So, today was the day.
The 'Practical Exam' for the PT Diploma. The final stage of the continuous months of exams and assessments. The final hurdle (well, assuming the last batch of Business coursework Gym Ninja has submitted gets good marks).
Nervous?
Yup! Just a bit!
Gym Ninja did not fall into a restful sleep last night. Instead, she had procrastinated once too often so spent a fair while writing up in neat her final practical exam programme, and then found herself catching up on True Blood on Sky+, and before she knew it, it was 1am. EEEK!
Now although GN's exam didn't start until 1.30pm today, she'd arranged to meet a fellow examinee at 10am on site, so they could do a last minute rehearsal of spiel and technique. Sad eh? Some people just roll on up and are fine, but Gym Ninja is a worrier and feels 'safest' when fully prepared.
So, confusing the two examiners no end who were busy assessing other students (as in "Er, aren't you in a bit early for your exam?"), Gym Ninja and her buddy worked through their practicals. Not so much actually doing the workouts, but more practicing the order, setting up the equipment, and planning what to say. Although everything was now committed to memory, there is something about trying to think one step ahead that befuddles a mind, and a few things kept slipping from their heads.
By 11.40am rehersals were over...and so began the long wait! Fellow students who had already done their exams (and passed luckily) breezed in and out, all smiles. The few that still hadn't sat all hunched up, a look of concern on their faces. Oooh, the nerves! Gym Ninja had asked her course tutor (also an examiner) if they (the examiners) stopped for lunch? He had said no, they eat on the run and just have protein bars and shakes etc. Poor examiners!
By now, the examiners were running half an hour behind, so EVENTUALLY, whilst wearing a top printed with her company logo on 'to boost her own confidence' (and no, it didn't work!) Gym Ninja began the practical exam with her willing victim Gaby.
The moment GN began, she totally forgot about the examiner trailing after them both, & 'got into character'. Poor Gaby has the patience of a saint putting up with some of Gym Ninja's little quirks. For instance, GN had made up a 'rhyme' for saying the most essential teaching points of an exercise...
GN: "You remember the Kinetic chain Gaby?"
Gaby: "Yep"
GN: "Ok, so Kinetic chain, as in 'ankles, knees and hips in line, core pulled in, neutral spine'"
Gaby smirked. All Gym Ninja really needed were some pom poms and she could have made a cheerleading chant out of it!
The Practical consisted of having to instruct and spot 4 advanced weight training techniques, fully explaining what they are, how they work, the benefits, energy systems used type of training (eg sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, endurance etc) plus instructing and teaching/spotting the client. This would then be followed by 2 types of cardio training (as in Long Slow Duration and Interval), again explaining features and benefits, Heart Rate Reserve calculations etc, a core exercise (Yep, GN found herself doing a Frankie Howard style 'Cwoar!" noise for 'core') & a demo and spiel about a Post Isometric Relaxation stretch, assisted along with the info about muscle spindles and Golgi Tendon Organs...PHEW!
It lasted at least an hour, and that was despite being moved on by the examiner when he'd seen enough of each technique.
Right at the end, GN was administering the assisted passive stretch in the form of a PIR Hamstring stretch, and turned to ask the examiner if that was the end of the exam?
She was met by the guy looking sheepish....his mouth CRAMMED with food, so much so he blatantly had no space for 'speaking' as there was so much stuff in his mouth.
*cue lots of mumbling noises, accompanied by the handwaving motion people do when they need to speak, but also need to say they cannot speak due to too much food being in their mouths so use it as a form of sign language*
Okaaaay. At least that was GN's exam done. Now she had to do a quick change and be the 'client' of another student. Good old role play eh? Doncha just love it?
Once that was done, GN had to go and get her 'feedback'. She walked over to her examiner, who was again eating...what looked to be something of a half-moon shape in purple foil.
"Is that an Easter Egg?" Asked Gym Ninja, a bit shocked. She'd asked last time if the examiners would be open to Easter Egg bribes & been told that they don't eat unhealthy stuff.
"Er, yes" Answered the Examiner, sheepishly.
"When I spoke to you during my exam, was that Easter Egg you were eating?" Questioned Gym Ninja, an eyebrow raised.
The examiner looked back, his eyes wide open..
"Er no no, I had a pocket full of Oat Cakes with me".
Gym Ninja gave him a look.
"Honestly it was oat cakes! Anyway...do you want some?" The examiner offered Gym Ninja some Easter Egg.
"Er...I don't eat chocolate" Winked Gym Ninja.
Anyhow, the feedback was excellent GN s pleased to report. He even used the written statement in his feedback as 'technically excellent' for her PIR stretches. A very strong session according to the examiner, and excellent technique, spotting, instructional style...he'd really enjoyed it. Oh and yes, Gym Ninja passed. YAY!
One thing he did pount out though was that perhaps GN had given too much detail on the different levels of the core. Yep. GN had gone into great detail about the 3 layers that make up the core, what muscle groups made up each layer, how they worked etc. He said that it was perfect for the exam but in real life you'd not need to give that much info. Bless him for not commenting on Gym Ninja telling her client that due to the layers of the core, she was "like an onion!"
Phew! GN can now relax tonight as tomorrow is the final ever day of the course, with business paperwork to complete and a session on outdoor PT. Yippee!
See you back here tomorrow my little 'onions'
Gym Ninja x
Showing posts with label Personal Trainer Diploma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Trainer Diploma. Show all posts
Saturday, 3 April 2010
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Busy Ninja
Stumps strikes again!
OK, so by now we all remember Stumps: she of no co-ordination, balance or, as it now seems, common sense. Bless. She won't mind Gym Ninja saying this, as she's fallen over/spilled stuff/dropped things enough times to know this herself.
Now Stumps bought a great big tub of Maximuscle Promax Diet (see links to the right of the blog for details) and was super keen to try the new flavour (strawberry). yesterday, Gym Ninja received a phone call from Stumps....
"Hiya....er, you know this Promax Diet stuff? Now this may seem like a silly question questions about it, but........" Said Stumps, a rummaging noise going on in the background as she spoke.
"Before you say it, don't even SAY anything stupid such as..'Does it come with a scoop' because if you do then you are an absolute bimbo!" Retorted Gym Ninja.
*silence*
"Er...how did you know what I was going to ask?" Answered Stumps...
*sigh*
"Well, in boxes of Horse Feed you can often be looking for a scoop ages and then don't find one!", She attempted to justify.
Oh please! Horse feed and quality whey protein? You link them both?
All excited about her new flavour, Stumps remained on the phone as she talked through what she was doing...
"I've just added the frozen Summer Fruits you suggested too", She explained "You know, to thicken it up like you said"......before...
*rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle*
"Hmm, maybe the shaker bottle isn't mixing it properly?" Said Stumps, all confused.
Oh.
My.
God.
After Gym Ninja had stopped laughing, she kindly explained to Stumps that you don't just chuck in big lumps of frozen fruit and give the Maximuscle shaker a good shake. Otherwise then you get big floating iced fruit lumps in a protein shake that rattle around. You have to BLEND the iced fruit first in a blender to crush it down and THEN add the protein shake to make it super thick.
Of course, 'how was Stumps supposed to know' was the answer fired back at Gym Ninja....
Ah well, she's on the right track and apparently now addicted to the stuff! Good girl.
This weekend has been super busy as it's been another Assessment weekend for Gym Ninja. The penultimate weekend before she qualifies as a Personal Trainer. The major hurdle of the weekend was the 8.45am Advanced Anatomy and Physiology exam looming over everyone like a big black cloud. Uhhhr. All the nasty stuff that just doesn't sink into ones head. Gym Ninja feels that once things goes 'microscopic' then she finds it hard to understand. Oh and anything using latin too...which pretty much covered everything that this exam wanted to test the person on really.
Saturday was spent in a state of nervous anticipation as the group compared how little they all knew about muscle origins and insertions. Looks like everyone was in the same boat though! At one point, the tutor brought out the skeleton and started prodding various parts of it as the group fired off questions...
"Where is the ischium" Asked one girl.
The tutor, who was standing behind the skeleton, reached forward and touched the ischium to illustrate where it was.....and for those unaware of it's location, it is between the legs (see this link). The curved part of the pelvis.
So he touched it, and as he talked, he stroked the ischium with his finger...and stroked it and stroked it and stroked it and stroked it in a rhythmical manner until..
"Oh please, PLEASE can you just stop doing that as it looks SO wrong!" Said Gym Ninja.
Well, the poor (male) tutor went pink! Fair play to the guy, he certainly looked as if he knew what he was doing, but this was neither the time NOR the place...
The day flew by in a whirl of paperwork, questions, core exercise demos (the Helicopter move on a Swiss ball was particularly fun-you have arms outstretched either sides holding dumbbells as you balance on a Swiss ball and rotate your body left to right like a helicopter, working the oblique muscles), PIF stretching which takes you past your normal range of stretch by activating the Muscle Spindles to contract and relax, and Foam Rolling.
Now, Foam Rolling seems innocent enough. A small tube shaped piece of foam that you roll various parts of your body over as a form of self myofascial release (if you pardon the expression). Well, it may seem innocent, but let Gym Ninja tell you, the moment you hit a knot you feel it BIG time. Like knives!!!!!!!!! Cue lots of screwed up faces in agony as everyone rolled up and down on Foam Rollers. if you've not tried it then Gym Ninja recommends you do. Fantastic for tight areas.
That night, having had a very scary mock exam before leaving the classroom, Gym Ninja was determined to revise hard. But she detoured to Asda. Bugger. Now it was 7pm. So she got home, and prepared dinner. She then just logged on briefly to send a few emails and then...ahhh! 8.30pm. Settle down with the books....but by 9.15pm Gym Ninja was virtually in a coma she was THAT tired! So there was no other option than to abandon the books and head for bed...where her dreams revolved around someone driving her Mini Cooper into her house walls, and muscle origins and insertions!!!!!
Surprisingly, this morning at 6am, Gym Ninja was calmer than anticipated. Perhaps because, by now, she'd given up on any last revision of muscle insertions as it scared her that every time she learned one, another one she'd previously learned fell back out of her head. So, leaving everything in the hands of God as it were, Gym Ninja headed towards the Assessment centre.
Everyone had reached the same level of knowledge saturation, and yet everyone sat there with their books open, blankly staring at the words in the hope that some last nugget of into would stick in their brains. Nothing did. Their brains were saturated. So, in they headed for a 90 minute exam from hell.
Oh and it WAS! It was the toughest exam Gym Ninja has had in the entire 7 month course. You could see everyone visibly whiten as they read the paper. Multiple choice is only as good as the knowledge you have in your head. If you don't know, they a,b,c AND d all seem plausible.....
Hang on...NO questions on Diabetes, Asthma, Hypertension, Arthritis or energy systems as expected, yet loads more on muscle insertions, origins and joint actions (AHHHHHR!) with a load on nutrition. WHAT? Nobody said nutrition would rear it's ugly head again-not after the hellish nutrition exam 3 weeks ago which meant that GN had NOT looked at it since (incidentally GN got her Nutritional case study back yesterday and passed with flying colours thank God!). Noooooooo! Oh and there were a few questions that GN has NO recollection of ever having studied at all!
So, sweating her way through the exam, Gym Ninja completed it in 45 minutes. Was that good or bad? Only time would tell......and thank GOODNESS it turned out to be good, with GN only getting 1 answer wrong. 1. MARVELOUS! 98% is a score no one would be disappointed with!!!!!!
Tonight GN has a rare night off study before tomorrow the coursework begins in earnest. Programme meso and microcycles to write on endurance, hypertrophy, strength and power training. A whole load of online soft tissue injury tutorials plus case study to complete. A postural analysis and corrective programme design to do for a client. Oh and the whole book on business marketing and planning plus cash flow, business plan and so on............AHHHHHHR! Let us not forget this is to be done for 3 weeks time when the FINAL exam, the practical, happens too.
On a positive note, Gym Ninja loves feeling organised. Lists ahoy over the next few weeks. The design and marketing side GN also loves and there is plenty of that to be done. Gym Ninja knows that for the flyer design she's going to end up doing a whole DVD presentation too. Ooops! Geeky!
Okey dokey-time to log off and enjoy what is left of her weekend (nothing!).
Back at the gym with a vengeance tomorrow people. No excuses. See you there!
Gym Ninja x
OK, so by now we all remember Stumps: she of no co-ordination, balance or, as it now seems, common sense. Bless. She won't mind Gym Ninja saying this, as she's fallen over/spilled stuff/dropped things enough times to know this herself.
Now Stumps bought a great big tub of Maximuscle Promax Diet (see links to the right of the blog for details) and was super keen to try the new flavour (strawberry). yesterday, Gym Ninja received a phone call from Stumps....
"Hiya....er, you know this Promax Diet stuff? Now this may seem like a silly question questions about it, but........" Said Stumps, a rummaging noise going on in the background as she spoke.
"Before you say it, don't even SAY anything stupid such as..'Does it come with a scoop' because if you do then you are an absolute bimbo!" Retorted Gym Ninja.
*silence*
"Er...how did you know what I was going to ask?" Answered Stumps...
*sigh*
"Well, in boxes of Horse Feed you can often be looking for a scoop ages and then don't find one!", She attempted to justify.
Oh please! Horse feed and quality whey protein? You link them both?
All excited about her new flavour, Stumps remained on the phone as she talked through what she was doing...
"I've just added the frozen Summer Fruits you suggested too", She explained "You know, to thicken it up like you said"......before...
*rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle*
"Hmm, maybe the shaker bottle isn't mixing it properly?" Said Stumps, all confused.
Oh.
My.
God.
After Gym Ninja had stopped laughing, she kindly explained to Stumps that you don't just chuck in big lumps of frozen fruit and give the Maximuscle shaker a good shake. Otherwise then you get big floating iced fruit lumps in a protein shake that rattle around. You have to BLEND the iced fruit first in a blender to crush it down and THEN add the protein shake to make it super thick.
Of course, 'how was Stumps supposed to know' was the answer fired back at Gym Ninja....
Ah well, she's on the right track and apparently now addicted to the stuff! Good girl.
This weekend has been super busy as it's been another Assessment weekend for Gym Ninja. The penultimate weekend before she qualifies as a Personal Trainer. The major hurdle of the weekend was the 8.45am Advanced Anatomy and Physiology exam looming over everyone like a big black cloud. Uhhhr. All the nasty stuff that just doesn't sink into ones head. Gym Ninja feels that once things goes 'microscopic' then she finds it hard to understand. Oh and anything using latin too...which pretty much covered everything that this exam wanted to test the person on really.
Saturday was spent in a state of nervous anticipation as the group compared how little they all knew about muscle origins and insertions. Looks like everyone was in the same boat though! At one point, the tutor brought out the skeleton and started prodding various parts of it as the group fired off questions...
"Where is the ischium" Asked one girl.
The tutor, who was standing behind the skeleton, reached forward and touched the ischium to illustrate where it was.....and for those unaware of it's location, it is between the legs (see this link). The curved part of the pelvis.
So he touched it, and as he talked, he stroked the ischium with his finger...and stroked it and stroked it and stroked it and stroked it in a rhythmical manner until..
"Oh please, PLEASE can you just stop doing that as it looks SO wrong!" Said Gym Ninja.
Well, the poor (male) tutor went pink! Fair play to the guy, he certainly looked as if he knew what he was doing, but this was neither the time NOR the place...
The day flew by in a whirl of paperwork, questions, core exercise demos (the Helicopter move on a Swiss ball was particularly fun-you have arms outstretched either sides holding dumbbells as you balance on a Swiss ball and rotate your body left to right like a helicopter, working the oblique muscles), PIF stretching which takes you past your normal range of stretch by activating the Muscle Spindles to contract and relax, and Foam Rolling.
Now, Foam Rolling seems innocent enough. A small tube shaped piece of foam that you roll various parts of your body over as a form of self myofascial release (if you pardon the expression). Well, it may seem innocent, but let Gym Ninja tell you, the moment you hit a knot you feel it BIG time. Like knives!!!!!!!!! Cue lots of screwed up faces in agony as everyone rolled up and down on Foam Rollers. if you've not tried it then Gym Ninja recommends you do. Fantastic for tight areas.
That night, having had a very scary mock exam before leaving the classroom, Gym Ninja was determined to revise hard. But she detoured to Asda. Bugger. Now it was 7pm. So she got home, and prepared dinner. She then just logged on briefly to send a few emails and then...ahhh! 8.30pm. Settle down with the books....but by 9.15pm Gym Ninja was virtually in a coma she was THAT tired! So there was no other option than to abandon the books and head for bed...where her dreams revolved around someone driving her Mini Cooper into her house walls, and muscle origins and insertions!!!!!
Surprisingly, this morning at 6am, Gym Ninja was calmer than anticipated. Perhaps because, by now, she'd given up on any last revision of muscle insertions as it scared her that every time she learned one, another one she'd previously learned fell back out of her head. So, leaving everything in the hands of God as it were, Gym Ninja headed towards the Assessment centre.
Everyone had reached the same level of knowledge saturation, and yet everyone sat there with their books open, blankly staring at the words in the hope that some last nugget of into would stick in their brains. Nothing did. Their brains were saturated. So, in they headed for a 90 minute exam from hell.
Oh and it WAS! It was the toughest exam Gym Ninja has had in the entire 7 month course. You could see everyone visibly whiten as they read the paper. Multiple choice is only as good as the knowledge you have in your head. If you don't know, they a,b,c AND d all seem plausible.....
Hang on...NO questions on Diabetes, Asthma, Hypertension, Arthritis or energy systems as expected, yet loads more on muscle insertions, origins and joint actions (AHHHHHR!) with a load on nutrition. WHAT? Nobody said nutrition would rear it's ugly head again-not after the hellish nutrition exam 3 weeks ago which meant that GN had NOT looked at it since (incidentally GN got her Nutritional case study back yesterday and passed with flying colours thank God!). Noooooooo! Oh and there were a few questions that GN has NO recollection of ever having studied at all!
So, sweating her way through the exam, Gym Ninja completed it in 45 minutes. Was that good or bad? Only time would tell......and thank GOODNESS it turned out to be good, with GN only getting 1 answer wrong. 1. MARVELOUS! 98% is a score no one would be disappointed with!!!!!!
Tonight GN has a rare night off study before tomorrow the coursework begins in earnest. Programme meso and microcycles to write on endurance, hypertrophy, strength and power training. A whole load of online soft tissue injury tutorials plus case study to complete. A postural analysis and corrective programme design to do for a client. Oh and the whole book on business marketing and planning plus cash flow, business plan and so on............AHHHHHHR! Let us not forget this is to be done for 3 weeks time when the FINAL exam, the practical, happens too.
On a positive note, Gym Ninja loves feeling organised. Lists ahoy over the next few weeks. The design and marketing side GN also loves and there is plenty of that to be done. Gym Ninja knows that for the flyer design she's going to end up doing a whole DVD presentation too. Ooops! Geeky!
Okey dokey-time to log off and enjoy what is left of her weekend (nothing!).
Back at the gym with a vengeance tomorrow people. No excuses. See you there!
Gym Ninja x
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