NGA Personal Trainer Certification Course

Nutrition: a Physiological Aproach

Proper athletic training must include more than what one does in the gym. It must include proper nutrition and proper rest in addition to a physical training regimen.

Nutrition can be defined in four different ways:

1. The science of dietary requirements and standards (such as recommended daily allowance or RDA) for proper health and development.


2. The process by which organisms take in and utilize food, as in carbohydrate, fat and protein utilization and energy production.


3. The relationships between specific nutrient and how they contribute to the health of the human body, such as the combining of incomplete proteins from vegetable sources to create complementary proteins.


4. The sum of the process concerned in the growth, maintenance and repair of the living body as a whole, or of its constituent parts.

The working definition of nutrition used by NGA certified professional trainers and instructors pull all of these ideas together in the term proper nutrition.

For the personal trainer or instructor, it is important to understand that proper nutrition is vital to successful training and the achievement of optimal physical performance. That is why the trainer or the instructor should make every effort to educate clients toward establishing and maintaining an adequate and balanced daily intake of nutrient throughout any type of training program.

Areas covered: BASIC CONCEPTS - CATEGORIES OF NUTRIENTS - WATER - CARBOHYDRATES - FIBER - FATS - PROTIEN - VITAMINS - MINERALS - PHOSPHORUS - MAGNISIUM - IRON - ELECTROLYTES - CONCLUSION

Dietary Planning and Energy Production

The relationship between dietary planning and human performance is best defined by one of the basic principles of training: progression. The diet that ensures proper nutrition will satisfy current and increasing levels of intensity.

Areas covered: ENERGY METABOLISM IN THE MUSCLE CELL, NUTRITIONAL PLANNING TO MAINTAIN PERFORMANCE, ASSESTMENT OF BODY COMPOSTION, EATING DISORDERS, NUTRIENT CONTENT OF POPULAR FOODS

Anatomy - Biomechanics - Kinesiology

This part of our course will combine the subjects of anatomy, biomechanics and kinesiology to create a practical perspective for the fitness professional. Our goal is to provide you with a working knowledge that pulls together concepts from the scientific study of movement.

You should come away from this section with concepts that you can immediately apply in the gym for evaluating and training clients

• A working knowledge of the names and functions of the major bones and types of joints in the body.


• A conceptual understanding of mechanics and biomechanics, including statics and dynamics.


• A conceptual understanding of center of gravity, line of gravity, motive & resistive force and Newton’s laws of Motion.


• A working knowledge of terms used in anatomy and kinesiology to locate structures and identify the direction of linear and rotary motion in the human body.


• The ability to list the functions of the major muscles of the body.


• The ability to identify the roles, strengths and limitations of the major joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles involved in specific exercise movements and to use this knowledge in preventing injuries.


• Recognition of Class I, II and III Levers and mechanical advantage.

Areas covered: INTRODUCTION TO ANATOMY, BIOMECHANINS, AND KINESIOLOGY - NOMENCLATURE OF THE MAJOR BONES OF THE BODY - KINESIOLOGY AND APPLIED ANATOMY - GENETIC INFLUENCE - POSTURE

Exercise Physiology

A healthy body is the result of proper nutrition combines with a regular pattern of physical training. The definition of exercise is: bodily or mental exertion, especially for the sake of training or improvement. The Taber’s medical definition is: performed activity of the muscles, voluntary or otherwise, especially to maintain fitness. The founder of the NGA defines exercise as follows:

• Exercise imparts vigor and activity to all of the body’s organs, secures and maintains the healthful integrity of all their functions.


• Exercise improves the tone & quality of muscle tissue and increases the mineralization and strengthening of bone, while stimulating the process of digestion, absorption, metabolism and elimination.


• Exercise strengthens blood vessels as well as the lings and heart, resulting in increased blood lymph system circulation, improved vital capacity and improved respiration, with an increased supply of oxygen of carbon dioxide at the cellular level.


• In addition, exercise contributes to the development of grace, poise and symmetry, allows one individual to overcome physical defects, helps another to heal injuries, stimulates the mind of a beginner and challenges the mind of a champion.

Areas covered: PRINCIPLES OF CONDITIONING - TESTING AND RECORDING - BIOMECHANICAL RESPONSES TO TRAINING FOR POWER, SPEED, AND ENDURANCE - OVERTRAINING - DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT OF FLEXIBILITY - DEFINITION OF AEROBIC FITNESS - DEFIINTIONS OF STRENGTH AND POWER

Factors In Physical Performance

The desire to become a free-lance personal trainer or an on-staff private training instructor has its roots in a number of different emotional and physical experiences that are defined and addressed by the behavioral and biological sciences. Yet the driving force behind this desire is not easily described or explained, even though its sources are observable. All of us have a background in which we either accumulated our experience by gaining and performing as competitive athletes, or developed our experience as trainers along with our abilities as stress and strength enthusiasts. In the formal educational environment of a university, or informally on our own as self-taught. self-made people, all of us have studied the science of human performance with its interrelated view of nutrition, energy utilization, anatomy, kinesiology, biomechanics, physiology and gaining techniques.

At one time or another, all of us have searched with the science of human behavior to discover and harness the motivations that underlie the accomplishment of a goal, whether it is for ourselves, for our clients, or for the competitive athlete who comes to us for guidance to achieve a new personal best.

When all the elements that contribute to being a trainer are assembled, the resulting whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. The effect of combining the scientific disciplines that define fitness and strength gaining with the experience of being a trainer and encountering first hand the failures and successes of our clients, is more than an additive. It resembles a geometric progression, wherein the meanings of all the facts are multiplied several times by the experience of putting the facts to work in a gaining program. It is this notion -- that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts when facts are illuminated by the light of life.

As a trainer, you are going to encounter people who are healthful and vigorous, other who are ill or weak and many more that will be in a population that exists between those extremes. Our understanding of human performance, i.e., the capacities and capabilities of the population we encounter at work, is defined by the psychologic, physiologic, pharmacologic and biomechanic factors that are addressed in the sections of this chapter.

Areas covered: PSYCHOLOGIC FACTORS - PSYCHOLOGIC FACTORS IN PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE - IMPORTANCE OF PLANNED VARIETY IN THE WORKOUT - WALKING, JOGGING, AND RUNNING - TRAINING AND TRAVEL - DIARIES AND RECORD KEEPING - GENDER, AGE, PHYSICAL CHALLENGE, AND PHYSICAL TRAINING - ENVIROMENTAL FACTORS - THE USE OF DRUGS IN ATHLECTIC TRAINING - SPORT INJURIES AND THERAPEUTIC MODALITIES

Ethics / Conduct

From the outset, it is essential that the personal fitness trainer view his or her job as a true profession, one that can yield bountiful rewards for many years to come if it is approached from the proper perspective. A thoroughly qualified and respected personal trainer can develop a devoted following in much the same way as professionals in other fields. In many respects, the relationships that evolve between client and trainer are often much closer than those found in other professions. After all, within the context of a normal business relationship, a person would have to be in considerable legal trouble or quite ill to need as much time with his attorney or physician as he does with his personal fitness trainer. This closeness that develops between client and trainer is necessary for the positive nature of the relationship. However, it also carries with it certain ethical responsibilities toward the client. If the trainer chooses to work as a salaried employee or subcontractor, this is a responsibility as well to the employer, which can be a cruise line or hotel, but most often will be a fitness facility of some kind.

With defining these responsibilities in mind, we will briefly discuss the issues that have a direct impact upon the quality of the relationship a trainer can develop with clients as well as with the fitness facility.

Areas covered: DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILILTIES OF A PROFESSIONAL TRAINER - BUSINESS RESPONSIBILITIES - DETERMINING AND MAINTIANING THE CLIENTS STATE OF FITNESS