Dan Mikeska

A medical fitness professional designs and implements exercise programs for special populations and individuals with chronic disease. Few credible certifications are available to graduates with accredited online degrees or graduate programs that fulfill the learning outcomes necessary for medical fitness. This quantitative, descriptive study evaluated and compared the perception of the practical application of advanced fitness certifications to graduate-level online education in certified fitness professionals with an online graduate degree. The study also evaluated perceived need for graduate- or doctorate-level education in medical fitness. 86 fitness professionals completed the Fitness Professionals Perception of Education and Certification (FitPECs) survey. Practical experience was perceived to be important for professional practice (88.4%) and practical knowledge (70.9%), while as a fitness professional, education was perceived to be important (54.7%), and had helped most with ...

The growing prevalence of preventable chronic disease in the United States and worldwide is alarming.  Because of this trend, many certified personal trainers (CPTs) are faced with the options of working with clients with medical conditions outside their scope of practice or turning away business.  Client expectations often differ from the services a CPT can ethically offer that may lead to litigation, loss of reputation and trust, and loss of clients due to injury (1).  However, quality improvement tools, tracking certain metrics, and adjusting processes, can protect all interested parties.

A medical fitness professional designs and implements exercise programs for special populations and individuals with chronic disease.  Few credible certifications are available to graduates with accredited online degrees, or graduate programs that fulfill the learning outcomes necessary for medical fitness.  This quantitative, descriptive study evaluated and compared the perception of the practical application of advanced fitness certifications to graduate-level online education in certified fitness professionals with an online graduate degree.  The study also evaluated perceived need for graduate- or doctorate-level education in medical fitness.  Eighty-six fitness professionals completed the Fitness Professionals Perception of Education and Certification (FitPECs) survey.  Practical experience was perceived to be important for professional practice (88.4%) and practical knowledge (70.9%), while as a fitness professional, education was perceived to be important (54.7%), and had helped most with careers (46.5%).  Education and certification were both perceived as very valuable when working with special populations (72.1%, 52.3%, respectively), and the greatest anticipated need was for fitness professionals to work with special populations (62.8%).  To establish credibility, certifying organizations should consider implementing educational requirements and accept accredited online degrees, and colleges and universities should fill the gap in training by developing graduate level education in medical fitness.

Risk management is the “process of making and carrying out decisions that will minimize the adverse effects of accidental losses upon an organization” (14). Accidental loss can be in the form of income or property, and often results from negligence. In a gym or health club, poorly maintained property, malfunctioning equipment, or a breach of duty by personnel can result in a negligence lawsuit. One such breach of duty in a gym or health club that is commonly found is when a personal trainer works outside their scope of practice, which can be defined by their level of experience and education
(17). Therefore, having a clear understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) from offering personal training services needs to be considered in order to optimize the quality of care and to mitigate potential litigation.

TRAINING ONE’S METABOLISM FOR MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY IS A CRITICAL PHYSICAL COMPONENT FOR MANY COMPETITIVE ACTIVITIES. THE TRAINING NEEDS TO STRESS THE PROPER ENERGY SYSTEM IN THE APPROPRIATE AMOUNT BASED ON THE WORK-TO-REST RATIO SPECIFIC TO THE GIVEN ACTIVITY. BECAUSE OF THE DIFFERENT INTENSITIES OF THE COMPONENT SPORTS OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA), AN MMA MATCH CAN REQUIRE EACH OF THE 3 ENERGY SYSTEMS TO BE USED AT VARIOUS TIMES IN EACH ROUND. THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXAMPLE OF A 12-WEEK META- BOLIC CONDITIONING PROGRAM THAT PROGRESSIVELY TRAINS THE PHOSPHAGEN, GLYCOLYTIC, AND OXIDATIVE ENERGY SYSTEMS FOR AN MMA ATHLETE.