Description of my internship work
I choose to work with a Personal Trainer for my internship. My job while doing this internship was to shadow my trainer during his sessions with clients. While observing I was also writing down exercises, repetitions and the form the client is to use doing the exercise. During this time Aaron Holby, the trainer, would quiz me on proper spotting process. He then gave me homework assignments related to the sessions and issues to consider in becoming a trainer to complete and share with him in our next sessions. This was very effective because the homework was more about the business side of personal training while the actual meeting was about the training This internship provided me with a complete view of the job and how to be successful doing it.
Journal reports (Completion - 20 hours)
July 22nd
Today is a Saturday and my first meeting for my internship. I worked for two hours with two of Aaron’s clients shadowing him and taking down notes on each workout. The first client is Richard who is 74 and has been working with Aaron for many years. Start off with 5 warm-up stretches focusing a lot on loosening up his hamstrings and lower back. Within in the first circuit, I learned that squats with TRX bands help take the pressure off the lower back as well as during the incline dumbbell press. Throughout the workout, I noticed that he had good flexibility in his hips and quadriceps. With doing a lot of exercises I do with slight tweaks to take the pressure of some joints as well as using fewer weights.
The second client is Max who is 17 years old and has been working with Aaron since age 14. We did the same exercises with some switched out options such as the lateral stretch and sumos which Richard can’t do because of issues in his joints. Throughout the circuit, I noticed that he is really strong. In between each circuit of the routine, he is doing some form of cardio. I noticed that he undersells himself with not thinking he could do 100 jump ropes under 45 seconds and then he finished in 42 seconds.
July 31st
Today I am only helping with Max. We started with a 10 dynamic warm up, which is a heavy focus on stretches while moving in some way. We then moved onto the first circuit which I helped choose the three exercises. Aaron trains in a traditional way with compound movements and one upper, one lower, and one core exercise per circuit. We also do cardio at the start of the 1st and 2nd circuits.
August 2nd
Aaron had given me a homework assignment to create a 3 -4 circuit workout with 10 dynamic warm-up exercises for Max to do. I was generally able to prepare the circuits in not too difficult fashion. Since he is my age I was able to pull exercises that I often use, and altered different movements from the previous circuit to best create a balanced workout. Where I had the most trouble was figuring out 10 warm-up exercises. I was only able to determine 6 options as I didn't want to reuse exercises from the past workout.
August 12th
Today we met with both Richard and Max for two sessions. With Richard, we added warm-up exercises since he felt his hamstrings were tight that day. The warm-up exercise was called mini walkers, which is where you walk your back legs up to your hands from a downward dog position to help release tension. He generally has pretty great form even when he does hip balance exercises with weights. He loses the integrity of the form when he does cable pull downs and not keeping his chest up enough and back up and tight.
For Max, we switched up the workout with the last circuit starting off with burpees and the half balance ball to help build up more muscle endurance. He is slowly building up more muscle and increasing in weights for lateral pull downs and chest press but his form loses integrity when doing bicep curls. He starts to swing his body during that exercise which indicates that he is using other muscles to assist his biceps.
August 18th
This time Aaron has given me homework for Richard which was new for me because he is an older man with lower back and knee problems. So for this work out did a lot of legs stretches to help open up his hips and shoulders to be completely warmed up. So comparing his workout to mine he had a longer warm-up for stretches. Then on to leg exercises doing a lot of split leg exercises so he is not putting a lot of pressure on both knees using a TRX for his squats. This was a great homework assignment for me because it pushed me out of my comfort zone by having to deal with issues you can get as you age.
August 19th
Today we met with both clients again. Richard came in and just killed his workout today. When it came to leg balances his right leg was stronger so when working on his left leg he would start to swing back and forth which caused an issue. But overall I feel this was Richards best workout that I have seen. We just need to work more on strengthening his left leg.
With Max, I would say that this was not his best workout so far. He showed up a bit tired having to do with the fact he hadn't eaten yet. His first two circuits being generally very good with a little leg imbalance. I believe only doing the 2 minute run at the start helped him finish the circuit. By the third and fourth circuit, I start to tell he was getting tired as his form became sloppy and he started to swing more with the weights. Additionally, he was cutting his push up short by not hitting the 90 degrees you're supposed to.
August 30th
We only trained with Max today. He showed better progress and was more ready to workout compared to last time. He completed two of the circuits doing the farmers walk which is a very good exercise for legs, balance, and arms. I came to understand that when you do the farmers walk overhead you don't want to fully extend because then you start to use more of your deltoids to hold up the weight. Overall today was a good workout put in by Max with it being different than the last couple I have seen. There was more weight endurance focus this time around which can be difficult if you don't train that way.
September 16th
We worked with both Max and Richard today. With a twist of Max having his session first instead of Richard. I helped to pick the exercises for Max to do, switching it up some more, so he was not doing the same exercises which trick the muscles. I learned that when you are spotting someone doing chest, shoulder press exercises you want to watch the wrist for proper support because if you don’t the elbows bearing the weight can still sprain the person's wrist if they can’t get it up.
With Richard, we started with a walk on the treadmill to get his heart rate up since he didn't walk to the gym the day. We kept the workout simple and didn't do an endurance workout like we did for Max. I have started to notice both of their workouts are very similar just with slight tweaks for each person.
September 30th
We started with Max again today doing a seated tap squat I suggest was is done to help build confidence in an older client as well as to build better form. With Max, we focused on trying to not pop his head back and to extend his arms more slowly during his bicep curls and in the second circuit using a straight bar instead of dumbbells which helped him keep his form.
With Richard, we did some timed planks which showed that he has great core strength. With his curls, he also tends to lean back a bit when lifting the weight up. His back seemed to not be as strong because he was starting to use his bicep more when the weight got heavier on the lateral pull downs. Then he finished with a nice foam roll to relax and stretch out his legs for his walk home.
The important message Aaron gave me is to try not to make a “workout salad”. A workout salad is just a bunch of workouts randomly put together without a purpose other than that you know those exercises. A kinesiology major teaches you the exercise but then you have to figure out how to make them all workout together so your client can get the best results.
October 7th
Today we only trained Max in a midday training session. We switched up how we organized the workouts because he hadn't eaten any breakfast, switching the 3 workouts to 2 per circuit and then doing 5 circuits. With this set up he was able to put all his work in this work out despite not having breakfast. Doing leg, back for two of them and leg, chest for the other two stacking them so he doesn’t fatigue his back or chest.
October 14th
Today we only worked with Richard but with the air quality being bad lately the workout could go slowly. This was also the reason Max canceled his workout for today. He didn't have any knee pain today and ditched the side plank because he was having some upper arm pain. He was a lot more talkative today. We were not using the TRX for his squats today which is really great. We were cautious of his arthritis acting up in one of his legs, but overall he did a good workout even with the bad air quality.
November 3rd
Aaron has given me homework of creating my own PAR-Q form (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire), consent, and health form. I spent a lot of time researching other PAR-Q forms and found two similar but had different parts I liked. I combined them together to create my own version of the forms and included fitness goals question sheet to get an idea of how the future client would want to look at the end of our meetings.
November 4th
We met with both clients today starting off with Max. He didn't get great sleep last night so he was tired from the start. Despite that, he powered through this work out killing it even though we added one more circuit to the session. With him using a lot heavier weights from when I first saw him. His balance is getting better but his left side is still weaker.
Richard also powered through the workouts. It could have something to do with us giving him more cable exercises to put less stress on his joints. He did chest flys for the first time which were really good for his first time and he didn't struggle too much. His balance from the first time I met him has gotten a lot better and he is steadily becoming more flexible and less reliant on the TRX for his squats.
December 15th
Aaron had given me some extra homework to complete the internship focusing on the business side of being a personal trainer which included things like a price sheet, policy on cancellation, and contact sheet. In my research, I learned how much people pay for sessions, how much you give the gym and how much you keep for yourself. I learned about proper attire and other cancellation policies at various gyms. I have created my own versions of all of these documents.
Closing report
For my internship, I chose my personal interest in personal training. I reconnected with my previous trainer, Aaron Holby, to see if I could work with him. Luckily he was glad to help me out with my internship.
During my internship, I would write down the circuits, warm-ups of the workouts we did that day while making observations on the client's form and overall progression throughout the weeks. Developing these skills will help me to become a complete trainer. I worked with Aaron and two of his clients, Max and Richard. With Max being the same age as me it wasn't hard to do homework with build a workout for him. Richard, on the other hand, was 74 which was a new challenging experience for me to help come up with stretches and exercises for someone who has knee and lower back pain.
With Richard, I was able to use my creativity to come up with ideas. Aaron gave me pointers on ways to help release tension in those areas such as using a TRX band for squats and incline during chest press.
My daily duties were to help out the clients in spotting, putting away weights, write down workouts/observations, and answer questions from Aaron on form, spotting etc. During the months of working with him, I was able to learn about not only creating working outs for people around my age but with people who have joint problems. This was helpful as these issues impact everyone as they get older. It allowed me to get more insight and an overall view of how to create a workout with purpose instead of a “workout salad.”. This workout salad just meant that you're just throwing random exercises together without any purpose or thought.
One obstacle I faced with this internship was arranging times to work with Aaron and his clients. This is because Aaron has moved to Sacramento a couple years ago but he comes down to work only three times a week. Along with me only meeting with two of his clients. To compliment our training sessions, Aaron assigned homework of creating workouts for Max or Richard for their next session. I also learned a lot about putting a training business together and about the basic forms and information you would give to someone new who is interested in hiring you to train them.
I would say that I didn't know what to expect when going into this internship since I haven't done any of type of work outside of school besides community service. But during the actual experience, I got to talk to other trainers at the gym and understand more about the training world than just building workout plans for your clients. I got to learn and see that you also really need to have good people skills to do this for a living. Aaron said that “You can know everything about training but if you are not a nice person no one will want to hire you. If you know a good amount about training and you are a nice person, people will want to keep coming back to you.” This really stuck with me because it is about trying to retain your clients. But more importantly, it is about being able to connect with the person to help them get the type of results that they want to see for themselves.
Without this internship, I probably wouldn't know that I really love training, creating work out plans for clients, and just connecting with the clients. I was sad at the end of the internship because I loved showing up and helping them work out because it brought me joy that I was helping them with a part of their lives. Now I know that this is a real possibility for something I want may pursue once I am out of college.
I choose to work with a Personal Trainer for my internship. My job while doing this internship was to shadow my trainer during his sessions with clients. While observing I was also writing down exercises, repetitions and the form the client is to use doing the exercise. During this time Aaron Holby, the trainer, would quiz me on proper spotting process. He then gave me homework assignments related to the sessions and issues to consider in becoming a trainer to complete and share with him in our next sessions. This was very effective because the homework was more about the business side of personal training while the actual meeting was about the training This internship provided me with a complete view of the job and how to be successful doing it.
Journal reports (Completion - 20 hours)
July 22nd
Today is a Saturday and my first meeting for my internship. I worked for two hours with two of Aaron’s clients shadowing him and taking down notes on each workout. The first client is Richard who is 74 and has been working with Aaron for many years. Start off with 5 warm-up stretches focusing a lot on loosening up his hamstrings and lower back. Within in the first circuit, I learned that squats with TRX bands help take the pressure off the lower back as well as during the incline dumbbell press. Throughout the workout, I noticed that he had good flexibility in his hips and quadriceps. With doing a lot of exercises I do with slight tweaks to take the pressure of some joints as well as using fewer weights.
The second client is Max who is 17 years old and has been working with Aaron since age 14. We did the same exercises with some switched out options such as the lateral stretch and sumos which Richard can’t do because of issues in his joints. Throughout the circuit, I noticed that he is really strong. In between each circuit of the routine, he is doing some form of cardio. I noticed that he undersells himself with not thinking he could do 100 jump ropes under 45 seconds and then he finished in 42 seconds.
July 31st
Today I am only helping with Max. We started with a 10 dynamic warm up, which is a heavy focus on stretches while moving in some way. We then moved onto the first circuit which I helped choose the three exercises. Aaron trains in a traditional way with compound movements and one upper, one lower, and one core exercise per circuit. We also do cardio at the start of the 1st and 2nd circuits.
August 2nd
Aaron had given me a homework assignment to create a 3 -4 circuit workout with 10 dynamic warm-up exercises for Max to do. I was generally able to prepare the circuits in not too difficult fashion. Since he is my age I was able to pull exercises that I often use, and altered different movements from the previous circuit to best create a balanced workout. Where I had the most trouble was figuring out 10 warm-up exercises. I was only able to determine 6 options as I didn't want to reuse exercises from the past workout.
August 12th
Today we met with both Richard and Max for two sessions. With Richard, we added warm-up exercises since he felt his hamstrings were tight that day. The warm-up exercise was called mini walkers, which is where you walk your back legs up to your hands from a downward dog position to help release tension. He generally has pretty great form even when he does hip balance exercises with weights. He loses the integrity of the form when he does cable pull downs and not keeping his chest up enough and back up and tight.
For Max, we switched up the workout with the last circuit starting off with burpees and the half balance ball to help build up more muscle endurance. He is slowly building up more muscle and increasing in weights for lateral pull downs and chest press but his form loses integrity when doing bicep curls. He starts to swing his body during that exercise which indicates that he is using other muscles to assist his biceps.
August 18th
This time Aaron has given me homework for Richard which was new for me because he is an older man with lower back and knee problems. So for this work out did a lot of legs stretches to help open up his hips and shoulders to be completely warmed up. So comparing his workout to mine he had a longer warm-up for stretches. Then on to leg exercises doing a lot of split leg exercises so he is not putting a lot of pressure on both knees using a TRX for his squats. This was a great homework assignment for me because it pushed me out of my comfort zone by having to deal with issues you can get as you age.
August 19th
Today we met with both clients again. Richard came in and just killed his workout today. When it came to leg balances his right leg was stronger so when working on his left leg he would start to swing back and forth which caused an issue. But overall I feel this was Richards best workout that I have seen. We just need to work more on strengthening his left leg.
With Max, I would say that this was not his best workout so far. He showed up a bit tired having to do with the fact he hadn't eaten yet. His first two circuits being generally very good with a little leg imbalance. I believe only doing the 2 minute run at the start helped him finish the circuit. By the third and fourth circuit, I start to tell he was getting tired as his form became sloppy and he started to swing more with the weights. Additionally, he was cutting his push up short by not hitting the 90 degrees you're supposed to.
August 30th
We only trained with Max today. He showed better progress and was more ready to workout compared to last time. He completed two of the circuits doing the farmers walk which is a very good exercise for legs, balance, and arms. I came to understand that when you do the farmers walk overhead you don't want to fully extend because then you start to use more of your deltoids to hold up the weight. Overall today was a good workout put in by Max with it being different than the last couple I have seen. There was more weight endurance focus this time around which can be difficult if you don't train that way.
September 16th
We worked with both Max and Richard today. With a twist of Max having his session first instead of Richard. I helped to pick the exercises for Max to do, switching it up some more, so he was not doing the same exercises which trick the muscles. I learned that when you are spotting someone doing chest, shoulder press exercises you want to watch the wrist for proper support because if you don’t the elbows bearing the weight can still sprain the person's wrist if they can’t get it up.
With Richard, we started with a walk on the treadmill to get his heart rate up since he didn't walk to the gym the day. We kept the workout simple and didn't do an endurance workout like we did for Max. I have started to notice both of their workouts are very similar just with slight tweaks for each person.
September 30th
We started with Max again today doing a seated tap squat I suggest was is done to help build confidence in an older client as well as to build better form. With Max, we focused on trying to not pop his head back and to extend his arms more slowly during his bicep curls and in the second circuit using a straight bar instead of dumbbells which helped him keep his form.
With Richard, we did some timed planks which showed that he has great core strength. With his curls, he also tends to lean back a bit when lifting the weight up. His back seemed to not be as strong because he was starting to use his bicep more when the weight got heavier on the lateral pull downs. Then he finished with a nice foam roll to relax and stretch out his legs for his walk home.
The important message Aaron gave me is to try not to make a “workout salad”. A workout salad is just a bunch of workouts randomly put together without a purpose other than that you know those exercises. A kinesiology major teaches you the exercise but then you have to figure out how to make them all workout together so your client can get the best results.
October 7th
Today we only trained Max in a midday training session. We switched up how we organized the workouts because he hadn't eaten any breakfast, switching the 3 workouts to 2 per circuit and then doing 5 circuits. With this set up he was able to put all his work in this work out despite not having breakfast. Doing leg, back for two of them and leg, chest for the other two stacking them so he doesn’t fatigue his back or chest.
October 14th
Today we only worked with Richard but with the air quality being bad lately the workout could go slowly. This was also the reason Max canceled his workout for today. He didn't have any knee pain today and ditched the side plank because he was having some upper arm pain. He was a lot more talkative today. We were not using the TRX for his squats today which is really great. We were cautious of his arthritis acting up in one of his legs, but overall he did a good workout even with the bad air quality.
November 3rd
Aaron has given me homework of creating my own PAR-Q form (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire), consent, and health form. I spent a lot of time researching other PAR-Q forms and found two similar but had different parts I liked. I combined them together to create my own version of the forms and included fitness goals question sheet to get an idea of how the future client would want to look at the end of our meetings.
November 4th
We met with both clients today starting off with Max. He didn't get great sleep last night so he was tired from the start. Despite that, he powered through this work out killing it even though we added one more circuit to the session. With him using a lot heavier weights from when I first saw him. His balance is getting better but his left side is still weaker.
Richard also powered through the workouts. It could have something to do with us giving him more cable exercises to put less stress on his joints. He did chest flys for the first time which were really good for his first time and he didn't struggle too much. His balance from the first time I met him has gotten a lot better and he is steadily becoming more flexible and less reliant on the TRX for his squats.
December 15th
Aaron had given me some extra homework to complete the internship focusing on the business side of being a personal trainer which included things like a price sheet, policy on cancellation, and contact sheet. In my research, I learned how much people pay for sessions, how much you give the gym and how much you keep for yourself. I learned about proper attire and other cancellation policies at various gyms. I have created my own versions of all of these documents.
Closing report
For my internship, I chose my personal interest in personal training. I reconnected with my previous trainer, Aaron Holby, to see if I could work with him. Luckily he was glad to help me out with my internship.
During my internship, I would write down the circuits, warm-ups of the workouts we did that day while making observations on the client's form and overall progression throughout the weeks. Developing these skills will help me to become a complete trainer. I worked with Aaron and two of his clients, Max and Richard. With Max being the same age as me it wasn't hard to do homework with build a workout for him. Richard, on the other hand, was 74 which was a new challenging experience for me to help come up with stretches and exercises for someone who has knee and lower back pain.
With Richard, I was able to use my creativity to come up with ideas. Aaron gave me pointers on ways to help release tension in those areas such as using a TRX band for squats and incline during chest press.
My daily duties were to help out the clients in spotting, putting away weights, write down workouts/observations, and answer questions from Aaron on form, spotting etc. During the months of working with him, I was able to learn about not only creating working outs for people around my age but with people who have joint problems. This was helpful as these issues impact everyone as they get older. It allowed me to get more insight and an overall view of how to create a workout with purpose instead of a “workout salad.”. This workout salad just meant that you're just throwing random exercises together without any purpose or thought.
One obstacle I faced with this internship was arranging times to work with Aaron and his clients. This is because Aaron has moved to Sacramento a couple years ago but he comes down to work only three times a week. Along with me only meeting with two of his clients. To compliment our training sessions, Aaron assigned homework of creating workouts for Max or Richard for their next session. I also learned a lot about putting a training business together and about the basic forms and information you would give to someone new who is interested in hiring you to train them.
I would say that I didn't know what to expect when going into this internship since I haven't done any of type of work outside of school besides community service. But during the actual experience, I got to talk to other trainers at the gym and understand more about the training world than just building workout plans for your clients. I got to learn and see that you also really need to have good people skills to do this for a living. Aaron said that “You can know everything about training but if you are not a nice person no one will want to hire you. If you know a good amount about training and you are a nice person, people will want to keep coming back to you.” This really stuck with me because it is about trying to retain your clients. But more importantly, it is about being able to connect with the person to help them get the type of results that they want to see for themselves.
Without this internship, I probably wouldn't know that I really love training, creating work out plans for clients, and just connecting with the clients. I was sad at the end of the internship because I loved showing up and helping them work out because it brought me joy that I was helping them with a part of their lives. Now I know that this is a real possibility for something I want may pursue once I am out of college.