The first in a planned article series to review essential considerations of each Functional Movement Screen (FMS™) pattern, this article will examine the FMS active straight leg raise (ASLR).

By understanding the differences between features, benefits, and results, along with how they impact current or potential clients, personal trainers can separate themselves from the rest of the pack and ensure long-term success of their business.

Learn how to recognize and treat muscle dysmorphia in your athletes. In this session from the NSCA’s 2017 Personal Trainers Conference, James Leone covers many facets of athlete muscle dysmorphia, including the clinical features, identifying at-risk populations, using assessment tools, managing athletes suspected of having muscle dysmorphia, and how to treat it using a team-based approach.

Learn how diet and strength training in the absence of aerobic exercise can be used to improve body composition through simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain. In this session from the NSCA’s 2016 Personal Trainers Conference, Todd Miller demonstrates how to use body composition and metabolism measurements along with popular food tracking apps and activity monitors to design individualized diet and exercise strategies. CEUs available.

No matter what the ready position is, sooner or later the weight transfers to one leg, JC Santana says in this hands-on lecture from the 2014 Personal Trainers Conference. Everything we do is one leg at a time, and the way to become better on two legs is to train on one legs. JC walks participants through exercises designed to train on one leg.

Herbs, spices, and other whole foods contain bioactive substances that can purportedly improve health and performance in a variety of ways from increased metabolism, antioxidant activity, gastrointestinal health, greater neurotransmitter production, and more. In this session from the NSCA 2015 Personal Trainers Conference, Dr. Carwyn Sharp describes and defines nutraceuticals and functional foods, issues of potency and standardization, their potential uses for health and performance, future directions, and current trending products.

This article presents ways to add variety to workouts using Bulgarian Bags as an alternative to kettlebells. It also provides an effective sample Bulgarian Bag program.

Confused about which diet is best? Alan Aragon examines the evidence behind the claims made by each of the main diet perspectives in this session from the 2015 NSCA Personal Trainers Conference. The questions answered include: “which diet is best for weight loss?” and “which diet is best for promoting health and preventing cardiovascular disease?” Individual goals and circumstances will be discussed as well as practical applications.

It is the job of the personal trainer to help clients reach their goals in a safe and effective manner. However, it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture of a client’s life and have tunnel vision on specific training aspects that may not matter.

This article sheds some knowledge on shoulder exercise modifications and progressions that can help reduce the risk of re-injury and maximize performance for clients.