[Viviana]

Hi there,

I am training mostly women over 40 not in a gym, but at their homes or at a public park. So far I've been able to design good workouts for them with my powerblocks, tubings, medicine ball and step. My main concern for the future, though, is the leg workouts, specially for those clients that are more advanced, or those that have knee or flexibility issues that don't allow them to adequately perform a squat or a deadlift.

For those trainers that work out of the gym like myself, what do you do to make your clients' lower body workouts challenging and and effective to build up strength?

[standAPART]

I recommend you help women improve their squat--not stay away from it!
Teach them the fundamental movement patterns/coordination needed for a squat, lunge, side lunge, split squat, step up, knee-ups, etc.

Then you can incorporate alot of upperbody exercises with the squat or lunge. You can also incorporate single leg squats and some pseudo-ballistic jumps.

[rbd]

I echo John's comments. You can't beat the basics for leg workouts, so don't focus on the fluff exercises. Usually those that can't squat, it is often because of their technique or muscular imbalances and they need to squat, not avoid the squat. Squats, Lunges, Step-ups/Downs, Deadlifts, RDL's, etc should be your staple exericses. Stay away from most of the isolated exericses for legs, since most do nothing to shape the legs do to the fact that don't require the muscles to adpat because of the low loads.

[Liz]

Hi Viviana,

I'm getting certified right now to train women in their homes or my home...and I have wondered the same thing that you have. While I agree with what rbd and standAPART say about trying to get clients to do squats, lunges, etc. sometimes those are NOT always good for people. For example: two summers ago, I had bi-lateral knee surgery for a retrinacular release. Both my surgeon and my physical therapist told me that I should never perform lunges again because for MY problem, they will only make things worse. That really bothered me, because I have always gotten great results from lunges. However, I learned my lesson when I went against doctors advice and went ahead and performed traveling lunges and had extreme pain afterward. It was terrible. Luckily, I can still do squats and get great results from those. I also perform many leg lifts like the kind you do when you're on all fours and lift your leg up, one at a time (can't remember the names...). Anyway, there are many variations on those exercises and while they don't seem to get the same wonderful results as lunges do, sometimes we just have to work with what we've got ya know?

[rbd]

Liz,

Sure everyone is different, but so are squat and lunge variations. You have to be able to adapt, that is the science of program design and coaching. Plus traveling lunges would not have been a great place for you to start do to the stress you place on the muscles when you ask to the body to decelerate and accelerate.

You are probably talking about your typical bodybuilding lunge, where your back knee almost touches the ground. Probably not good for you, but I gaurantee you can do hip dominant versions with no problem. I had a gentleman who could not do any knee flexion w/o pain due to a very old ACL surgery that left his knee cap misaligned, but he performed lunge variations with no problem. I have yet to meet anyone that can't do a lunge version, since lunges are to bookend of human movement. Often those with anterior knee pain can tolerate posterior lunges. There are just too many variations of lunges, squats, deadlifts, RDL's, step-ups/downs, that I just don't think there is much of a reason to waste time with fluff exercises that are going to do very little, besides core activation, to get you results with your clients. It is just learng how to tweak exercises into a pain free range of motion and you will be golden.

I am not trying to say you are not righ Liz, just that often times there are ways to tweak exercises to be very effective, without totally abandoning a particular exercise. I hope this adds to the discussion.

[Liz]

rbd,

Wow! That really excites me! Obviously, I'm a newbie as I don't know these things...I honestly just believed my physical therapists and doctor when they said, "no lunges" - that meant absolutely no lunges. I didn't only try traveling lunges, by the way. (I didn't really make that clear.) I did the traditional stand in place, back knee almost touching the ground lunges like you say as well. I have always been very careful about proper form and no matter how I did it, it was very painful.

So, what I want to know is how I can know what you know! Does that even make sense? I don't really understand the variations that you are talking about, without really seeing them. Where can I see and learn things like this? I expected that these types of things would be the majority of what the NASM certification program would teach me, but it doesn't (at least so far it hasn't). I would be the happiest girl ever if I could find some sort of lunge that would work with me...my problem is, actually learning which exercises are appropriate.

And of course, feeling so clueless about all of this stuff scares me as to whether I'll ever know enough to be a good personal trainer. Know what I mean? While your reply makes me happy, it also makes me nervous about my own knowledge of exercise. (But that's off the topic I guess!) ha ha!

[rbd]

Liz,

Everyone here has been new and where you are currenlty at in their career. This industry is all about continuing your education and staying up with research and advancements within the industry. You will never no everything and the more you learn, the more you will feel like you don't know. You will always be a student, so don't get discouraged or expect to know everything right away. I have been doing this for 10 years and don't feel like I have even scratched the surface on what I want to know.

You probably won't get this stuff with NASM. They do a good job on some stuff, but are missing the mark on a lot of stuff. I guess my best advice would be to really understand functional biomechanics and how to apply it. Gary Gray has some good info on this type of stuff as well as JC Santana, Chuck Wolf, Todd Wright, Mark Cibrario are names that also come to mind. Again, I have been doing this for 10 years so I have learned a lot from a lot of different people and through my own coaching experience. I know seeing this stuff makes a lot more sense then trying to describe it. In your case for knee stuff, think less knee bend and more hip motion when lunging, etc. This will take the quads out of the exercise and put the focus on the posterior chain. A lot of therapist and docs don't know this stuff and are not necessarily exercise experts. To many body building exercises still plague our industry and they way people think a particular exercise should be done. Tweaking is an artform and will come with experience, so don't get discouraged, just keep learning and never let yourself stop. Read at least one hour each day - something I learned from Alwyn Cosgrove - a top notch strength coach out in California.

Let me know if I can be of any more help, since I always love to give back and help out up and coming trainers.

Take Care,

Jeff