Movement and Fitness Coaching

Few things in this life go further to improve your health and wellness than increasing your overall physical activity, and formal exercise in particular. To experience wellness inside and out, you definitely need to move. I provide a comprehensive approach to movement and fitness that’s based on many years of training and experience as a health and fitness instructor and strength and conditioning coach. The programs I design include the following fitness elements as defined by the American College of Sports Medicine.1

Cardiorespiratory Fitness (CRF)

A group of people with fancy running shoes passes by in the street

CRF is the ability to perform large muscle, dynamic, moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise for prolonged periods of time. Higher CRF is critical because it reduces your risk for many diseases, increases your lifespan, enables you to perform more fun and varied physical and social activities, and promotes a wide array of neurological and psychological health benefits.

Muscular Fitness

This parameter includes muscular strength (how much you can lift), muscular endurance (how long can you go on lifting it), and muscular power (how fast you can lift it). Greater muscular fitness increases your resting metabolic rate (important to weight management), bone mass, muscle mass, glucose tolerance, musculotendinous integrity, and your ability to carry out activities of daily living. All of these contribute to your quality of life and feelings of self-efficacy, critical factors in mental health. No bones about it, fitter muscles are a win-win-win.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the ability to move your joints through their complete range of motion (ROM), pain free. It’s important not only to athletic performance, but also to performing activities of daily living. A wise yogini once said, “You’re only as young as your lumbar spine is flexible.” 100%! Stay flexible and you stay young, light, and free.

Balance

Balance is the ability to maintain a desired position on one foot or two, one hand or two, or any combination of the above. Having good balance greatly decreases the risk of injury or sprains and, among older populations, is critical for fall prevention. This is a case of use it and improve it, because you don’t want to lose it.

Agility

Agility is the ability to change the position of your body in space with speed and accuracy. From getting out of the way of an onrushing car to catching that baby stroller before it rolls down the stairs, it pays to have agility in daily life as much as it does in sports. And the best part is, agility training includes a whole lot of fun and games.

Core Strength

Photo of a fit woman and muscular man performing a functional training exercise with two dumbbells

This is a special brand of muscular training that emphasizes building the muscles of the trunk and torso. Focusing on your core is useful because these muscles, vital to activities of daily living and athletic performance, are ignored by weight machines and weight-training programs in most gyms and fitness centers. If you want to be really fit, get hard core.

Coordination

Coordination is the ability to use your senses, such as sight and hearing, together with your limbs, neck, and torso to perform tasks smoothly, quickly, and accurately. It’s not just good for pickleball and volleyball. It comes in handy even when you cook, fix cars, or garden. This is another parameter that’s generally ignored in gyms and fitness centers; however, it’s fun to develop and incredibly useful.

Speed

Speed is the ability to perform a movement within a short period of time. You can increase your speed by improving muscular power, core strength, agility, coordination—or any combination of them. There’s hardly a game or physical activity where speed doesn’t give you an edge. Don’t leave home without it.

Body Composition

Body composition is typically measured as the relative amount of muscle, bone, and fat in the body. We need all three, but most of us need to work on building bone and muscle and reducing fat. Body comp can also be measured by taking the circumference of various parts of your trunk or limbs or by determining your weight-to-height ratio (BMI). If one of your goals is to look and feel better, body composition will be a major focus.

Designing an Exercise Program You’ll Love Doing

A woman in a yoga pose high above the seashore seems to be holding the sunlight in her outstrecthed hands

For clients who are open to it, I like to integrate nontraditional movement arts such as tai chi chuan, qigong, martial arts, yoga, and Pilates. Switching things up with these disciplines helps to keep programs fresh and interesting. I also enjoy using sports training aids and games such as Frisbees, volleyballs, soccer balls, wooden swords, hacky sacks, Nerf balls, and medicine balls, which help you get in shape while laughing out loud. All these movement modes and tools help you develop balance, agility, core strength, and flexibility in ways that weight machines or barbells simply can’t replicate. On top of that, people find them fun, energizing, and relaxing.

  1. (2022).ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription, 11th Ed. Philadelphia, PA: Walters Kluver.