i have my practical test in two days to become a personal trainer. i just had a question or two about my hypothetical client. here is the information i was sent.
The profile for your exam is as follows; George, 40 years old New Client First day of training. You have already performed a fitness evaluation, here are the findings: George is not very active. Plays golf in the summer. Plays hockey 1x/week in the winter. You are in the fall season now. He has been told by his doctor that he is at risk for cardiovascular disease, but shows no current symptoms, He has elevated cholesterol and a family history of heart disease.
After a fitness assessment, you find that he has a resting heart rate of82bpm and resting blood pressure of 120/80.
His VO2max is 32ml.kg.min .
His body comp: 28% bodyfat He weighs 205lbs, 6 ft tall
He can do 20 situps and 15 pushups He can reach 8cm on the sit & reach test
He wants to work out 4x/week, 2 with you and 2 on his own. He has no injuries.
From this information, i gather i need to keep his cardio between 60-70% of his MHR. I can calculate that fine. but what do ineed his resting blood pressure for? I guess i have to go back through my book. I just whipped together a program in litterally two seconds. I figure, 5 to 7 minute warm up, then 15 to 20 minutes of cardio between 60 to 70% of hid MRH, then wights.
As to weights, I chose super set squat and bench press,
1 set each casue of time constraint.
Superset lunges and latt pulldown
superset incline dumbell press and seated row
Superset back extension and abs.
i was thinking of using a 12 to 15 rep range in the beggining. prob close to 12 reps. Any ideas or helpful hints i should know or think about. I reall dont feel like failing this , although i think you reall have to try to fail it. so yeah . with the information given, how else do i custommize a workout for him, besides knowing what his hear rate should be at. i dont know what to do with blood pressure
Just a guess… but are you doing can-fit pro?? I wouldn’t worry too much if it is, the practical exam is a joke. So long as you aren’t downs syndrome and have worked out before you should be fine.
i am doing can fit. i’m so lazy as to do any work towards this.Just finished school and im not thinking anymore lol. I’m not too worried cause i know a few dumbass trainers… and if theyve passed im more than qualified. i was just wondering what the blood pressure is given for. extra information?
Well, blood pressure reading is used to determine whether they are at risk for CAD, such as Hypertension. Knowing that he is at risk for CVD, high lipid profile, and have family history of HD then cardiovascular training would be great for him. He is very close to becoming clinically obese. Educate the importance of proper nutrition and daily activity.
Some pointers I would give are that do cardio after resistance training because if cardio is done first his glycogen stores would be depleted. Incorporate some type of flexiblity program. Have him do some sport specific exercises that would help him play better hockey and golf. Try to do mostly closed chain exercises as they are more functional. Avoid too heavy lifting because they may raise BP. Use his VO2 max to determine his MET training zone.
Just a guess, but if bp was excessively high then the client would likely need a medical eval prior to any vigorous training. Someone with severe hypertension may also need to lower bp via meds before vigorous training. Also, low intensity cardio may need to be introduced for an extended period prior to more vigorous activity. Some or all of this might be prescribed for someone with hypertension, but the bp values for your case don’t seem to warrant this.
[quote]acncampo wrote:
Try to do mostly closed chain exercises as they are more functional.[/quote]
Define “functional”. Functional to what? Hockey? Golf? Bodybuilding? Blanket statements like this dont do much for anyone. Should he minimize any sort of pressing or rowing? Come on now, think about things before you say them.
Are you seriously concerned that the momentary rise in blood pressure that occurs when an individual lifts heavy and forgets to breathe properly is going to outweigh the benefits of lifting heavy?
Actually, yes, lifting heavy weights with concurrent high resting blood pressure is contraindicated. You’d be surprised at the health consequences of a sedentary, obese, hypertensive client straining while lifting inappropriate loads. The client listed certainly doesn’t fall into this category, but blood pressure can be a big deal to a certain segment of the population.
The biggest concern with blood pressure comes with lying exercises, whether than be stretching or lifting weights. Extremely hypertensive clients should always stay in an upright position, either seated or standing.
acncampo wrote:
Try to do mostly closed chain exercises as they are more functional.
Define “functional”. Functional to what? Hockey? Golf? Bodybuilding? Blanket statements like this dont do much for anyone. Should he minimize any sort of pressing or rowing? Come on now, think about things before you say them.
[/quote]
What I meant was to try to keep all activities feet grounded, such as compound movements. For example, if he were to press, do a standing DB press and to row, 1arm DB row, etc. Minimize machine use since they are isolation exercises, unless they have muscle imbalances or injuries but this client doesn’t have.
unless you want to get slapped with a lawsuit for negligence. However, since this individual isn’t clinically hypertensive 160/100 or in the precursor stage 140/90 then there shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
IMHO, I’m curious to what your take on the benefits of heavy lifting is? Don’t take me wrong, I lift heavy all the time, but I KNOW heavy lifting is detrimental to your health
and it is going to affect me later in life. Most people in the population don’t need to be able to squat 600lbs, bench 400lbs, and deadlift 800lbs. Moderate resistance training will still give you all the benefits of heavier resistance training and is much suitable for the majority of the population.
[quote]acncampo wrote:
Stronghold wrote:
A couple of things:
acncampo wrote:
Try to do mostly closed chain exercises as they are more functional.
Define “functional”. Functional to what? Hockey? Golf? Bodybuilding? Blanket statements like this dont do much for anyone. Should he minimize any sort of pressing or rowing? Come on now, think about things before you say them.
What I meant was to try to keep all activities feet grounded, such as compound movements. For example, if he were to press, do a standing DB press and to row, 1arm DB row, etc. Minimize machine use since they are isolation exercises, unless they have muscle imbalances or injuries but this client doesn’t have.
[/quote]
Then you should have said that rather than just saying “mostly closed chain exercises”.
First of all, the trainee is not hypertensive or borderline hypertensive, so why the concern? This is similar to the doctors who say that, since high protein diets are detrimental to end-stage renal failure patients, then they should also be avoided by the rest of the healthy population.
The definition of “heavy” lifting depends on the individual. I was not referring to lifting for low reps at a high % of a 1RM, but rather progressive weight training that involved the client actually exerting himself to some degree. It is sad that you have to explain this, but many trainers will have their clients lifting meager weights for very high reps and use absolutely no plan for progression (ie, 2 sets of 15 reps on the squat using a 50 lb fixed barbell- for both a 35 year old woman and a 240 lb, 26 year old former college football player). As far as the benefits-increased metabolic rate, injury prevention, increased bone density and connective tissue strength, etc.