ExRx.net

I am considering several sessions with someone to fine-tune my exercise program. I'm in my late 50s and want to do this in-person assessment to age as well as possible. I've exercised regularly (strength/aerobics/flexibility) for many years and am in good physical shape.

Any suggestions as to the best type of specialist to set this up with? Aside from the fact that I plan to consult someone who is fully certified, which of the following sounds right?

Exercise Specialist
Physical Therapist
Personal Trainer
Other (fill in the blank)

Any ideas you have are welcome

TimG

My experience has been that Personal Trainers are rarely knowledgable and tend to pass on a great deal of misinformation.

Meanwhile, Physical Therapists are often strongly biased against weight training (or specific exercises like squats and deadlifts), since they typically only deal with people who've already injured themselves.

Also, when people injure them selves working out they rarely admit that they we doing something wrong (poor form, excessive loading, overtraining, ignoring aches and pains, etc.). Instead they tend to blame the injury on the exercise.

Tim,

You can get some good information from this group. However, there nothing like having someone "in person" go over things with you.

A good personal trainer can do that. However, there are a lot of personal trainer's out there who don't know what they are doing.

Just like any one you'd hire, you want to know if they are qualified. You want to know who they are certificed with.

Some of the top certification organizations are the: National Strength and Conditioning Association, American College of Sports Medicine, ISSA (forget what it stand for), American Council on Exercise, and National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Someone with a certification from that group, usually knows whats going on.

Ask for references. Then check them.

Kenny Croxdale

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Thanks TimD.