Throughout this week of placement my role for the remainder of the week was to assist clients in exercise to minimise the risk of injury. The importance of the role was to ensure the care of the clients, it is the personal trainer responsibility to make sure that the equipment or exercise is completed correctly. If the new clients are unsure of what is being asked of them or using a piece of the equipment incorrectly, then it is likely for them to injure themselves. After an explanation and demonstrating is shown to the clients, the clients are to proceed with the activity. When the client is not executing the movement correctly, he or she is to stop immediately and then shown how to perform the exercise correctly with assisted help from myself, when performing a dead lift.
With the knowledge I have gained from this week, I am confident with what exercises causes injuries when performing exercise. For example, when I was helping assist a client with an exercise, I had to ask for the consent to touch them first and help assist them with a deadlift. The client was not in the correct stance for the exercise and was causing strain to the lower back and shoulders. My client was not in the right stance and when lifting, his back was hunching forward over the bar.
The client stance needed to be with feet flat on the floor, bend at the knees and grab the bar with hands shoulder width apart whilst Keeping their head looking forward and chin up. As the client carryout the movement, the clients back must be straight at all times with head facing forward throughout the exercise, lifting the bar using their legs and driving their hips forward. The exercise should be an explosive movement using their legs and glute strength. The aim of this exercise was to maintain a strong spine from the start of the lift to the end. My client was not in the right stance and when lifting his back was hunching forward over the bar.
The example I gave is one of many exercises I had assist with them whilst talking through the exercise. This task gave me the advantage of knowing how to approach a client when asking to help assist them, explaining to when the exercise is done incorrectly, what injuries can occur and how to avoid or reduce the risk of injury.
The challenges I had to face with this task was engaging with the client on a one to one basis and asking for consent before assisting them with help if it required me to give them a better understanding of how their back had to be positioned.
I can overcome this challenge by taking notice of my “posture, choose my words well, be auditable and maintain eye contact” (Bruce, 2017). Watching my posture is relevant to my future role as a physiotherapist because the job role will involve mainly one to one session. My clients need to see that I am confident not just verbally, but my body language speaks volume as well. In face to face communication, as a physiotherapist you are supposed to maintain a relaxed and open posture because you will come across as an approachable person and people are more likely to listen to what is being said.
Another technique I can use to overcome my challenge is to be auditable because if people can not hear what you are saying then it is possible, they misheard what you have said or can do the opposite. It is important to be auditable when addressing others or clients to allow them to hear the information without having to struggle. However, when you are excessively your words, you are likely to come across as an aggressive or demanding person.