Case study

We met during his assessment. He was sixty-three years old when we started training together. He has had a variety of personal trainers in the past. He is a clinical psychologist. We will look at his progress over a two year period. He walked everywhere he went. He took vacations to ride his bike across South-East, Asia. He walked around Alaska fishing, and sight-seeing on another vacation. He was and is a very active man. Training him was a simpler equation than training one who never stimulated his body.

Assessments are numerous. Functional Movement Screenings (FMS) is very popular these days because fitness companies can test us and sell us personal training. Do not take this the wrong way, we all need a trainer. However, making us move in other than natural postures to sell us something we do not need is careless. We assess movement patterns such as walking, squatting, running, jumping, turning, twisting, and reaching. A student of physical movement does not need a formal test designed by a less educated trainer to assess his/her clientele. We can see movements going awry. Assessments are based on posture and ROM. His assessment shows some needs and he tells us some wants as well. This is the foundation of training.

Day one – we do a full body workout to see how he takes instruction and performs each full body movement. The hips were tight. The shoulders were tight. We observed this in his assessment. He has had a knee surgery in the past. We style a program to allow full range of motion in these joints. His mid-section was deconditioned and he has had some back pain as a result of the weakness there. We design a program to address this as well. As many have been taught over the ages, he was told to lift things with his legs. This instruction caused the knee problems in my opinion. We should move from our hips. If we move from the hips we are stronger and preserve the mobile joints (knees and shoulders). Our first session was:

·         Leg press 3*10

·         45 degree hip extensions 3*10

·         Cable pull-downs 3*10

·         Standing dumbbell press’ 3*5

·         Standing cable crunches 3*10

We finish with partner assisted stretching. The odyssey begins. We assess that his knees are not a problem he needs to move from his hips as stated earlier. Hamstrings are tight and causing problems in the torso. Mid-back extensors are immobile and interfering with shoulder mobility. Torso flexors are strong but the belly persists. Freedom of movement has taken a back seat for this body. Liberation is the answer.

Over the two years I trained with him he complained about doing exercises on the floor. He later told me it was because I required him to stand in between sets. He thanked me for doing that after a year of training because he was more capable of playing with his grand-children who were small at that time. As the saying goes, it’s the small things in life that make the biggest difference.

I will now list the final session we did together:

·         Power clean 5/95,95,105, 3/115,115, 1/135,135,135

·         Barbell squat 5*5/135,135,135,155,175

·         Incline barbell bench press 5*5/95,95,115,115,135

·         Rubber band assisted pull-ups 3*10

·         Cobra (mid-back extension) 5*10

·         Dragon-fly 5*5

He is now stronger, faster, more mobile, and has better posture. We addressed his training like training rather than acting like I was a physical therapist correcting movement from a text book. We assess movements from everyday natural movements. I am a coach not a therapist. If I were to act as a corrective exercise specialist we would never have made any progress. At Doc’s Gym we make everyone more of a trainer than most trainers will ever realize. Movements based on posture achieve results. Weightlifting and powerlifting are based on natural postures. Train like a weightlifter in the gym and see results.

Get stronger, Peter did and he is better off as a result.

docsgym@live.com

Not Peter.