CPT - Certified Personal Trainer

Health is such a broad topic and there is so much "junk" or people that put out their own plans that are at super hard levels and unsafe for beginners to be taking anything from. So...

I am going to start a new little section on my blog. I know almost everyone out there strives to be more healthy and I would love to help teach you about the NASM model and help you incorporate some things into your own life. I am going to do this considering I am speaking to beginners since this is the target group that will essentially learn the most. I will promise to only preach what I am learning from my textbooks and classes and not be adding to any false ideas or my personal opinion.

There are three phases of training:

1. Stabilization

2. Strength and Endurance

3. Hypertrophy

(Most women will want to skip this phase 3+4 since it is bulking bulkier muscle)

4. Maximal Strength

5. Power

I want to talk a little about phase one of stability. This is a very important phase because it prepares your body, muscle and joints for the other phases. A lot of people skip this phase and this often ends in injury or over working the muscle. This phase helps you strengthen those stabilizing muscles, and increase difficulty by challenging your balance. You also want to do a low load and high repetition.

Things in the gym to help you do this: Stability disk (those half ball looking things), balls, foam rollers, bands, and my favourite TRX.

Example of a superset using this idea would be:

2x 10 reps of push-ups

then

2x 10 reps stability ball push-ups

This will work what is called your prime movers and then immediately after challenge the stability of the same area. This will help you body develop the balance and control needed to lift heavier weights and endurance later on in your journey in the gym!

If you have questions feel free to leave a comment with an email for me to reply

This information was taken from the

NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training Fourth Edition

Editors: Micheal A. Clark, Scott C. Lucett and Brian G. Sutton