The history of personal training

By Jarvis Perry


The history of personal training dates back to the ancient Greeks and other cultures many years ago. Though it may never have been the kind of modern training that people undergo today, it mostly focused on athletic traditions that involved training intended to keep people in good shape during those times when great wars were fought. Training for the sake of fitness and health benefits only began lately in the 20th century by hiring professional trainers rather that doing the training personally.

Personal training guides a client through a safe and effective fitness program that brings the greatest physical and behavioral benefit to the client with the least amount of risk, according to AltMd.com. It involves fitness components such as muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, aerobic endurance and body composition. The client typically fills out paperwork with health information and the trainer assesses his fitness level, provides an overall plan and workout sessions. Personal training can include a nutrition plan as well as behavioral changes. The program should match the client's fitness goals.

Back in the late 19th century, there were destination health spas that people frequented to do exercises to gain overall body health. This method of training however became questionable due to the various techniques used as they had little to do with fitness gains. The history of personal training began with the birth of real and what modern fitness is today is credited to Jack Lalanne. Well known as the godfather of modern day fitness, he was born in 1914, California. He was a sugar addicted little kid and believed that he was weak and mean's due to the sugar cravings he had.

One key concept of the history of personal training a included one inspiring nutrition lecture that he attended when he was a teenager, Jack decide to start a sugar-free life, of diets with no sugar, exercising and joining a high school sports team to facilitate that. Being ambitious in mind, he opened the first health club ever in 1936 at the age of only 22 years. The health club was based in Oakland, California and earned him a great reputation among conservative minded doctors as a health nut's to be avoided.

Jack Lalanne walked the streets of California and neighboring towns finding new customers. He claimed that he could recondition their bodies and get them in the best body shape they wanted. During this process of training his new clients in the opened health club, personal training is believed to have started the history of personal training. He solely came up with exercise instructions, fitness methods and exercise machines that are still basic in today's fitness industry. Some of these machines are the cable pullet weight lifting systems and smith machines that are common place in gyms today.

Later on, his business expanded and other players came into the industry. The American College of Sports Medicine, founded in 1954 was the first organization to offer certifications for personal trainers. They also promoted fitness and health but by the 1980s, personal training became main stream and popular with celebrities creating fitness videos for sale. Today, professional training services can be accessed almost everywhere in the world thanks to the history of personal training started by Jack Lalanne.




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