Your Nutritional and Vitamin Supplement Information Resource

posted by Ronald on May 2

A fitness instructor or a coach is someone that enjoys helping people improve their health and fitness by leading and organizing groups and individual exercise programs. He or she either instructs a range of activities or specializes in a particular area such as keep fit, weight training or yoga. He or she may also give advice on healthy eating and lifestyle diets. A high quality instructor will ask about your current level of fitness, your medical conditions, and any previous injuries you may have suffered so that they can provide not only an effective but also a safe fitness program tailored to your individual needs.

Keys to selecting the right fitness instructor for you:

• An effective instructor should have good communication skills with everyone participating in the activity.

• They should be certified or have the background knowledge to provide you with a safe and effective workout - how do you know? Just ask them!

• An outgoing and approachable personality

• Demonstrates some diplomacy and tact with clients

• Could motivate you by positive, not negative, reinforcement and is genuinely interested in helping you reach your desired health and fitness goals

• Has a responsible attitude toward health and safety

• Knowledge of nutrition and healthy lifestyle diets for a good balance

• Follows proper format of warm up, aerobic workout, cool down, & flexibility

• Could work with special groups of people, such as older adults, children, people with disabilities or clients referred by doctors

• Can design a session that incorporates all of these keys into into a program that considers medical conditions and past injuries

• He or she wants to discuss any exercise concerns with your doctor, and asks for a health screening or release from your doctor if you’re under a doctor’s care .

A fitness instructor’s work includes the following:

• carrying out fitness assessments, consultations and inductions with new clients

• demonstrating routines for clients to follow

• showing clients how to use exercise machines and free weights properly

• supervising clients to make sure that they are exercising safely and effectively

• leading group exercise classes such as circuit training, aerobics or spinning

• designing personal exercise programs.

Finally, be sure you’re having fun!! A good instructor will be dedicated to helping you enjoy the class, committed to making your workout the best it can be, and will be able to translate his or her enthusiasm into a fun class. For many it takes a lot of energy & motivation just to make it to the gym. Remember, the only way you will stay with a program of regular aerobic exercise is if you look forward to attending class.

For more information on the importance of health and nutrition, see the

Health and Nutrition Library

it includes many articles written to help you achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle.