Excerpt From the NESTA Personal Fitness Trainer Certification
There is a good chance that some of your clients will not be in a state of optimal health when you assess them. The fact that a client is working with you may, in fact, be an indicator of a special need and this could include preventing or managing certain conditions. Individuals with a chronic condition (i.e. asthma, AIDS) or specific situation (i.e. pregnancy, obesity) that either never goes away or one that lasts for months (or years) are in need of special consideration or accommodations in their workout programs and are therefore considered to be a special populations member. This client profile will typically vary from other members of the general population when we consider their responses to physical activity.
These factors or responses involved can be complex and include experiencing greater fatigue versus normal recovery-based fatigued. It may also be difficult to differentiate normal pain from physical exertion versus acute pain or pain from their disease or disorder. CV responses for those in special populations also can be significant, seen when comparing normal elevations in breathing versus labored breathing or overexertion due to their disease or disorder. At the heart specifically, you may observe maladaptive elevations in heart rate from exercise or heart arrhythmias. Thus, the trainer must follow a few simple guidelines once a client is identified as one who falls into a category of special populations.
How to Help Special Populations Fitness Clients
The best way to prevent future problems or aid in the recovery from a chronic condition or disease is through a carefully designed exercise program. There will be situations where a condition has progressed to the point that exercise may not be possible. The goal of the trainer or fitness professional is to prevent this from happening. Although trainers are part of the extremely few health and fitness professionals who exist to help PREVENT disease or abnormal functioning, there will also be situations when a trainer will also be required to design programs for clients who have gone beyond a point of prevention.
Aging and the Elderly
Everyone gets older as time goes by. As we age, our bodies adapt and change. How fast we lose our capabilities of our earlier years is greatly affected by how much we move (frequency) and how effectively we exercise. Some of the changes, listed below, are characteristic of the general population – however, there are exceptions, depending on activity level and other health factors.
How should an aging client progress?
Now that we know about clients who may be part of a special population, it’s time to explore one of the most common groups that you will encounter – those who are aged, or elderly. In general, begin with a program design that features light resistance exercises, utilizing ma- chines that load across the joints used. This is done in order to help increase both basic strength capabilities and bone density. A good program design for a mature client should also include light balance activities, such as standing on one leg for 30 seconds and once mastered, attempting to do the same with the clients eyes closed. The most efficient form of resistance training for an elderly or beginning participant in this population is the use of body weighted exercises (BW) as a starting point, before external loading is incorporated. Progressions should include more difficult exercises, such as learning to move forward, backward, laterally and stepping up and down with external loading, or some time spent holding their position in space. If the individual cannot stabilize properly, then they are most likely not ready to add more complex movements.
Each aging client must be taken as an individual and the utmost consideration for their safety and well-being is a primary responsibility for any trainer. Adequate rest and recover are crucial, just as they are for the average client, and slight modifications must be made depending on their goals. As with all clients, assess performance while encouraging the client to provide feed- back related to how they are feeling while under your watch.
The greatest challenge to the trainer is the need to be constantly aware of the various movements the client must perform both correctly and consistently. This is most effectively done by using observation and assessments of the client from every angle, with the integrity of the kinetic chain always in mind.
