Personal Training & Sports Coaching (Level 3) Course

Course Structure

The OLQA Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training & Sports Coaching course is divided into 10 comprehensive modules:

Module 1 – Becoming a personal trainer The first module explores the role of the personal trainer or sports coach and the type of qualities you need to possess to succeed in this role. It looks at the key things you need to consider when embarking on a career as a personal trainer, including getting certified and training before you actually take on any clients.

It gives advice about working for yourself and working for others, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of both. It also looks at putting together a curriculum vitae and how you might get yourself known, so that you get clients to work with.

Finally, there is information about the essential equipment you will need when working as a personal trainer or sports coach.

Module 2 – Knowing about anatomy and physiology Understanding how the human body functions is essential when working as a personal trainer. It's important that you know which exercises train which body parts and are able to explain this to your clients. We concentrate on knowing about the human body in this module. The basics of anatomy and physiology are explained throughout the module, including information about bones, joints, muscles, cartilage, ligaments and tendons.

This module also looks at the heart and the circulatory system as well as the respiratory system, including details about the effects of smoking on the respiratory system.

Finally, the importance of core stability, and how we go about improving our core stability, is explained.

Module 3 – Knowing about nutrition When looking at the subject of diet and nutrition, it is important for us to consider what nutrition actually is, and why we need food. This module concentrates on exploring the key details about good nutrition and how our digestive systems work, so that you can advise clients on the types of foods they need to eat to help them achieve their goals.

This module also helps us understand how to introduce good nutrition into our daily lives and those of our clients and teaches us concepts such as "Energy Balance", "Body Mass Index" and "The Harris Benedict Equation".

The important dietary nutrients of carbohydrate, protein and fats and oils are explained in more detail, so that you can explain the function of these nutrients to your clients.

Module 4 – Knowing your clients This module concentrates on the key to your success as a personal trainer or sports coach, that is, knowing your clients.

It guides you through the things you need to find out about your clients before the initial consultation and how you might make a good first impression when conducting the initial consultation.

Leading on from this, it explores how to perform the fitness assessment of your client, so that you have sufficient information to be able to design their personal training programme.

Module 5 – Knowing about exercising Once you are in possession of all the necessary information, you will be able to design a training programme, which meets the needs of your client. The main emphasis will be on exercising, so you need to have extensive knowledge about the type of exercises you are going to include in each of your client's individual programmes, from warming up, resistance training, strength training, and aerobic training to cooling down at the end of the session.

As well as the type of exercises, when planning an exercise programme, you need to consider how hard and how often your client will need to do these exercises in order to achieve their fitness goals.

Once you have designed their basic programme, you need to keep records of your client's sessions and be aware of when they need to move to the next level. This module gives you all the necessary tools to confidently do this.

It also looks at putting together a beginner's training programme to start running and how your client might then advance from being a beginner to running a marathon.

Module 6 – Training young people This module will be of particular importance to those personal trainers and sports coaches who train young people, as well as the parents of young athletes, as it deals with all the issues that may affect a young athletes health and performance.

Some of the questions we pose are, "Why are young athletes more susceptible to dehydration than adult athletes?" And " How can we encourage young athletes to consume enough fluid?"

We learn, not only about their fluid needs, but also about their energy, protein and carbohydrate needs and how these differ to the needs of adult athletes.

Meal timing is also an important issue for young athletes, as quite often, when "on the go" all the time, eating is not a priority for young athletes. It is up to those that are responsible for their training to ensure that young athletes consume sufficient fluid and food before, during and after exercise.

Module 7 – Training groups with particular requirements This Diploma in Personal Training and Sports Coaching is designed to cover all elements of personal training and highlight how everyone can benefit from good nutrition and physical activity.

There are, however, specific issues, which relate to the training of some groups of people, namely, women, older people and those with diabetes and/or heart disease. This module looks at these issues and how to adapt training programmes and advice accordingly.

Specific to women are the issues of pregnancy, premenstrual tension and the menopause. We consider all these in general terms and how they impact on a training programme.

Module 8 – Advising about weight management Many clients will come to you with one goal in mind, that is, to lose weight, whether it is for their own self-esteem and appearance or to perform better in a sporting event.

This module gives advice and tips on how to lose weight healthily and, once a target weight has been reached, how to maintain that weight. It looks at safe, healthy ways of losing body fat, while still having the energy and strength to perform well, important if your client is striving to run a marathon, for example.

A sample weight-loss eating plan is included, as well as tips for advising your clients to lose weight successfully, by, for example, increasing their metabolic rate.

You may have clients who want to increase their body weight, but need to ensure that they gain muscle and not body fat, which will hinder their performance. This module advises on how to gain weight successfully, by following a weight-gain eating plan and give weight-gain tips, which you can pass on to your clients.

Finally, we look at eating disorders and how to recognise whether your client is suffering from an eating disorder and what you should do about it.

Module 9 – Advising about fluid management In this module, we examine why we need to keep hydrated when exercising and the best way of obtaining sufficient quantities of fluid throughout the day.

We look at the role of electrolytes, and learn how to recognize and prevent dehydration, so that you can inform your clients about the need to drink plenty of water.

We also explore some facts about alcohol and how our bodies metabolize it, as well as the effects of alcohol on our health and how it might affect whether your client achieves their goals or not.

Module 10 – Building and maintaining a successful personal training business The final module of this course looks at how to build and maintain a successful personal training business.

You may want to continue working on your own or you may find that you need to take on staff to cope with the demand for your services.

Either way, you will need to create an image, maintain records, pay tax and deal with health and safety issues. You may also wish to develop a marketing plan. This module helps you with all these issues, as well as giving advice on how to retain clients.

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