Hey there,
just a quick post today with regards the importance of assessment for group exercise and bootcamps.
Assessment of your clients’ posture and movement pattern dysfunction is seen in 1-1 training to be a useful tool to ensure the safety and success of your clients’ time under your care. But how about in group settings?
Are we assessing people’s movement capabilities prior to joining bootcamps and group fitness classes? Should we be?
The answer to these will come down to opinion, ultimately you decide the level of support you provide your clients, however I would like to take the time to share my opinion on this and then welcome any questions you may have 
In my opinion yes, I feel it’s essential to assess your bootcamp clients, here’s why:
So many of your clients will come to you now with musculoskeletal imbalances due to the nature of current society. They spend so much of their time seated and in front of computers that postural and movement pattern dysfunctions are becoming more prevalent.
What we must also appreciate is that your clients will come from different training backgrounds. Some will have been sedentary, some may have been gym users and some may have come from other group exercises sessions as they have heard you are awesome . The thing to consider here is that their previous exercise experience or lack of it may have ingrained certain motor patterns that are not conducive to a healthy musculoskeletal system (I believe it takes 500 repetitions to learn a new movement and nearer 5000 to change an old movemement).
So with your clients’ movement potentially affected by their day to day activities and their motor patterns out of wack you have to question whether it is right to thrust them into a dynamic, energetic group fitness session without first assessing their capabilities.
The human body is a remarkable machine with an almost limitless capacity for healing and regeneration but, like the analogy of the car with misaligned wheels wearing out its tires, eventually if your clients’ bodies are loaded again and again through faulty movement patterns something will have to give.
That’s not to say your clients will get injured in your sessions or even during the duration of their time at bootcamp with you, they may, they may not. But loading of faulty movement patterns certainly will lead to future degeneration that perhaps could have been prevented or delayed had they been given the right education and support during their time with you.
Now don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting that you SHOULD be responsible for a clients future…more that you COULD play a part in affecting your clients’ well being long after they finish training with you. Think what you are trying to achieve with your bootcamps right now…are you just providing fat loss? Or are you providing people the chance to truly change their body and lifestyle through a massively positive experience? Imagine being able to extend that experience well beyond the time they spend with you .
So, really thats looking more at the negative things that could be prevented by assessing and addressing your clients musculoskeletal dysfunction.
What’s the positive side to it?
- You’re providing a greater service than the bootcamp down the road.
- You’re keeping your clients injury free and training regularly so they will get better results than the bootcamp down the road.
- Musculoskeletal alignment will encourage activation of more muscle so your clients will develop the body they want and “tone up” quicker than the bootcamp down the road.
- Postural alignment will encourage improved digestion, greater health and massive energy compared to the clients in the bootcamp down the road.
- Your clients will love how good they feel and will tell their friends and colleagues so you will get more referrals than the bootcamp down the road.
Hopefully what you can see I’m saying here is that if you assess your clients and implement a little corrective exercise in to your bootcamps you will be providing a unique service that makes you better than the bootcamp down the road
So tell me what you think, are you assessing? how are you going about it? what do you feel this has added to your bootcamps?
Hope you found this post useful,
Be the Best,
Nathan @ ABCi
