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After going to a spin class yesterday due to the heavy down pours we were experiencing in Melbourne I was surprised at the lack of screening before undertaking the class.

It’s a bit worrying that a person can potentially walk in off the street, be overweight, have high blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, a family history of cardiovascular disease, over 40 with pre-existing injuries and hop onto a bike and potentially injure themselves or worse still have a heart attack.

Similarly if you won’t to participate in an adrenaline based sport such as bungy jumping or parachuting, there is a little more screening but far from adequate, if you weight over 95kg or have any concerns the operators recommend that see your Doctor and that you must have average fitness, flexibility and not bepregnant.

Currently the fitness industry is regulated by requiring that a fitness trainer have either a Cert III or CertIV in fitness to satisfy the requirements of applying for public liability and personal indemnity insurance otherwise you are free to start a business as a personal trainer without any restrictions.
This is slowly changing as councils are requiring permits to conduct exercise programs in parks, gardens and reserves which in turn means having insurance.

Fitness qualifications in Australia are regulated by each State’s or Territory’s Training Organisation that gives accreditation for courses and registers RTO or Registered Training Organisations for vocational education and training (VET).

Vocational learning means Tertiary level courses from certificate II to certificate IV, and diploma and advanced diploma.

With most professions, be it a trade such as an electrician or hairdresser, you must complete an apprenticeship while studying part/full time.

To become a hairdresser, you must complete a full time 12 month Certificate III in Hairdressing that usually comprises of attending 7 hours per day from Monday to Thursday and a work experience day on Friday.

So currently a RTO can provide an eight week Certificate course in Fitness, (Cert III and Cert IV) provided that it conforms to the Certification guidelines of the relevant state based Training Organisations.
Upon completion you can conduct unsupervised exercise prescription.

To raise the profile of the fitness industry and the standard of education either the duration of the course needs to be raised to 12 months in conjunction with industry based experience.

Ideally a Diploma in Fitness would raise the depth of knowledge of the fitness professional and remove the entrepreneurial approach currently taken by some RTO’s.

Based on the Australian Government’s Higher educational Guidelines, a Diploma requires 1 or 2 years of full-time study. It is a dual-sector qualification, offered in both the higher education and vocational education and training sectors.

In the higher education sector, Diplomas are based on an academic program with an applied focus, providing general or specialised training for employment at the para-professional level. Diplomas can articulate to Advanced Diploma programs. Diplomas can also provide advanced standing or credit transfer (usually 1 year) into a Bachelor Degree program

While there is a lot of rhetoric about employers needing to employ only those candidates whom possess higher qualifications, then it begs the question why are these courses acceptable by the Government Training Organisations?

If these short courses are deemed deficient and the industry can not confidently rely on them, why haven’t the guidelines been revised?

Surely it is the responsibility of the State based training organisations to address these issues?

While I appreciate that people need to take responsibility for their own actions there is a duty of care by the provider of a fitness based exercise or activity to take responsibility to ensure that the participant passes the necessary medical clearances before undertaking the activity.

Often when we are exercising, fitness trainers use the perceived level of exertion scale to determine at what intensity a client is working at.

While not a scientific means of evaluating a person’s heart rate all VO2 max, a it allows the use of the meaningful scale to determine how hard person is working.

The scale is rated from 1 to 10, with one being minimal effort being exerted and 10 being maximal exertion, to the point of falling over and collapsing as there is nothing left in the tank.

The perceived level of exertion is based on the physical indicators of how hard you’re working such as your heart rate, level of breathing, muscle fatigue and increased sweating.

We have created our own perceived level of exertion which gives it we are at in terms of your exercise intensity.

1.The equivalent of the energy required to lay on the couch and eating a block of chocolate
2.The amount of discomfort I feel to get up and change the TV channel without a remote
3.Feeling great but notice a difference in my breathing
4.Starting to sweat but I can still chat non stop
5.Getting out of my comfort zone, more sweat starting to appear
6.I can still talk but it’s a bit more effort
7. Body starting to feel heavier, totally focused on the exercise, rapid breathing
8.Talking isn’t an option, I’m sweating like a pig
9.I cannot think of anything else but when will this end
10.It’s all over, I cannot think clearly, total exhaustion, I need to collapse in a heap and have a sleep

Ideally when performing any exercise for weight loss or improving our fitness level, we should be aiming to be between level 6 & 8, where is your comfort zone?

Well after the massive hail storm last night in Melbourne who would have believed we would have this amazing morning at Boot camp.

Melbourne is definitely living up to it’s reputation of four seasons in one day or rather four extreme seasons in one day.

While there was patchy showers across Victoria, a massive hail storm moved across over Melbourne last night. There was no mention of hail storms on the weather forecasts as this storm seemed to originate from nowhere.
While I always joke about it never rains at Boot camp, I think breaking the record with hail is going a little too far:))

The temperature dropped and while I was waiting at the Rotunda with a new Fitmate, the winds increased from 15-20knots to 35-40 knots with pea sized hail voraciously dawning upon us. Well boot camp was now officially over as we ran back to our cars.

Within minutes the ground was covered in a layer of sleet and the fallen hail collecting on the windscreens like we were up at the snow. Once the epicentre of the storm based, the skies cleared and the rain subsided.

With the cool 7º temperature, the hail was in no hurry to melt with piles of hail still visible after 20 minutes.

Well done to the 8 Fitmates who braved the rainy weather to venture out. While we do have sheltered areas at our parks, it’s game over when either it hails or there is a warning for one of these extremely nasty storms.

We had a similar storm in April this year with loads of lightening and thunder, once again we canceled the session as lightening and Fitmates don’t mix.

During the stretching component of our boot camp last night a few Fitmates were commenting on how much better they feel after a bit of exercise following a hard day at the office.

These days unfortunately the stresses of work are compounded by additional financial pressures with meeting mortgages and the costs of living in our modern society. Quite often we are time poor and we have limited opportunities for physical exertion with longer working days and balancing the home/family life. Australia actually is in the top 10 for the highest average hours worked per week.

The great thing that our Fitmates noted was while they were exercising they forgot about work and could begin to unwind from the days work activities. Even one Fitmate in particular had an amazing amount of energy that was redirecting captured energy from a heavy day at the office. Even the other Fitmate’s were suitably impressed by her awesome energy at knocking out punch after punch.

Unfortunately there is a rising number of people consuming an excessive amount of alcohol in many instances as way to “unwind” from the days work activities.

This increased alcohol consumption has attracted the attention of the government to introduce educational programs recommending that people have 2 alcohol free days per week. This is really saying that there is a proportion of the population that is drinking above the recommended daily intake of 2 standard drinks on a daily basis. What may surprise people that that big goblet of a wine glass may be well over a standard drink which is 100ml for red wine.

Another by product is insomnia for some people who cannot “switch off” and keep churning through the days activities and stresses.

So maybe try fitting in some exercise after work, even if it means going for a walk around the block or parking the car a little further from the railway station or office car park. You may be surprised how much better you feel:))