Enhance your personal training business and remain relevant in the highly competitive fitness industry. This personal training course is ideal for anyone who wants to build their business brand and grow their client list.

Our Certificate of Personal Training Professional Practice is an online professional development program that will help you build and sustain a profitable and successful business as a personal trainer.

You’ll learn about the qualities of a successful personal trainer, how to develop customised fitness programs and plans, create a brand, attract and retain clients, manage client departures, terminate difficult clients and more.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking a personal training course include:

• Personal training professionals – role and qualities of a personal trainer
• Purpose of personal training
• Medical approval for exercise
• Barriers to exercise
• Major benefits of personal training
• Daily work and responsibilities of personal trainers
• Desirable character traits of the personal trainer
• Core services on offer
• A personal trainer and their role in motivation
• Level of concern or tension (good stress)
• Success – areas clients should focus on to improve training outcomes
• Knowledge of results
• Education or training the professionals
• Basic components of physical fitness
• The human body
• Energy production
• Energy and exercise
• Considerations for effective business
• Common types of personal trainers
• Business basics
• Expanding your services into other areas
• Brand a personal training business
• Develop fitness plans and programs according to client needs
• Specialised services
• Working with new clients – meet and greet
• Pre-screening
• Anthropometric measurements
• Summarise what you know about the client
• Taking baseline measures & assessing progress
• The role of exercise in weight control
• Calculating ideal body weight
• Human movement & types of fitness programs
• Working with older adults
• Instructing young people
• Over-exercising
• Other exercise considerations
• Ending the trainer-client relationship
• Difficult clients
• Manage client departures and terminate difficult clients.
• Finding new clients

Why Become a Personal Trainer?

Before you decide to study a personal training course, it’s beneficial to consider why you want to be a personal trainer. Do you have a passion for fitness? Do you love helping people to achieve their goals and make their lives more fulfilling?

Help people be their healthiest

The satisfaction that comes from making a real difference to people’s health and wellbeing is up there as the top reason to work as a personal trainer. You get to see your clients become the best version of themselves – gaining more energy, self-esteem, and motivation to enjoy life to the fullest.

Diverse career opportunities

The career opportunities are vast for personal trainers. You might work in a gym, physical therapy practice, or from a beautiful park – or even from your own home. You can start your own business or work for organisations that require your services, such as residential aged care communities or corporate clients.

Earning potential – the sky’s the limit

If you start your own business, you set your own hours and hourly rate! So, the sky really is the limit when it comes to earning potential as a personal trainer. A personal training course is a sensible investment, as you’ll gain valuable insight into how to brand and market yourself professionally. And, who knows, you could be a personal trainer to celebrities! The sky’s the limit after all!

Become an expert

You can specialise in stress reduction, women’s health or mature-adult fitness and become an expert whose opinion is sought by the media. Personal trainers are experts in fitness, so they’re in demand when it comes to informing the public.

10 of the Biggest Fitness Trends This Year!

Wearable technology

Smartwatches and fitness trackers are huge trends in fitness and are a key part of Australia’s fitness culture. It’s now easier than ever to collect important health metrics, develop a healthy lifestyle, manage chronic diseases, enhance exercises to suit individuals! Basically, wearable technology is improving our quality of life.

Exercise as medicine

Confidence in prescribing exercise is on the rise, as it’s evident that movement hugely improves the health of people with long term health conditions – especially for those with sedentary lifestyles.

Mind and body training

The connection between physical and mental health is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, so fitness goals need to go beyond physical activity alone. People are looking towards mind-body exercises like yoga and Pilates now more than ever.

HIIT

High impact interval training is still a major trend in fitness and one that’s not going away any time soon. A major benefit of HIIT is that you can burn lots of calories in short bursts followed by rests with a combination of body weight, free weights, and cardio.

Corporate wellness

It’s likely that companies will focus on health and wellness to attract and retain staff going forward. Exercising regularly and managing stress has a significant impact on reducing absenteeism and increasing productivity in the workplace. Corporate wellness is a smart investment – and a personal training course can help you target this key market for your business’s success.

Hybrid fitness

Offering both remote and in-person fitness will be a trend that lingers long after the pandemic. So, if personal trainers want to thrive in future, it’s best to cover both bases as hybrid fitness options are here to stay.

Outdoor fitness

Now more than ever people are flocking to parks and green spaces to enjoy the freedom of being out of the house. Whether it’s an outdoor boot camp or morning yoga in the local park, people are embracing the outdoors.

Hyped up hygiene  

A personal training business will need to meet impeccable hygiene standards to meet consumers’ new awareness of how germs and diseases spread.

At-home workouts

Remote personal training will be a key trend moving forward. The flexibility and accessibility of virtual workouts have become increasingly popular, which has helped personal trainers maintain their client base through the pandemic. As a result, fitness studios and gyms that pivoted to virtual options have thrived.

What Are the Top 5 Qualities of a Personal Trainer?

1. Passion for fitness

A personal trainer should be an avid fitness fan – and be in great shape themselves.

2. Thirst for knowledge

Continuing education is vital for a successful personal trainer. After all, change is the key to growth and if you’re not growing and learning neither are your clients.

3. Excellent communication skills

If a personal trainer hopes to succeed in the fitness business, they must know and understand their client. So, that means asking the right questions – and being an active listener.

4. Personable

A personal trainer should have empathy and compassion for their clients in reaching fitness goals. It’s important to train, motivate, support, and encourage clients even if they’re not as committed as you would like.

5. Flexible

Personal trainers need to adapt not only to different working environments but also to many different people and personalities. You need to be able to stay flexible in your approach to helping each client achieve their fitness goals – rigidity on exercise and nutrition could mean losing a client.

Enhance your personal training business and remain relevant in the highly competitive fitness industry with a personal training course like our Certificate of Personal Training Professional Practice.

Undertaking human biology courses online is excellent professional development for many professionals. But those with a focus on muscles are movement are especially vital for those in the fitness, health and rehabilitation professions.

More broadly, understanding the operation of nerves and muscles in movements and reactions in the body is ideal for anyone wanting to help people improve their flexibility, performance, and posture.

The Certificate of Human Biology (Muscles and Movement). is an online program that will give you insights into how nerves and muscles work to assist people with mobility issues or those wanting to improve their fitness performance.

You’ll also learn about the structure of the nervous system, the anatomy of neurons, skeletal muscles and gain an understanding of how to help people with mobility issues or fitness goals to improve their quality of life.

Learning Outcomes

Study our human biology course online to:

• Learn about nerves and reactions in the human body
• Study nerves and motor skills
• Explore how the nervous system affects motor skill performance
• Understand skeletal muscle function and structure in the human body
• Examine the organisation of muscle tissue in the human body
• Gain insights into the mechanics of muscular movement
• Explore muscular development, strength and endurance
• Select appropriate muscle flexibility exercises
• Understanding the significance of muscles to posture and general wellbeing
• Studying nerves cause reactions in the human body
• Gain insights into how the nervous system affects motor skill performance
• Exploring the function and structure of skeletal muscle in the human body
• Understanding the mechanics of muscular movement
• Understand the development of muscular strength and muscular endurance
• Select appropriate muscular flexibility exercises
• Explore the significance of muscle to posture and general wellbeing
• Cross-section the spinal cord and label the anatomical parts
• Understand what happens when an electrical stimulus is sent along with the central nervous system by illustrating and labelling the reflex arc
• Investigate nerve to nerve synapses during a specific body movement
• Learn about activity at muscle-nerve junctions, during the specific body movement
• Discover how proprioceptors function during the specific body movement
• Learn processes that occur in the nervous system when a particular muscle moves

Plus, You’ll Learn to …

• Understand the functioning of the following different sensory receptors: smell, sound, balance
• Distinguish between the functions of varying neuroglia (astrocytes,
• oligodendrocytes, microglia, ependymal cells, neurolemmocytes, satellite cells)
• Learn how the function of different parts of the brain affect different specific muscularmovements in the body
• Examine how the body learns a specific voluntary skill
• Understand the dampening effect, as exerted through the cerebellum
• Explain how the body perceives speed through the nervous system.
• Explore the operation of tendons during a specificmovement of a limb
• Compare the function of the motor with sensory fibres in nerves supplyingmuscles
• Understand the differences in the structural characteristics of redand white muscle fibres
• Study events occurring during muscular contraction, at a microscopic level
• Learn howmuscles of the hand move during exercise and actions
• Design diagrams showing themuscles in the back which provide both support and movement for the spinal column
• Learn about the significance of thesemuscles to health, wellbeing and mobility
• Understand the principle of levers related to an observed muscularmovement
• Explore the principle of moments associated with an observed muscularmovement
• Understand muscularmovements which occur in the observed subjects when using three different types of exercise machines
• Learn about different bodymovements in terms of the action of different bones, muscles and nerves, including the movement of a limb in exercise, and the bending of the back, and one hand movement.
• Distinguish between isotonic, isometric, eccentricand isokinetic contractions
• Learn how strength and endurance can be maintainedand increased
• Learn three different physiological changes which accompany increased strength
• Understand the overload principle, related to muscular development.
• Discover biological processes in force to affect strengthand endurance in an athlete
• Compare staticand dynamic flexibility in an individual
• Study the structural limits to flexibility in three different people of different ages
• Explore how to develop flexibility in a specific individual
• Understand the relationship between flexibilityand aspects of performance
• Develop an exercise program to develop/maintain flexibility for a person.
• Understand posture and its impact on general wellbeing, including arthritisand back pain

And more! 

Health Benefits of Strength Training

Strength training (or resistance training) incorporates weight-bearing exercises to build strength, anaerobic endurance, and skeletal muscles’ size. Human biology courses online will help you incorporate successful strength training into an exercise routine.

When this type of exercise is regular and consistent, muscles become stronger. As a result, joint function, bone density, muscle, tendon and ligament strength are improved.

Adults should incorporate two strength training sessions per week to achieve the following benefits:

• Improved muscle strength and bone
• Maintain flexibility and balance
• Weight management
• Reduce cognitive decline as we age
• Improve stamina
• Prevention and control of chronic health conditions
• Pain management
• Decrease injury risk
• Increase bone density and strength – reduce risk of osteoporosis
• Improved sleep
• Enhanced performance
• Increased self-esteem, mood, body image

Physiology of an Olympic Sprinter – Why Are They So Fast?

Muscles are made of slow-fast-twitch fibres. While most runners have an enviable amount of both, Olympic level sprinters most likely have a high proportion of fast-twitch.

The other factor is VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity), which is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption measured during incremental exercise – or exercise of increasing intensity. The name is derived from three abbreviations: V̇ for O₂ for and max for maximum.

Runnings with a naturally high VO2 max find it easier to run faster because their hearts can deliver more oxygen to their muscles. You can boost your VO2 max by including speed training which forces the heart to pump blood at a higher rate.

Running economy is another measure of capacity for sprinting, which measures the amount of oxygen you need to run at any pace. It’s a measure of how efficiently a runner runs and can be determined by factors such as weight, gait and biomechanics

So, while you can’t change the muscle composition you inherit, you can train your muscles for greater speed.

15 Fun Facts About the Muscular System

1. There are three muscles types – smooth cardiac and skeletal
2. The human body contains over 600 muscles
3. Muscles are made up of special cells called muscle fibres
4. The inner ear contains the smallest muscles in the body
5. The gluteus maximus (buttocks) is the largest muscle in the body
6. The jaw muscle (masseter) is the strongest in the body – it can create a force as great as 90 kilograms on your teeth!
7. Muscles are attached to bones by tendons
8. Muscles make up approximately 40 per cent of total body weight
9. The heart pumps 7,570 litres of blood every day, making it the hardest working muscle in the body
10. The eye muscles are the busiest in the body, performing as many as 10,000 coordinated movements in just one hour of reading!
11. The motor cortex on one side of the brain controls movement on the opposite side of the body.
12. Muscle movement counts for about 80 per cent of total body heat produced by the body, which is why you shiver when you’re cold!
13. Muscles like to pair up – when one shortens, the corresponding pair lengthens
14. Your muscles can’t push – they can only pull
15. Muscles increase in size when the body repairs damaged fibres by fusing them

Gain foundation knowledge in muscles and movement to help improve people’s flexibility, performance and posture with a human biology course online like Certificate of Human Biology (Muscles and Movement).

An advanced biology course like our Certificate of Human Biology – Cardio Fitness and Health is ideal for health professionals, sports coaches and anyone wanting to understand cardiorespiratory fitness, sports performance and the appropriate exercises for maintaining good health.

This human biology online course will give you insights into the vital processes that occur in healthy respiratory and cardiovascular systems, and the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and basic physics that drive these processes.

You will explore the science of blood and the factors that affect pulmonary ventilation and blood pressure, including the respiratory system, and how to measure lung function and capacity.

You will also learn about cardiorespiratory control and the nervous system, blood flow and gas exchange in the human body, and the various types of cardiorespiratory diseases.

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking a human biology online course include:

• Learning about the science, functions and components of bloods
• Exploring blood typing and blood cells and ematopoiesis, erythropoiesis, leukopoiesis and lymphopoiesis
• Studying blood cell function, erythrocytes, neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, and thrombocytes
• Gaining insights into the immune response, haemostasis, the clotting mechanism and haemodynamics
• Examining blood testing, circulatory networks, full blood count, cross matching and blood cultures
• Understanding arterial blood mass, biochemical and metabolic tests and the international normalised ratio (INR)
• Learning about arterial blood mass, biochemical and metabolic tests, the lymphatic system and blood disorders – red and white blood disorders, blood clotting and poisoning
• Exploring factors affecting blood pressure (BP), cardiac output, peripheral resistance and blood volume
• Studying the cardiac cycle and how blood pressure is measured
• Gaining insights into heart muscle cell contraction
• Examining electronic control of heart muscle cells – sinoatrial node (SA Node), atrioventricular node (AV Node), bundle of his (atrioventricular bundle) and purkinje fibres
• Understand BP problems – systolic hypertension, diastolic hypertension and hypertension
• Learning about problems with heart rate and other conditions – myocardial infarction and cardiac tamponade
• Exploring pulmonary ventilation, the respiratory system and respiratory epithelium
• Studying lung anatomy, alveoli and airway anatomy
• Gaining insights into nasal and oral cavities, the pharynx, epiglottis, larynx and trachea
• Examining bronchi and bronchioles
• Understanding the physiology of breathing – equilibrium, pressure, inspiration and expiration
• Learning about physiological measures of lung capacity and function, tidal volume, vital capacity, forced vital capacity, IRV, ERV, functional residual capacity, MV, VO2 max etc.
• Exploring gas exchange in the human body
• Gaining an understanding of oxygen transport and internal and external respiration
• Studying haemoglobin, carbon dioxide transport and respiratory control
• Gaining insights into the biochemistry of gas exchange – Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law, Dalton’s Law, Henry’s Law etc.
• Examining the factors affecting gas exchange, partial pressure gradients, gas solubility, membrane thickness etc.
• Understanding blood flow, volume, target and transfer
• Learning about arterial-alveolar gradient
• Exploring oxygen transport and the factors affecting oxygen release by haemoglobin

And more!

Top Fitness Trends for 2021

When you undertake a human biology online course focusing on cardio fitness, you will study the importance of exercise as part of an individual’s overall health and wellbeing. And although fitness trends come and go, however, the impact of COVID-19 has had a profound effect on how we exercise. Here are the top 10 fitness trends for 2021 according to the Australian Institute of Fitness.

• Wearable technology. Devices that provide “wearable data” are increasingly being used as a valuable tool to track fitness and health progress. They can monitor heart rate, steps and sleep patterns (to name a few). “Hearables” with biosensors are also gaining traction. These devices are wireless earphones that many runners use, and they are designed to collect data and provide information on a user’s speed, distance, pace, energy expenditure and heart rate.
• Exercise is medicine. This involves the link between exercise and mental health, and there is an increasing emphasis on the collaboration between health care providers and medical and fitness professionals. It is a holistic approach that can help individuals achieve both physical and mental health.
• Mind and body training. This is a health practice that combines controlled breathing, mental focus and movement to relax the mind and body. It can help control stress, anxiety, depression and pain, and examples include hypnosis, meditation, yoga and tai chi.
• Virtual COVID-19 has certainly enhanced the popularity of virtual fitness, which is the use of technology to combine workouts and virtual reality. Yoga, spin, pilates, boxing, martial arts or weight training … the choices are endless. All you need is a Smart phone or laptop!
• High-Intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT describes any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and fixed periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. Benefits include promoting weight loss, increasing your metabolism and improving your heart health. Plus, you can do it anywhere (even virtually!)
• Functional fitness training. This type of exercise trains your muscles to work together, for example, using various muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time. Exercises may include weightlifting, aerobic exercises and body weight movements, and weights, fitness balls and kettlebells are often used in functional fitness workouts.
• Health and wellness coaching. Combining theory from behaviour change, coaching psychology and positive psychology, wellness coaching supports individuals to work out what they want, why they want it and what’s hindering them from doing it. It often involves creating an action plan and empowering individuals to feel more confident, take responsibility and ultimately achieve more significant health and wellbeing changes than they would on their own.

20 Amazing Facts About Our Hearts

The heart is a vital part of our body’s circulatory system and is crucial to our survival – as you’ll discover in a human biology online course. Here are 20 fascinating facts that will provide inspiration for undertaking our Certificate of Human Biology – Cardio Fitness and Health.

1. In an adult, the average heart is the size of a fist.
2. The average human heart beats 60 to 100 times a minute, which is around 100,000 beats per day. Over a 70-year lifespan, that’s a staggering 2.5 billion beats!
3. The human heart weighs less than 460 grams. However, a man’s heart, on average, is around 57 grams heavier than a woman’s heart.
4. A woman’s heart beats slightly faster than a man’s heart.
5. If a human’s blood vessel system was stretched out, it would extend over 96,000 kilometres.
6. An electrical system controls the rhythm of our hearts, and it’s known as the cardiac conduction system.
7. The heart can continue beating even when it’s disconnected from the body.
8. Our hearts have a natural pacemaker that sends out electrical impulses to keep it beating at the correct pace. If it stops working, individuals may need an artificial pacemaker with wires connected to their heart’s chambers to send electrical currents to keep their heart pumping.
9. The earliest known case of heart disease was identified in the remains of a 3500-year-old Egyptian mummy.
10. The first open-heart surgery was performed in 1893 by American cardiologist, Daniel Hale Williams.
11. Swedish man, Arne Larsson was the first person to receive an implantable pacemaker. He lived longer than the surgeon who implanted it, and died aged 86 of a disease unrelated to his heart.
12. The fairyfly has the smallest heart of any living creature.
13. Whales have the largest heart of any mammal.
14. The giraffe has a lopsided heart – their left ventricle is thicker than their right. This is because their left side pumps blood to their brain via the giraffe’s long neck.
15. The beating sound of our hearts is caused by the valves of our heart opening and closing.
16. The iconic heart shape as a symbol of love is traditionally thought to come from the silphium plant, which was used as an ancient form of birth control.
17. Heart cells can stop dividing, which means heart cancer is extremely rare.
18. Our bodies are closely linked with our mental and emotional health, and in some cases, sadness and stress can (temporarily) break your heart. “Broken heart syndrome” (known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy or stress-induced cardiomyopathy), mainly affects women, weakens the left ventricle and causes symptoms similar to a heart attack. Fortunately, while it can cause heart failure for some, most individuals recover within a few months.
19. After a heart attack, cardiac rehabilitation can make a big difference in helping people return to their normal activities.
20. Laughing is good for our hearts, as it reduces stress and boosts our immune system So up the happiness factor in your life!

Understand the impact of medical conditions and other factors on cardiorespiratory performance and how to regulate this vital multi-organ system with a human biology online course such as our Certificate of Human Biology – Cardio Fitness and Health.