not sure what to do with client - Personal Trainer Community - Forum

[pookie]

I have a client (who is also a friend) who has multiple medical problems. She was in a car accident a year ago and has a herniated disk in her cervical spine. She also is going through menopause (she is almost 50). She has gained a lot of weight in the past year mainly due to hormonal changes and lack of exercise due to the car accident. She goes to physical therapy, but does not seem helped by it. Her doctor has told her to get some exercise so she goes walking at night with her husband, but it really isn't enough. She wants to join a gym and wants me to go with her and be her trainer, but I'm not sure what types of exercises to do because of her neck injury. Does anyone know any light exercises someone in this situation could do besides walking? She is not looking to be a fitness model, she just would like to lose some weight and have a better quality of life. I'm a new trainer so I don't have enough experience yet and don't want her to get hurt. Thanks...

[freetimefitness]

Hey,

I think you as a personal trainer need to communicate formally with both her doctor and her physical therapist and perhaps come up with a pilates/yoga workout (obviously use your judgment with the exercises) get that checked over with the doctor and the physical therapist and see how you go. Then maybe progress to some balance work and add weight gradually.

Give her some nutrition advice maybe maybe even try some health supplements for the menopause side of things.

remember if there is any pain stop and assess the situation straight away

hope this helps
Tom

[megfit]

Hi Tom,

Definitely find out what her doctor and PT recommend she NOT do before any recommendations, yourself. But it wouldn't hurt her to increase the walking, perhaps at least 4-5 days a week and at a progressively intensive (not running) level. She should be sweating and huffing and puffing. Then some good stretches afterwards, to keep the hamstrings and calves stretched out, will help protect the rest of the spine.

As a personal trainer, however, recommending supplements is totally outside of your scope of practice. She could take a generic multi-vitamin/mineral, but it's not really going to impact her weight. And, although you can give her suggestions for nutrition, again, beyond general guidelines, this is also outside of your scope of practice. However, what you could do is have a conversation with her about what she thinks she can do, nutritionally, to help take some weight off. Just sharing that with you will get her thinking about changes she could make.

The advantage of cardio is the increased blood flow to her spine, which can help with healing and make her feel better. A good stretching program could help, also, and is necessary if she does kick up her cardio, anyway.

Margie

[freetimefitness]

Thank you John I totally agree!

Margie,

Obviously if a personal trainer knows nothing about supplements then they shouldn't recommend them! however if you have had training and have the back up of the company you work for you should do everything in your power to help a client! It makes you a more helpful PT.

Supplements when used properly are a very powerful tool, and I don't mean hormone supplements or whey supplements or fat burners or binders and that malarkey I mean good high quality organic supplements that are tried and tested by pharmacologists. There are alternatives to HRT and generic multi vits.....

hope this clears this up

Tom

[pookie]

Just wanted to post an update. My friend's car insurance is refusing to pay for anymore physical therapy beyond one more month. The doctor said that for the next month, she and the physical therapist should focus on exercise and not massage. My friend told me the PT had her doing doing very little strength training for the past year, except for a few exercises with bands. He was focusing mainly on massage. I know massage is good for her condition, but without any strength training, it's no surprise she hasn't made any progress. So once her phys therapy ends, I'm going to get the list of exercises from her PT and take it from there. She doesn't have money to join a gym, but I think we'll be able to make progress just from the suggestions you all have given me.

freetimefitness: You said there are alternatives to HRT and multivitamins. Could you be more specific? You can PM me if you don't want to list them here. Thanks!