A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, providing meaningful feedback, and by being a reliable source for accountability. Trainers also conduct a variety of assessments beginning with a preparticipation health-screening and may also include assessments of posture and movement, flexibility, balance, core function, cardio-respiratory fitness, muscular fitness, body composition, and skill-related parameters to observe and gather relevant information needed to develop an effective exercise program and support client goal attainment.
Aerobic exercise, also known as cardio, is physical exercise of low to high intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. "Aerobic" is defined as "relating to, involving, or requiring oxygen", and refers to the use of oxygen to meet energy demands during exercise via aerobic metabolism adequately. Aerobic exercise is performed by repeating sequences of light-to-moderate intensity activities for extended periods of time. Examples of cardiovascular or aerobic exercise are medium- to long-distance running or jogging, swimming, cycling, stair climbing and walking.
Kinesiology is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human health include biomechanics and orthopedics; strength and conditioning; sport psychology; motor control; skill acquisition and motor learning; methods of rehabilitation, such as physical and occupational therapy; and sport and exercise physiology. Studies of human and animal motion include measures from motion tracking systems, electrophysiology of muscle and brain activity, various methods for monitoring physiological function, and other behavioral and cognitive research techniques.
Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sports and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally incorporates areas of physiology, psychology, anatomy, biomechanics, biochemistry, and kinesiology.
Athletic training is an allied health care profession recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA) that "encompasses the prevention, examination, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of emergent, acute, or chronic injuries and medical conditions." There are five areas of athletic training listed in the seventh edition (2015) of the Athletic Training Practice Analysis: injury and illness prevention and wellness promotion; examination, assessment, diagnosis; immediate and emergency care; therapeutic intervention; and healthcare administration and professional responsibility.
An athletic trainer is a certified and licensed health care provider who practices in the field of sports medicine. Athletic training has been recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA) as an allied health care profession since 1990.
Aerobic conditioning is the use of continuous, rhythmic movement of large muscle groups to strengthen the heart and lungs. Improvement in aerobic conditioning occurs when athletes expose themselves to an increase in oxygen uptake and metabolism, but to keep this level of aerobic conditioning, the athletes must keep or progressively increase their training to increase their aerobic conditioning.
Long slow distance (LSD) is a form of aerobic endurance training used in sports including running, rowing, skiing and cycling. It is also known as aerobic endurance training, base training and Zone 2 training. Physiological adaptations to LSD training include improved cardiovascular function, improved thermoregulatory function, improved mitochondrial energy production, increased oxidative capacity of skeletal muscle, and increased utilization of fat for fuel. Ernst van Aaken, a German physician and coach, is generally recognized as the founder of the LSD method of endurance training.
Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), also known as neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) or electromyostimulation, is the elicitation of muscle contraction using electric impulses. EMS has received an increasing amount of attention in the last few years for many reasons: it can be utilized as a strength training tool for healthy subjects and athletes; it could be used as a rehabilitation and preventive tool for people who are partially or totally immobilized; it could be utilized as a testing tool for evaluating the neural and/or muscular function in vivo. EMS has been proven to be more beneficial before exercise and activity due to early muscle activation. Recent studies have found that electrostimulation has been proven to be ineffective during post exercise recovery and can even lead to an increase in Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a sports medicine and exercise science membership organization. Founded in 1954, ACSM holds conferences, publishes books and journals, and offers certification programs for personal trainers and exercise physiologists.
East Carolina University College of Health and Human Performance is an American college of Health and Human Performance. It has five departments and nine laboratories. It offers degrees in Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Education, Master of Science and Ph.D.
Endurance training is the act of exercising to increase endurance. The term endurance training generally refers to training the aerobic system as opposed to the anaerobic system. The need for endurance in sports is often predicated as the need of cardiovascular and simple muscular endurance, but the issue of endurance is far more complex. Endurance can be divided into two categories including: general endurance and specific endurance. Endurance in sport is closely tied to the execution of skill and technique. A well conditioned athlete can be defined as, the athlete who executes his or her technique consistently and effectively with the least effort. Key for measuring endurance are heart rate, power in cycling and pace in running.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to exercise:
Exercise prescription commonly refers to the specific plan of fitness-related activities that are designed for a specified purpose, which is often developed by a fitness or rehabilitation, or Exercise medicine specialist for the client or patient. Due to the specific and unique needs and interests of the client/patient, the goal of exercise prescription should focus on motivation and customization, thus making achieving goals more likely to become successful. Exercise prescription should take into account the patient's medical history, and a pre-examination of a patient's physical fitness to make sure a person has the capacity to perform the exercises.
A professional fitness coach is a professional in the field of fitness and exercise, most often instruction, including professional sports club's fitness trainers and aerobics and yoga instructors and authors of fitness instruction books or manuals.
Athletics is a term encompassing the human competitive sports and games requiring physical skill, and the systems of training that prepare athletes for competitive performance. Athletic sports or contests are competitions which are primarily based on human physical competition, demanding the qualities of stamina, fitness, and skill. Athletic sports form the bulk of popular sporting activities, with other major forms including motorsports, precision sports, extreme sports and animal sports.
Liam Hennessy is an Exercise Physiologist, Strength and conditioning coach and former international athlete from Cappawhite, Tipperary, Ireland, who competed in the pole vault, and has worked both with professional athletes and teams and as an academic researcher. He founded the distance learning institution Setanta College.
The National Council on Strength and Fitness (NCSF) is a member-driven organization of exercise professionals located in Coral Gables, Florida. The NCSF board for certification oversees the National Commission for Certifying Agencies accredited credentialing programs and advocates on behalf of exercise professionals. In 2004, the NCSF organization expanded internationally, offering exercise professional credentialing worldwide. In partnership with Prometric Testing Services the organization provides accredited certification exams in over 10,000 centers within its global network.
Training masks are facial masks worn to limit the intake of air during breathing. Their ostensible purpose is to strengthen the respiratory musculature by making it work harder. There is some evidence that they may improve endurance capacity (VO2 max) and power output, but research into their benefits has so far generally proven inconclusive.
Velocity based training (VBT) is a modern approach to strength training and power training which utilises velocity tracking technology to provide rich objective data as a means to motivate and support real-time adjustments in an athlete's training plan. Typical strength and power programming and periodisation plans rely on the manipulation of reps, sets and loads as a means to calibrate training stressors in the pursuit of specific adaptations. Since the late 1990s, innovations in bar speed monitoring technology has brought velocity based training closer to the mainstream as the range of hardware and software solutions for measuring exercise velocities have become easier to use and more affordable. Velocity based training has a wide range of use cases and applications in strength and conditioning. These include barbell sports such as powerlifting and Olympic weightlifting and Crossfit, as well as rock climbing.Velocity based training is widely adopted across professional sporting clubs, with the data supporting many periodisation decisions for coaches in the weight room and on the field.
