1. ACE Personal Trainer Manual 5th Edition
Chapter 5: Understanding the ACE Integrated Fitness Training® Model
Lesson 5.1

2. After completing this session, you will be able to:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this session, you will be able to:
Compare the traditional physiological training parameters to the new physiological training parameters
Identify general exercise recommendations for healthy adults
Discuss and explain the two primary training components and four training phases of the ACE Integrated Fitness Training Model

3. EVOLUTION OF PERSONAL TRAINING
Personal training has changed from focusing on improving the fitness of primarily already fit clients to one that is playing a key role in the healthcare continuum.
Through exercise and health-behavior changes, personal trainers are now helping an aging and increasingly overweight population to improve:
Function
Health
Fitness
Quality of life

4. EVOLUTION OF PERSONAL TRAINING
Personal trainers must be prepared to work with a varied clientele by developing programs that will:
Enhance activities of daily living (ADL)
Positively affect metabolic function with weight loss
Progress movement patterns to avoid injury and improve posture
Enhance cardiorespiratory fitness to bolster heart health, endurance, and performance
Increase muscular development to build strength, speed, and power

5. EVOLUTION OF PERSONAL TRAINING
Research on health-behavior changes has resulted in knowledge, tools, and techniques that personal trainers can now implement to:
Build client self-efficacy
Focus on program adherence
Lessen client attrition
This shift has advanced the profession to incorporate new training parameters to produce a unique blend of assessments and programming that addresses each client’s individualized needs and goals.

6. EVOLUTION OF PERSONAL TRAINING

7. GENERAL EXERCISE RECOMMENDATIONS
The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggest that adults should participate in structured physical activity to experience health benefits:
At least 150 minutes per week at a moderate intensity, or
At least 75 minutes per week at a vigorous intensity
While this document endorses exercise as a means to achieve good health, it does not provide specific instructions for how to exercise.
These guidelines are so broad that trainers require additional information on how to appropriately implement them for each individual client.

8. GENERAL AEROBIC EXERCISE RECOMMENDATIONS

9. GENERAL AEROBIC EXERCISE RECOMMENDATIONS

10. GENERAL RESISTANCE EXERCISE RECOMMENDATIONS

11. GENERAL RESISTANCE EXERCISE RECOMMENDATIONS

12. GENERAL RESISTANCE EXERCISE RECOMMENDATIONS

13. FUNCTION–HEALTH–FITNESS–PERFORMANCE CONTINUUM
This continuum is based on the premise that exercise programs should follow a progression to:
Reestablish proper function
Improve health
Develop and advance fitness
Enhance performance
While the function–health–fitness–performance continuum provides a suggested sequence for training clients from sedentary to performance, it does not address the individual components of fitness and how they fit together.
Each client has different needs based on his or her personal health, fitness, and goals, and begins at a unique point:
Function
Health
Fitness
Performance
Programs should progress at a rate that is safe and effective, while taking into account the client’s:
Schedule or time availability
Capacity for recovery
Outside stressors such as work, family, and travel

14. ACE INTEGRATED FITNESS TRAINING (ACE IFT®) MODEL
The ACE IFT Model is a comprehensive system for exercise programming that pulls together the multifaceted training parameters required to be a successful personal trainer.
Based on the client’s unique health, fitness, needs and goals, this system helps trainers determine appropriate:
Assessments
Exercises
Progressions
The foundation of the ACE IFT Model is built upon rapport and requires:
Excellent communication skills and teaching techniques
An understanding of the psychological, emotional, and physiological needs and concerns of each client
Open communication and trust with the client to foster a desire to participate in a program
Rapport should be developed early through open communication and initial positive exercise experiences, and then enhanced through behavioral strategies that help build long-term adherence.

15. ACE INTEGRATED FITNESS TRAINING (ACE IFT®) MODEL
The ACE IFT Model includes functional and physiological assessments that can be performed at specific phases to provide key information for exercise programming in that phase.
Utilizing a sequential approach, the personal trainer should:
Begin to review the client’s health history
Discuss desires, preferences, and general goals
Complete additional questionnaires (e.g., exercise history and attitude questionnaire)
Determine relevant assessments
Determine timelines for conducting the assessments
Collecting health-history information helps ensure the safety of the client and provides an opportunity for the personal trainer to establish trust and create an open source of communication.
Some assessments, such as those that focus on functional movement, balance, and range of motion, may be conducted within the first few sessions with a new client, while other assessments might not be conducted until the client has progressed from one phase to another.

16. ACE INTEGRATED FITNESS TRAINING (ACE IFT®) MODEL
The ACE IFT Model has two principal training components:
Functional movement and resistance training
Cardiorespiratory training
Each component is composed of four phases that provide trainers with strategies to determine and implement the most appropriate assessments and exercise programs for clients at all levels of fitness.
Phase 1:
Improving function and/or health is the primary focus.
Correct imbalances to improve joint stability and mobility.
Build an aerobic base to improve parameters of cardiorespiratory health.
Phase 2:
Progressing clients toward improved fitness is the primary focus.
Introduce aerobic intervals to improve aerobic efficiency and training movement patterns.
Phase 3:
Progress clients to higher levels of fitness through load training.
Development of anaerobic endurance
Phase 4:
Improving performance through training for power, speed, agility, and reactivity
Increasing anaerobic power
Each client will progress from one phase to the next according to his or her unique needs, goals, and available time to commit to training.
Many clients will be at different phases of the two training components based on their current health and fitness, and only clients with performance-oriented goals will reach phase 4.

17. What are the potential risks of this type of “training”?
All fitness professionals have seen new club members walk into the facility for the first time and immediately pick up some dumbbells, making up their workouts as they go.
What are the potential risks of this type of “training”?
How would you explain the dangers to these potential clients?

18. SUMMARY
Personal trainers today must employ health-behavior change strategies and techniques that will build client self-efficacy and fuel program adherence.
While general recommendations endorse exercise as a means to achieve good health, they do not provide instructions on how to exercise.
The ACE IFT Model is a comprehensive system for exercise programming that pulls together the multifaceted training parameters required to be a successful personal trainer.