A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSE FOR PERSONAL TRAINERS

Enhance your personal training business and stand out from the rest. This course will give you lots of tips and guide you through how to provide your clients with better service and more offerings than your competitors.

Enhance your business, help your clients achieve results and build your brand as a personal trainer.

The Benefits Of This Course

• People who understand how to train, wanting to work as a personal trainer
• Fitness leaders, coaches, health professionals
• Personal trainers seeking to better manage their work

PERSONAL TRAINING PROFESSIONALS
Personal trainers are fitness professionals who help people to attain health and fitness goals. Personal training is not just about helping someone to become as slim as they want to be or to have the muscles they want.

It is also about helping people to find a peak level of health, wellbeing and fitness and achieving what they want to achieve.

Personal trainers usually operate on a one-to-one basis, but occasionally will work with small groups. They will work to develop an individual fitness programme for their client, that helps to motivate them and guide them to achieve their goals.

As we said, some clients may want to lose weight, some may want to gain muscle, some may want to improve their overall health. There is no overall plan for all clients, that is why it is called personal training, each client has an individual plan.

The personal trainer will help the client to exercise properly, use equipment/weights properly and provide them with specific plans to do this.

Personal training is the ideal career for anyone who is interested in helping others to stay healthy and well.

This blog covers some serious issues that may have impacted you personally; please take a moment to make sure you are in the right frame of mind to benefit from this article positively.

 

During the global coronavirus pandemic, we are all aware of the huge amount of suffering experienced worldwide, nationally, and also within our own families. As well as feeling sad, people bereaved by Covid-19 are also experiencing the shock of a loved one dying suddenly, often after a very short period of illness – and the prospect of not being able to hug, be hugged and comforted by the touch of others.

Very sadly, some families may not have had the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones before they died, which can be particularly upsetting. The observance of other practices and traditions which normally occur after someone has died may also be affected. Those who are already struggling with grief, or whose relatives or friends die through other causes will also be affected.

Grief may knock you off balance emotionally, physically and mentally. Grieving is a personal and unique process; there are no right or wrong ways to grieve. But there are ways of accessing support and taking care of yourself that can ease – if not remove – your feelings of loss.

Support to help with bereavement, grief and loss:

• Cruse Bereavement Care – Offer support, advice and information to children, young people and adults when someone dies.
• Sudden – Supporting people after a sudden death, including Covid-19
• NHS – Practical support and signposting to NHS services
• The Good Grief Trust – Coronavirus Bereavement Advice
• At A Loss – Dealing with bereavement and grief during the Covid-19 pandemic
• National Association of Funeral Directors – COVID-19 Funeral Advice 
• The Compassionate Friends – support for families after the death of a child; you can also call 0345 123 2304
• Muslim Youth Helpline
• Jewish Bereavement Counseling Service
• Inspirited Minds
• Quaker Social Action
• Marie Curie Telephone Bereavement Support 

It is useful to discuss symptoms with your doctor. Medication may be suggested, or counselling or therapy. People who feel depressed may sometimes withdraw from others, and yet consider their increasing isolation as a sign of their own worthlessness, creating a vicious circle that absorbs them.

There are several self-help strategies as well as professional support that can be used to make life easier:

Physical exercise.

It is well known that when individuals exercise, endorphins are released into the body, creating positive feelings of well-being. There is also the satisfaction that comes from the results of feeling fitter.

Practical activities.

Learning new things can lift the mood by giving a sense of diversion and achievement, too. Why not check out some courses? Perhaps a new (or previously abandoned) craft activity can keep those fingers busy and bring some sense of achievement, satisfaction and joy.

Keeping in touch.

By contacting a friend or relative, individuals can engage with other people’s lives and acknowledge other perspectives. The internet and telephone have never been so much appreciated since the lockdown took hold of our lives.

Treats.

Giving yourself a treat can often lift the mood. This should not mean spending money that you do not have, nor comfort-eating, binge-drinking and drug-taking – which can cause problems in the long term. Instead, people can consider visiting a favourite place as part of daily exercise, watching an uplifting film, or cooking a special meal. Nature can bring much happiness at this time of year – tree blossoms, the growth and blooming of flowers and the activities of wildlife – especially birds – as they go about their daily lives, blissfully unaware of any crisis.

Acting confidently.

Occasionally, just acting as if one is happy and confident can have the effect of changing feelings, even though it may seem odd at first. Others will react more positively to the person who is good-humoured and upbeat.

Good sleeping, eating and self-care.

Looking after general health can maximize the chances of feeling better soon and an integral part of self-respect. It is difficult to feel good if sleep is disturbed or inadequate. We all know that we should eat a well-balanced diet, but somehow, this may become difficult when we are in a personal crisis. It may take the help of others to persuade someone who is feeling sad – to eat well.

Sometimes, it is difficult for people who feel depressed to take action. Perhaps there are many difficulties in life that cannot be solved. But it is important to find ways of managing difficulties so that they do not totally overwhelm. Seeking help can be the first step to this.

Medical involvement is important because the physical symptoms of sadness and depression may resemble those of other conditions, and these need to be checked. Doctors can suggest a course of anti-depressant drugs if need be. These need to be considered carefully before taking them, as they are not suitable for everyone with depression.

Feelings of loss can involve deeply distressing experiences and it may be one of the largest challenges in people’s lives. It can force people to consider themselves in depth and consider how to change things in life, possibly for the better. Being gentle, reaching out to others and finding pleasure in the small things can be an important part of the healing process. Grief is a complex area of human feeling that may take a very long time to work through, but taking the first steps in self-care is paramount in the steps to feeling better.

---

For those of us who are interested, we do provide a course on grief and bereavement counselling to help people who find themselves in this situation. You can find out more here.

Does Exercise Improve Concentration?

You are probably aware that sitting down for long periods of time is not great for your health. Back in the 1950s, researchers found that London bus drivers were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack than their bus conductor counterparts. From this point on, the link between inactivity and increased chances of diseases and illnesses was made. So how does this affect you as a learner and how can you offset this unhealthy practice and improve the quality of your study sessions?

One answer is exercise.

Does Exercise Improve Concentration?

The simple answer is yes, it does!  Exercise promotes healthy blood pressure, improved energy, lowered stress levels, better moods and weight maintenance, all of which help brain health. But beyond that, regular exercise stimulates the production of the chemical Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). This substance is like brain nourishment and particularly affects the hippocampus, the part of your brain that controls memory and learning.

Various research reports found a positive correlation between aerobic exercise and improved cognitive functions immediately after exercise and with the benefits maintained for up to two hours after.

Is it Good to Exercise before Studying?

A Study done in Germany found that students who exercised while they were learning had higher retention of foreign language vocabulary. The research done on the effects of exercise on the brain suggests that implementing exercise throughout the day improves your overall performance. The more regular, the better. For example, one study found that school children who had aerobic exercises interspersed in 20-minute bouts throughout their school day had improved attention spans. In another study, it was found that after-school activities improved children’s executive control.

With all this in mind, it seems that exercise before study can certainly help your concentrations levels, but really, consistent exercise throughout the week will improve your ability to learn overall. In conclusion, work out when you can as much as you can!

If you really want to shake things up, get an educational podcast going and have a listen while you go for a long walk.

What Exercises Are Best?

If you’d like your brain to grow and your concentration to improve, the recommended exercise is aerobic and at moderate intensity. Aerobic exercises include:

• Brisk walking
• Jogging
• Running
• Swimming
• Dancing
• Cycling

And the list goes on. Breaking a sweat after 10 minutes, being able to speak but not sing while you exercise and being out of breath are all markers of moderately intense exercise, the recommended level of intensity for making your brain more efficient at learning.

In terms of frequency, exercising for 1 hour, five times a week is ideal. However, even 2 hours of extra exercise a week was shown to benefit cognitive function in this study. Whenever you can, whatever you can do, whether it’s a brisk walk at lunchtime or a few laps at the swimming, do it. You’ll feel the ripples in your study sessions.

What exercises do you love doing? Let us know in the comments!