So I've been taking this Personal Trainer Certification class. All along I have felt it was one of the most poorly run classes I've attended. The teacher is a nice lady who knows her stuff, but just isn't a good teacher. The course is too short to truly understand the material. She started late all but one of the sessions. She allowed one particular student to dominate class wasting further time.

So last week I was stressing big time. I have been studying all the way along, so it isn't like I waited until the last minute. I'd study 3-5 nights a week; reading, writing flash cards, recording digital files of questions, reviewing. I bought extra books. I found websites to clarify and support information. Yeah, I'm the anal retentive students just like I am about everything else. But that didn't help. Thursday night we had a voluntary practice practical at the gym. The instructor was very cranky (she was sick) and I was the first to volunteer. The "guy" volunteered to be my client; kept screwing around, interrupting, telling me what to do. She'd bark out "You'd lose points because he's being dangerous! You'd lose points because he's not following directions." WELL I AM NOT TAKING THE TEST WITH A MAN 55 GOING ON 10, SO JUST LET ME DO IT!

I left in tears, sure I was going to fail. I cried much of yesterday. Then yesterday afternoon the instructor emailed us the option to defer the practical until next week. HALLELUJAH! That would give me a week to prepare! But next week I have the New York trip happening, so it would be stressful. Still, it gave me some peace last night. I crammed for the written and then went to sleep feeling pretty okay about that one.

I really REALLY think it went well. The written is 100 questions. I did it, leaving one blank. Then went through all of it again, changing two questions where I had totally had a brain fart, and answering the one. I did ask her about it because I didn't remember the CAD acronym, thought it might supposed to be CHD (cardiovascular heart disease) but it was coronary artery disease, since it was close to the same thing, I guessed right. (That a man who is 42 with one risk category should not exercise.)

So my practical I asked to take next week, but apparently she didn't get or read the email. I happened to get up at 5 this morning to have plenty of time to cram going in, and since I was answering all my flashcards with no problem (and I made them MUCH harder than the actual test...I get huge monster test anxiety), I decided to run Roy through all of the physical assessment tests, and to print out (just in case) my script I'd written that I was going to use to practice at the gym this week.

So I just decided, on a whim, to get the practical over with. I don't know that I passed for sure, but I think I did. I saw two of the assessment pages (out of four) and all of the assessments had 5s (on a scale of 1-5). I honestly don't think I've ever been so stressed about a test in my entire life. I have shed MANY tears this week over this, and as usual, I freaked way too much.

I counted the number of questions I was unsure about and I got about 10. I have to get 70 to pass, so even if I just effed up 10 more, I'm good.

I did find it a bit unfair, but it didn't really bother me at all, that she gave the guy I tested with a lot of prompts (and he got a bunch of 5s and some 4s) where I didn't get that. Could be because she felt I didn't need them. I was much better prepared than he seemed to be, which was really strange because Thursday night he seemed to have it going on. He might have just gotten stressed. Honestly, while I felt it was unfair, it didn't bother me. All I care about is how I do. If someone else had it "easier" I don't care. Besides, I went first, which in my book gave me a HUGE advantage over him. (He said I could.) We can't use the same thing that the other person used, so that was a bonus for me.

The practical was:

-Two fitness assessments (I got hamstring flexibility and core endurance)
-Warm up (I chose the recumbent bike)
-5 stretches for 5 different muscles
-2 upper body strength workouts choosing from machine, tubing, free weights, or body weight and you could only do ONE of those, so I chose machine for latisumus dorsi, and tubing for deltoids
-1 lower body strength, I got calves so I chose body weight with calf raises on a bench

The deal was, he was the client, I was the trainer and I had to walk him through all of those, making sure I cued correctly, corrected his posture and form, explained what we were doing, explained the outcome of assessments and the plan we'd put into place for the training program. He was a woman of 38, 5'4" who weighed 165 pounds, had moderate to high BP, and was interested in losing weight. Score! I was a 42 yo man who was 195 lbs, high bp, high LDL (controlled) who was interested in improving his health. When we were the client we weren't allowed to speak.

The only corrections I got at all were to slow down when I talked (I get going 100 mph when I am nervous) just so she could hear better.

I am so glad to have that over. I'll find out if I passed in 2-4 weeks, and then I have to do an internship.

There are other certifications and I'm sure someone somewhere will decide that this one isn't "that good" or some such rot, but I don't care. I work full time and it was the only one available that was NOT online and worked with my schedule. I felt it was not as thorough as it could have been, but much more in-depth than I expected. Yay! My five year plan is starting!