Remember how I told you guys that I signed up to take an ACE personal training course to prepare me to take the test to get certified? Well, we’re four classes in and it’s going great.
There is a ton of information packed into each 3-hour class, but I have no problem staying alert because I find it all to be incredibly interesting. The anatomy and physiology sections can be a bit dense at times, but I’m soaking in all the information on rapport, planning, and creating routines.
Although I’ve taken many group fitness classes, I have never worked with a personal trainer one-on-one. You’d think that as an aspiring trainer I would have some experience being trained myself. But I don’t.
Last night, one of my classmates (who already trains through a different certification) offered to run me through a workout so that I could see what it was like being on the other end of the trainer-trainee spectrum.
Despite the fact that I’m not (yet) a trainer, I always seem to be training in a sense. That is, I’m always sharing the knowledge I’ve acquired over the years with those who are seeking it. I was pretty interested to see what it was like to have someone else telling me what to do in the gym.
To be honest, I wasn’t even sure if I would like someone else essentially telling me what to do.
So what’s the verdict of being the trainee? LOVED it. The trainer ran me through a brutal back workout that had muscle soreness setting in before I even left the gym.
It was wonderful to have someone else do the thinking and planning while I just buckled down and did the work. It was also extremely beneficial to have my form corrected. I’m certain there are a lot of moves that I’m doing incorrectly and sometimes it takes another person to point that out.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the most experienced when it comes to strength workouts. I know the basics but when it comes to training specific parts of my body, I get a little lost.
I explained to my trainer (for the night) that while I do plenty of chest work, I often neglect my back. This probably means that I have an imbalance in my upper body strength – my chest is stronger, while my back is weaker. So I’ll be doing this back routine once a week along with my chest work.
See below for pictures of each move.
bent over barbell row (palms facing in)
bent over row (palms facing away from body) – keep your elbows in
straight leg deadlift
bent over dumbbell rows (palms facing each other)
back fly with a cable pulley
hyperextensions to a V-shape
wide-grip overhand machine assisted pull up
Next time, we’re going to focus on shoulders. Apparently one of my shoulders is more developed than the other (from lugging around heavy bags on that side), so I’ll be doing an extra set on my weaker shoulder to compensate.
I would have never known that these imbalances even existed if it weren’t for this class. So even if I won’t be able to use my knowledge to help others right off the bat (grad school will be taking most of my time), I can at least use the knowledge to help myself.
Have you ever worked with a trainer one-on-one?
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