The Role of the Exercise Professional

Discuss the role of the exercise professional and evidence that examines the effectiveness of different approaches and teaching skills.

The role of an exercise professional is to aid their client and to display certain characteristics whilst doing so. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) (2010) says that an exercise professional should pay each client individual attention to help them achieve their personal targets by the means of safe and effective practice. The service they provide should be reliable and of a high quality. They should show a high amount of professionalism with every client and motivate them to achieve as well as listening and respecting the clients’ thoughts and feelings towards the exercises they provide. These factors will allow for the client to stay motivated and be successful in what they are aiming to achieve.

One way an exercise professional can go about exercise programming is by adopting a coaching approach. Coaching is a process that helps people identify where they currently are, where they want to go, and how they go about getting there (Wellcoaches Corporation, 2003). In doing this they would be ensuring that the clients goals are taken into consideration and that the desired regime can be implemented in order for these goals to be reached. These points are in line with ACSM’s (2010) guidelines so should ensure that a positive outcome occurs from the clients’ training.

Another skill an exercise professional must need to learn is the idea of change. This is that not all clients’ will be ready to come in and do exactly what is prescribed to them; they may need to be gradually introduced to different activities and not rushed to ensure amotivation doesn’t occur. Prochaska et al., (1994)...

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