Have you ever gone to a gym or fitness class before? Have you ever set personal fitness goals based on guidelines and wondered who came up with these and what do they know about my fitness? Ideas are nice, but evidence is more impactful. I spent my childhood avoiding PE from being homeschooled until 6th grade, being involved in too much music in junior high to fit PE into my schedule and being overly into dance and music in high school to care about fitness. Until my senior year. 2003 to be exact.
I was required to take 3 semesters of PE in 2 semesters left of high school eek 😬. So I enrolled in aerobics class and the NJROTC. I fell in love with aerobics right away. Why? I suppose the fitness aspects and the physiology of the body intrigued me. I am the type that when I learn something, I don’t just learn it surface-y, I learn it obsessively (if it keeps my interest). I loved how my positive attitude encouraged my teacher to workout harder. She even encouraged me by telling me that I was helping her enjoy her day more. I also loved that no one was judging me on my performance and I was feeling healthier than ever!
I had oral surgery that same year because of some missing teeth I never had come in (apparently a very common condition). I was hooked up to the heart monitor during the surgery prep and the alarm kept going off. What the what? The nurse asked if I was an athlete. I said, “no but I just started taking aerobics and my show choir an hour after school every day had about 30min of dance give or take, and NJROTC class has fitness on Fridays.”
She said, “well the heart rate monitor is going off because your resting HR is 49bpm and the monitor is there to protect our patients if your HR dips below 50 during surgery. Since it’s already going off pre-surgery, it’ll definitely continue once the meds are in your system. So we’ll have to take it off and use another precaution. Way to go with your fitness!”
This really encouraged me because it was my first introduction to physical education and fitness. I also ended up being the female PE Student of the year all because I enjoyed working out (voted by the entire staff of the PE department). There really isn’t anything you can’t do if you set your mind right. I knew I wanted to learn everything available to be the best PE teacher. I followed suit of my student teacher and went to the university she went to to learn from who she learned from.
During my college experience I enrolled at Pacific Lutheran University and studied under Dr. Colleen Hacker. She is one of the professors that’s been there the longest and the co-dean now. She is also the sport psychologist for the USA Women’s Soccer team. I took everything she said very seriously. She recommended we all become nationally certified through the “Gold Standard” in her words which was the American College of Sports Medicine. It took me a couple years after that class to be able to afford the test cost, but I did it.
The following blog is a brief synopsis of practical strategies on workout design from the ACSM format. If you stick to the end, you’ll hear about a program I designed combining my two passions: positive psychology and workouts on a budget. If you love what you read, I’d be honored if you’d share this with a friend or family member.
How To #1: Trust If The Military Uses An Organization, it Must Be Good!
ACSM & The Air Force & Army?!⠀
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I took a really hard test to become certified as a group fitness instructor through American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) ($350 ish test cost+ materials & studied for a few weeks). This was right at the end of my second year in grad school (Go Beavs OSU!).
I had a student in one of my fitness classes challenge me to prove that I knew my shit by becoming nationally certified. I hadn’t done it in the past because straight out of college I was $65k in debt, made less than $1900/mo and the cost of living plus my student loans didn’t allow me to save any extra. However, his energy and challenge to me (and my personality to not back down to any challenge I can overcome) helped move me towards this desire. So I scraped my pennies and added extra responsibilities to be able to afford to save up for this test.
Most people have to take this test at least twice, sometimes three times if they just study the material. Luckily, I studied the material, practiced finding Target Heart Rate over and over, and also had 4 1/2 years of health and fitness training in college and a couple years of teaching under my belt. I passed the first time I took the exam. Praise Jesus! I couldn’t afford to take it over 😂
That same summer I had just graduated with a Master of Science in Sport and Exercise Psychology. I had also been laid off of my guaranteed (continuing) teaching contract from ‘budget cuts’ and applied to 500 jobs at least with not 1 interview. To say I was depressed at this time is an absolute understatement. At least I didn’t pay for my graduate school (thank goodness for my GTA scholarship)!
That fall I was invited back to the school district that had RIF’d me at a demoted FTE. I didn’t have any other bites for work, so I accepted it after a lengthy convo about what the pay actually would be. But that particular job 0.5 FTE wasn’t enough to pay the bills (since it was also a 3hour round trip commute). So I added on a few other part-time jobs through the fall semester until I had 5 part-time jobs. That lasted a few months, and I got burned out a bit and lost 1 of the jobs (not bad)! It still was financially a struggle because the economy was terrible, I didn’t own a smart phone and didn’t know about Gary Vee or online selling or anything like that back then. Timing is everything…
The following January, I get a phone call from Lynn Larson. Lynn was an RN that worked at Joint Base Lewis McChord in this wellness pilot program. They hadn’t actually started the program yet but were getting it organized. I don’t know how she received my contact information, but somehow she knew I was an ACSM Group Fitness Certified Instructor with a MS in exercise psychology and they were looking for me to join their team.
I interviewed for the role with Dr. Bruder, the head Director of the Armed Forces Wellness Center. I remember telling her how blessed I was to have my schooling paid for by teaching fitness classes. In addition, doing that while balancing being a step mom and taking care of house chores and supporting the family and what not. She was impressed by me and told me she wanted me on the team. She didn’t make the final decisions though. An organization that is based in Tennessee called ORAU would read through her recommendations and make the final decision.
A few months roll by and I’m working 4 part-time jobs at this point and hopeful for the change. I don’t hear anything yet about this opportunity and so I keep doing the best I can in the situation I am in. I am invited to be a part of a cross-curriculum forum at Cal Poly for this Ghandi initiative around this same time as well. It is completely paid for I just have to pay for my flight. I call Dr. Bruder for an update on the program and does she know that I’m selected yet? She assures me that I am and that I need to turn down this other opportunity. I do. The opportunity passes and I still am waiting for the government research start date approval. Finally it happens, August 28th or thereabouts. Wow almost 9 months from initial interview but its here.
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I am invited to be a researcher with the US Air Force and Army at JBLM. It is a 1-year contract paying out $55k (which was more than I had ever been paid for any work in my life so I’m excited). I also get to add this experience to my resume because one of my life goals is to get a PhD and I had applied to a few programs at this point and was told, you need more research experience. Boom 💥 ⠀
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Our Team of 9 (including Dr. Bruder and Lynn) provided baseline testing in submax VO2 cardio respiratory measurements on a treadmill/bike, plysthmography (BodPod- Body Fat) testing (which is the same machine the NFL uses to distinguish those that will play in the NFL & those that won’t), basal metabolic rate testing to measure how many calories your body burns to keep you alive, nutrition group education, resilience training using Heart Math Technologies, MBCT & massage chairs, as well as 1:1 ExRx appointments and nutrition consultations.⠀
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I also was blessed to write a couple articles for the MWR – Army Magazine during this year along with one of my colleagues.⠀
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I would NOT have had this experience had I not gotten certified in the gold standard ACSM⠀
How To #2: Know The Exercise Recommendations For Various Populations
Every few years the ACSM comes out with updates based on what research says and what makes sense with peoples schedules and interest. Their goal is to prevent disease by providing you relevant information on exercise prescription that is realistic with your availability. Keep in mind this is baseline recommendations and you can add more if you have more time.⠀
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150 minutes a week is recommended for exercise total. It’s a lot easier to eat one apple a day than seven in one day; same concept with exercise. If you can get it daily in smaller chunks, that is optimal.⠀
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Try to get cardio daily, muscle fitness one day a week minimum and flexibility 3 to 4 days a week. Recently they added the recommendation for balance and coordination like yoga or tai chi. To dive deeper into this research feel free to check out the ACSM website.
If your goal is to lose weight, you’re going to have to work out more than 150 minutes weekly. But be careful! Most people that are new to exercise do too much too soon and injure themselves, and don’t return to the program causing a vicious cycle of unhealthy habits.
The recommendations for overweight and obese population is double (300 minutes weekly or about one hour 5 days a week). When it comes to weight bearing exercise, ACSM does recommend obese and overweight population starts with a foundation of cardio, then adding on the muscle fitness later. It varies person to person, but I’d say a solid 2-4 weeks to start will be great and listen to your body. Make sure you always warm-up and warm down at the end of your workout and include stretches to prevent injuries and decrease the soreness factor.
For children and youth the recommendations are the same as overweight/obese 60 minutes a day most days of the week. They do encourage kids to get it in bursts throughout the day because they tend to lose interest and focus and also can get fatigued (so safety first)!
Cancer and cardiovascular populations use caution, stay in contact with what your doctor recommends and make sure if you’re on any beta blockers that you use the intensity talk method instead of measuring your heart rate. Some medicine can actually slow down the beats and make measuring inaccurate, cause you to workout harder than you need to and possibly cause an exercise-induced heart attack. #AintNoBodyGotTimeForThat
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How To #3: Know what Every Workout Should Incorporate ⠀
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If you lead or participate in fitness groups, they should always include:⠀
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💜 Cardio⠀
💪 Muscle Fitness (Muscular strength, or muscular endurance)⠀
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Flexibility 🧘♀️ 🧘♂️ ⠀
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To reduce injury risk and provide you a quality type of workout⠀
Cardio exercises is anything that is continuous and keeps the heart rate up consistently (like jumping jacks, jogging, walking, running, cardio kick boxing, step aerobics, dances etc).
Muscle fitness is anything that is weight bearing so your muscles have a chance to be challenged to overload. What is overload you say? That’s the only way your muscles will actually improve their fitness. When doing a set of bicep curls for example, you want to do repetition after repetition until the muscles are shaking. The last repetition is the one that you can barely finish.
When first starting off your fitness program or if its been a while, you want to shoot for 12-15 repetitions to get to overload per set. Why? Because it is taxing on your heart and that is what the ACSM recommends for beginning level or detrained athletes. Once you’ve been working out for a while and have your base formed, you can increase the weight and decrease the repetitions to 8-10 reps to overload. If you’re training for a body building competition, you may dip to the 5-7 repetition range but for most of us 8-10 is optimal after a base is formed. (1-4 sets is recommended, 3-4 are optimal after your base is formed).
Flexibility is recommended in every workout for safety reasons and for reducing the soreness factor. If you workout 3 days a week, you should be practicing your flexibility 3 days a week as well. Flexibility should be practiced specific to the muscles being worked out. This is the principle of specificity. For example, if I’m having an upper body workout doing chest press, rear rows, shoulder press and upright rows, all my stretches are going to be geared towards my upper body muscles that I worked out during the muscle fitness portion. People often ask, when is the best time to stretch? ACSM recommends 2 options for you: either after the warm-up, or after the workout before the cool-down. Your choice. I recommend if you’re doing weight lifting to warm-up first, do some dynamic stretches (in motion like arm circles, leg kicks, things like that), workout, then cool-down.
How To #4: Vary Direction Of Movement To Decrease Injury Risk and Increase Intrinsic Motivation During Exercise
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When designing workouts, and increasing intrinsic motivation, you want to vary the muscles used and the direction of movement⠀
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Maybe you’re doing some moves in the fontal plane, (front and back), sagittal plane (side to side), or transverse (twisting).⠀
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Keep it varied and try and incorporate all 3 planes of motion in workout design and your participants will love it more. Why will they love it? You’ll design the workout to not overly kill one of their muscles. You’ll create a kickass routine that provides enough variety to allow for a quick rest and recuperation, enough challenge of the body as a whole, and enough variety to keep it interesting. If you’re blessed with a musical/rhythmic style, you can also incorporate moves to a beat which is always fun!
My students at OSU loved my step aerobics class. In fact, I had a waitlist after my first quarter (I didn’t know how to teach it really that first quarter but I learned quick to not lose my assistantship money 💰 🤣)
How To #5: For Those That Struggle With Designing Workouts: Here Is A Program I Designed Combining Journaling, Group Discussion & ACSM Formatted Workouts 🏋️♀️ ⠀
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Move Happy Facilitator Program© Is A 16-Week Program I Designed For My Patients Using ACSM Workout Framework⠀
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It includes:⠀
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✅ 60+ Workout Demo Videos 🎥 using ACSM Guidelines For Adult Populations (including varied intensity challenges)⠀
✅ Simple Fitness Questionnaire to Measure Progress Throughout⠀
✅ Journal 📓 Questions & Group Discussion On Happiness Topics⠀
✅ Simple Psychological Questionnaire To Measure Happiness Levels Throughout⠀
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✅ Facilitator Manual To Help Guide Discussion for the 16-week 4 day/week program⠀
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I ran this program with adult patients 20+-70+yrs and they LOVED it! I revised the program based on their feedback & my own reflections.⠀
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My patients encouraged me to share this with you! To order go here.⠀
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💜 30% of your purchase goes back to mental health program of Your choice⠀
♥️ 10% of your purchase goes to your local chapter of Big Brothers & Big Sisters⠀
For those that want to dive deeper with my one on one consulting and have access to becoming a Move Happy® Certified Coach and have optional CECs, schedule your complimentary consult here. I’ve only got 2 spots available for this until the online group coaching operations are finalized. ⠀
PS: This may not be for you but maybe you know someone that leads groups and you can tag them in this post if you find value in my content ❤️
Move Happy Updates
I’m hiring! I’ve got 3 spots available with 1 interview in and I’m feeling really good about her. I’m looking for 3 sales reps to sell the consulting side. It’s a commission based opportunity with high-commission percentage because I want to help you reach your dreams as well as mine.
Benefits include:
✅ Work your own hours from home in the USA 🇺🇸 (for now)
✅ 50% commissions
✅ I provide the training to you on what to say when you call/email/DM potential clients so no need to create your own processes
✅ I teach you my branding social media growth strategy to help launch your side hustle as well if that’s a goal of yours
✅ Move Happy® Swag Throughout Our Partnership
To apply, email me, with the subject line “I’m Interested In Working At Move Happy.” Include a copy of your resume and 1-paragraph of why you feel you’re a good fit for the position and what you’d most want out of working with me long term. Please 18 and older, USA only for now for time zone needs.
I’d like to have all hiring done by end of July and set up early August with training.
Podcast is growing steadily! I release my episodes every Sunday afternoon/evening to help inspire and provide some hope for the coming week. Make sure to follow me for notifications!
So there you have it. The high-lights of ACSM workout design. There is no way I could educate you on everything because the blog would be too long for starters 🤣. Secondly, they are constantly doing new research to help improve people’s health so what I wrote today, doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be the same recommendations for 10 years from now. I’ll stay current and update you as I get notified. If you’re curious how I got to know what I know and want to get certified through ACSM yourself, I encourage you to buy their book first, study study study, pay the fee and take the exam. If you want to get some CECs and dive deep with me in the combo of fitness and positive psychology, schedule your complimentary consult with me today.
As always, don’t forget to tell someone you love them today…
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