitness angle in here somewhere.
This week we Star-Ledger staffers got some devastating news. The publisher announced that unless some drastic cost-cutting measures are adopted, the paper will be put up for sale on Oct. 1. While the present owners, the Newhouse family, have a no-layoff policy, a new owner would likely cut the staff drastically and cut pay and benefits for those who remain.
The only way the sale can be avoided is if 200 employees, a little more than a quarter of the staff, accept buyouts, and if the drivers and mailers unions accept some major contract concessions. Under the buyout offer, we would receive a year's salary and benefits if we agree to leave by the end of the year. However, even if enough people apply for the buyout, if the unions don't accept the concessions, the buyout offer will be rescinded and the paper will still be sold.
Needless to say, I've been in shock for the past few days, as have all of my colleagues. I have a kid in college and a big mortgage. The Star-Ledger has been my home for almost 20 years now, and I've been in the newspaper business for my entire 35-year working life. The whole newspaper business is collapsing now due to competition from the Internet, so my chances of finding another newspaper job are essentially nil. If I leave The Star-Ledger, I'm going to have to go into another field entirely.
We've all known for a long time that the newspaper business is in trouble, and that's one reason I've been pursuing the personal trainer certification. However, I expected I would have more time to phase into it before the ax fell. And unfortunately my internship has been progressing more slowly than I would have liked, because I can only do it on weekends, and the Y only allows me to do the supervised training on new member orientations. And in the summer, people frequently cancel on w... read entire entry
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on 8/2/2008
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6.4
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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-... read entire entry
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on 5/12/2008
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24.5
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