‘I have always said that 'there is never ever any right or wrong way to exercise'… But we should always be looking for the most efficient ways to get our clients to where they want to go'

Today Australia's population has one of the great penetration rates in the world when it comes to health club usage, yet that same population has the highest level of obesity of any developed country in the world.

With these two facts in mind, it's pretty easy to assume that as a country, we are gaining weight by the day, so it’s safe to say there cannot possibly be any wrong way to exercise.

It also must be asked though... Is the fitness industry letting down the Australian population? If the facts above are correct it would indicate we as the fitness industry may not have it quite right either... Are these people training in our health clubs achieving the results they are after?

Over the past 40 years the fitness industry world wide has experienced an evolution of epic proportions.  We have come along way from the times where a health club was known as a 'gym', where the boys ‘pumped iron’ and spandex and lycra were trendy for the girls, and the body beautiful were the only accepted people.

Today the ‘Gym’ has evolved to the ‘Health Club.’ A place that offers to help people change their lives in a world which tries its best to fatten them up.

I would say 90% of people who join my clubs today do so with the sole goal of weight loss or issues related to reducing weight.  This is a direct result of us all living our day to day lives with more pressure, more stress, more technology to complete everyday tasks than ever before.

Yet with all of these fantastic progressions in our industry to create comfortable, fun and vibrant environments to help people achieve their goals most of the exercises, equipment and programs we prescribe still mirror what was taught 40 years ago.

Over time by using what is  the FITT principle (altering Frequency, Intensity, Type of training and Time involved) trainers have been able to make programs to suit individuals goals being sports specific, muscle gain, or weight loss as time has gone by.  In saying this though we still use many of the same exercises and equipment in the process.

The Introduction of EFFECTIVE MOVEMENT TRAINING (EMT) into my working life has impacted it dramatically. Through studying the philosophies taught by Paul, Ian and Oliver at PT Academy I have learned a more efficient, logical and functional approach to not only training my clients, but also for myself to implement in my own training and teach to my other Personal Trainers working for me. The training focus can work towards goals of muscular gain & body shaping, weight loss, sports performance training or increasing function. EMT’s major difference opposed to traditional exercise techniques being it analyses the movements we perform during our day to day lives and works towards creating exercise techniques to help our body work together as one (a kinetic chain) as opposed to isolating parts of the body to strengthen particular areas.

These types of training techniques have helped my clients to not only achieve great results, but to also function better, feel better and feel change in the way their body works, helping them to reduce pain and most importantly make exercise more enjoyable.

I can guarantee that EMT will be looked upon in 5 years time as a revolution in the way trainers prescribe training programs to clients.

It is these progressive thoughts and philosophies that are so desperately needed in our industry to help us provide more efficient and effective ways for our clients to achieve results and heal their bodies.  It is important that we continue to learn as trainers and help our clients as I said at the start to where they want to go and also to achieve what they wish to achieve.

I myself as an individual, the trainers within my club and Genesis Fitness as a whole have all embraced EMT and will continue to support progressive thinking in this great industry of ours.