Hey I'm currently studying a Health and Fitness Level 2 course in London

[Ladiesman502]

The course is basically to become a certified PT(Personal Trainer) and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on basically the anatomy and physiology stuff, weight lifting is the easy part. As in acronyms or easier ways to actually remember the names of bones, muscles and most of all actually writing programs for people, like should I write up a whole nutrition plan for people? etc... obviously I will cover these areas more in depth as my course progresses, but id just like a head start in the process if that makes sense.I am doing research reading books etc, but just wanna see if people have anything advice related to help out

[DanielSingleton]

The course is basically to become a certified PT(Personal Trainer) and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on basically the anatomy and physiology stuff, weight lifting is the easy part. As in acronyms or easier ways to actually remember the names of bones, muscles and most of all actually writing programs for people, like should I write up a whole nutrition plan for people? etc... obviously I will cover these areas more in depth as my course progresses, but id just like a head start in the process if that makes sense.I am doing research reading books etc, but just wanna see if people have anything advice related to help out

How far into the course are you? And how long does it last?

Sounds like I'm doing a similar course to you at the moment, I'm doing the Level 2 Fitness Instructor Course with CYQ, which is a 1 year course. And I'm hoping to move onto the Level 3 PT course next year. The Anatomy and Physiology aspect can be quite daunting when you first start, but assuming your course and tutors are good, you should pick it up as the course progresses. I was pretty overwhelmed during my first few lessons, however I'm now 10 weeks in and this week I aced my mock exam, and I'm confident of passing the real exam in a couple of months time.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on basically the anatomy and physiology stuff, weight lifting is the easy part. As in acronyms or easier ways to actually remember the names of bones, muscles

As for Anatomy and Physiology advice, I'd recommend you start revising early, spend a couple of hours a week just going over and over whatever you have learned that week, in your spare time. There is quite a lot to take in and you dont want to get overwhelmed trying to memorise it all a week before your exam.

Dont worry though, as you progress you will figure out little ways of remembering things, for example when remembering Muscles and Bones, you will find that a lot of muscles are named after the bone they are attatched too. For example if you dont know where your Tibialis Anterior is, but you know the Tibia is a bone in your lower leg, you can put two and two together to work out that its a muscle in the lower leg, also Anterior means front, so you can deduce that its a Muscle at the front of the lower leg.

Another example is I remember that Veins carry blood towards the Heart and Arteries carry blood away from the heart, how do I remember this? Because Vein has the word 'In' in it.

A final example would be when I'm trying to remember Joint Actions. Lets take the ankle, Plantar Flexion is when you point your toes downwards, and Dorsi Flexion is when you point the toes upwards. How do I remember which is which? Well you Plant into the ground, so Plantar Flexion must pointing down. Another Joint action example would be the shoulder, when you raise your arm up from your side and away from your body this is called Abduction. When you bring the Arm back down and/or across the body, this is called Adduction. How do I remember which is which? I remember this because when someone is abducted they are taken away.

There are hundreds of ways of remembering things, to many for me to list. The trick is finding little things that you will remember.

and most of all actually writing programs for people, like should I write up a whole nutrition plan for people? etc...

The programs you write should be tailored to the client you are training, based on their goals, lifestyle and medical history, normally you would get them to fill in a Par-Q (Like a medical history questionaire), Lifestyle Questionaire and/or have a chat with them in advance. So its hard to give advice, by the time your course is over though you should have wrote plenty of programs and have a good idea of what you should be doing. As for nutrition plans its probabally not somthing that will be expected of you as a level 2 FI.

EDIT: I was going to post links to some resourses that have helped me a lot, but apparently you cant post links on this site if you have below 50 posts.

Anyway TeachPE .com has a great A level Anatomy and Physiology section, whilst your not doing A level PE, the A&P between the two courses is pretty much the same, every topic in their A&P section will be covered as part of your level 2 fitness instructors course.

Another good one is the mock exam on HFE .co.uk, just google 'HFE level 2 Anatomy and Physiology' and you should find it.

[Bramley89]

Just doing my PT cert now, just read up alot. Its like with anything all you can do to learn is read/study constantly

[Ladiesman502]

How far into the course are you? And how long does it last?

Sounds like I'm doing a similar course to you at the moment, I'm doing the Level 2 Fitness Instructor Course with CYQ, which is a 1 year course. And I'm hoping to move onto the Level 3 PT course next year. The Anatomy and Physiology aspect can be quite daunting when you first start, but assuming your course and tutors are good, you should pick it up as the course progresses. I was pretty overwhelmed during my first few lessons, however I'm now 10 weeks in and this week I aced my mock exam, and I'm confident of passing the real exam in a couple of months time.



As for Anatomy and Physiology advice, I'd recommend you start revising early, spend a couple of hours a week just going over and over whatever you have learned that week, in your spare time. There is quite a lot to take in and you dont want to get overwhelmed trying to memorise it all a week before your exam.

Dont worry though, as you progress you will figure out little ways of remembering things, for example when remembering Muscles and Bones, you will find that a lot of muscles are named after the bone they are attatched too. For example if you dont know where your Tibialis Anterior is, but you know the Tibia is a bone in your lower leg, you can put two and two together to work out that its a muscle in the lower leg, also Anterior means front, so you can deduce that its a Muscle at the front of the lower leg.

Another example is I remember that Veins carry blood towards the Heart and Arteries carry blood away from the heart, how do I remember this? Because Vein has the word 'In' in it.

A final example would be when I'm trying to remember Joint Actions. Lets take the ankle, Plantar Flexion is when you point your toes downwards, and Dorsi Flexion is when you point the toes upwards. How do I remember which is which? Well you Plant into the ground, so Plantar Flexion must pointing down. Another Joint action example would be the shoulder, when you raise your arm up from your side and away from your body this is called Abduction. When you bring the Arm back down and/or across the body, this is called Adduction. How do I remember which is which? I remember this because when someone is abducted they are taken away.

There are hundreds of ways of remembering things, to many for me to list. The trick is finding little things that you will remember.



The programs you write should be tailored to the client you are training, based on their goals, lifestyle and medical history, normally you would get them to fill in a Par-Q (Like a medical history questionaire), Lifestyle Questionaire and/or have a chat with them in advance. So its hard to give advice, by the time your course is over though you should have wrote plenty of programs and have a good idea of what you should be doing. As for nutrition plans its probabally not somthing that will be expected of you as a level 2 FI.

EDIT: I was going to post links to some resourses that have helped me a lot, but apparently you cant post links on this site if you have below 50 posts.

Anyway TeachPE .com has a great A level Anatomy and Physiology section, whilst your not doing A level PE, the A&P between the two courses is pretty much the same, every topic in their A&P section will be covered as part of your level 2 fitness instructors course.

Another good one is the mock exam on HFE .co.uk, just google 'HFE level 2 Anatomy and Physiology' and you should find it.

Thank you thank you soo much for all that great advice. I have a mock tomorrow mooring so ill get to grips what are my weak areas, since I sort of am still struggling with this, but getting there slowly. Ill defo message you some time and we will keep in contact appreciate the help.

[SKHorne]

Just keep revising, if you really want to become a PT then you will become very interested in anatomy and physiology making it easier to pick it up. Like Daniel said, it can be daunting at first but you will pick it up, the acronyms that go along with it and all the little hints that names give you like veIN sUPination ect ect. getbodysmart.com helped me aswell

As for programmes, you will learn how to create them tailored to someones needs but personally I don't give nutrition plans, I give nutrition advice but if they want a plan then I will refer them to a nutritionist.

Goodluck

[DanielSingleton]

Thank you thank you soo much for all that great advice. I have a mock tomorrow mooring so ill get to grips what are my weak areas, since I sort of am still struggling with this, but getting there slowly. Ill defo message you some time and we will keep in contact appreciate the help.

No problem! I'm happy to help, just remember that I'm also new to this and still learning myself, so dont take all my words as gospel.

Anyway G'luck on the test.