Personal Training

Ever been stuck in a meaningless job? If so, you’re not alone. I’ve been reading David Graeber’s Bullsh*t Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It [ref 1]. Graeber cites a YouGov poll of UK employees. Of those surveyed: Only 50% thought their job made some form of meaningful contribution…

Delayed gratification refers to the ability to sacrifice an immediate reward to gain a bigger reward in the future. For example, achieving my goal of losing 10kg might require me to stick to an exercise programme and: Go without fast-food Stop treating myself to ice-cream and chocolate sauce in the evenings Avoid long nights at…

At NZIHF, we get to work with and learn from some of New Zealand’s finest athletes. While filming content for our Personal Training programme we were fortunate to spend a day with Shane Cameron. For those who don’t know, Shane is a Commonwealth Games medalist and former world heavyweight boxing contender. In association with his…

If you think that fitness professionals just train clients and design exercise programmes, then I’ve got some news for you. There’s much more to it than that! When your job revolves around helping people, then Problem Solving is a fundamental component of your work. Because every client is unique, the exercise programmes we design and…

Stimulus control is a behavioural technique that can be used to help improve people’s diet and physical activity levels. The challenge is that it’s a technique not taught to most health and fitness practitioners. So, in this article we’ll explain: What Stimulus Control is Why it’s important for health and fitness professionals How to use…

‘Go Paleo’, ‘Keto is king’, ‘eat clean’, ‘save the planet – become a vegetarian’. Or very occasionally, ‘follow the science – use the National Nutrition Guidelines’! After 25 years working in fitness/fitness education, ‘nutrition’ is without doubt the most consistently contentious topic I’ve encountered. Nothing else divides people causing them to passionately advocate for the…

Although rarely promoted, exercise may be an important part of the treatment process for anxiety and depression, conditions at the forefront of New Zealand’s mental health crisis. Before we get into the detail, I’ve got an important distinction to make. Regarding health in general, we tend to expect treatments to cure a problem by addressing…

Every Personal Trainer should have The Exercise Principles as a foundation for their programme design work with clients. Exercise Principles:  What Every Personal Trainer Should Know by Heart With 79% of adults participating in sport and recreation activities every week and 34.9% of adults currently signed up to a fitness club or center, it’s fair…

In health and fitness it’s about keeping it simple by delivering personal training and fitness instruction that is effective, simple and progressive. This article covers some of the basics in selecting resistance exercises and encourages you to generate a list of ‘go to’ exercises that will help to: Keep your clients safe Provide value to…