Personal Training Lecture Notes

[Patrick Donnelly]

I'm coming up with a set of notes for me to review before training clients. So, if one day I'm teaching the backsquat, push-press, and talking about the importance of squat shoes, I'll already have a nice little spheal written up about each one with key points to hit and potential subtopics. I have a tendency to forget certain things when I have too much going on inside my head all at once. I've found that doing notecards and such helps substantially - now I'm just making it more organized.

Does anyone have an interest in this stuff? If so, I'll update it from time to time and give it out privately to anyone who will make good use of it. I don't want to post completed versions of this publicly, because this will be a rather large endeavor on my part and sort of an infodump of all my fitness knowledge, which clients generally pay for. Granted, there's more that goes into training than simply the knowledge, but the way the outline is written sort of shows the style that I have in my teaching too.

Here's what I've written down to help me review for tomorrow. I'm teaching the fundamentals of Starting Strength.

http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/23...ctureNotes.doc

So, would anyone really like to receive updates? I'm aware that many of the people here are actually more knowledgeable than I, and so would have no need of this, but I figure it couldn't hurt to offer.

[Patrick Yeung]

Im more of a informed armature/noobie at all this, and would love to have this.

If you dont mind shootin me emails/PMs, I would definitely read them when I get a chance. I read so much from so many different places, itd be nice to get it in an essay/lecture form. The notes would definitely be helpful for me, to just glance at every once in awhile, or if id like to help someone else, I could use em as quick references to remember everything Id need to say.

Good luck!

[Liz McGurrin]

I would love to receive your updates! The more knowledge the better, right?

[Gant Grimes]

It's a nice start. As you get more practice, your list should get shorter, not longer.

For each lift, you need a couple points of intro and a list of setup cues for the lifter. Beyond that, refresh yourself about the different cues you might use for each lifter. If you're training mostly novices, you won't need assistance exercises for awhile.

Unless you're training people who already drank the kool-aid, I wouldn't bother with low/high bar squat crap or telling them that bench pressing is overrated. Tell them to put the damn bar on their back and squat down. Depending on their flexibility and experience, they might prefer one over the other. Way too much has been made of this "debate" lately.

You also don't want to cue deadlifts by looking at a spot on the wall, at a coach, or anywhere else that's "up."

[Dave Van Skike]

it's pretty long. kind of preachy.


I give about four cues and a max of about one drill a session when teaching noobs. the first thing i tell them is i'm going to have to touch you and move you into position. Sometimes I even whack them where I want them to tighten up.

I worry less about telling them about what they are going to do and showing them and then putting them in the position to do it based on their body.

I always like Rips' cue.." the bar goes here."

I like:

knees out
weight on your heels.
tight back
tight gut,
chest up.


it's overratted that jogging and bench are overratted and underratted how many people have been done right by them.

[Kevin Perry]

i use knees out, chest out, weight on heels a lot too.

I'd be more than interested in looking over your stuff too Patrick.

[Patrick Donnelly]

Gant:
Don't worry. I spare my clients a full 90 minute speech on the high-bar/low-bar thing and limit my description to the two lines listed in the document.

Low-bar = more posterior chain, less toque, more weight, more shoulder injury
High-bar = more quads, more depth, less weight, more natural, more overall strength

For the deadlift, I think it's good to have a focus point - not necessarily "up," but "out" (on a far wall, just below chest level while standing). A lot of people like to look at their feet as they go up, and bending at the neck like that just sets them up for a curve all the way down the spine. For the Olympic lifts, I personally do like picking a point that is somewhat "up" (on a far wall, just above eye level while standing) since it helps me keep more vertical.

Gant, Dave:
I don't recite the entire thing. I simply use it as a refresher for things I could say, and then I cover certain points as necessary. Thank you for the feedback, both of you. I'm still pretty new at this, so I can use it.


Everyone else:
Good to see that there's some interest. I'll keep you updated as best that I'm able, every other week or so.