As I stepped into my role as a personal trainer, all I knew was I wanted to heal people through exercise. I had no idea what our bodies were actually capable of until I dove deep into the world of exercise physiology. I remember the day I told my coach I wanted to become a trainer. His response was, “We’ll see if you make it.”
“Make it through what?” I thought, totally unaware of the complexity of what I was about to embark on. This included hours of intense training and testing working under an amazing coach who is incredibly talented and knowledgeable.
As I dove into the world of exercise physiology, the way I was able to absorb and understand what I was learning, and the passion and fire I had burning inside to know more, reinforced that this was my path and my calling.
Over the last couple of years I have learned how to pinpoint ailments on the body just by looking at someone while they stand still or during normal gait. I have gained the ability to assess movement patterns in the body and how certain movements indicate mobility restraints in our bodies, and how all these systems within help us function properly day to day.
During my time so far as a personal trainer I have deeply enjoyed working one on one with my clients, teaching them about their bodies and helping them move at their ultimate capacity. I have enjoyed helping people with their weight loss and strength journeys and have certainly found passion in the healing aspect of exercise.
Our bodies are meant to move a certain way, they have been designed this way with many physiological systems involved. We should have the ability to move our joints and muscles in a full range of motion with basically no restrictions or pain … wouldn’t that be nice, to ultimately live pain free?
During my journey of becoming a personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach I have learned that you have the power to change your physical circumstances. You have the ability to adapt and create change within your body. You have the ability to alter the function of even your genes. All too often we want to blame external circumstances, or what has been passed down to us through our genes. However, we have the ability to change how our bodies respond to our environment based on how we work within our bodies.
We all have to start somewhere on our fitness journey, and when you work with me we start with what is going on inside. We spend time working on the functionality, or mobility of your body before we start building. The better mobility you have the more success you will have while performing strength programming.
Sara Stein is a strength and performance coach who works out of Cornell Performance Academy located in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.