黑料导航

_{Pictured: School of Health Professions Administrative Specialist Jill Byrne trains on the elliptical machine with student personal trainer Tasheima Johnson.}

Exercise science students in this fall鈥檚 Exercise Programs for Older Adults class, taught by Professor Gordon Schmidt, Ph.D., traded their School of Health Professions classroom for the fitness center on the Long Island campus as they personally trained 黑料导航 faculty and staff. The three-week-long program gave students the opportunity to have hands-on learning experience working with clients to create healthier habits, build muscular strength, and increase cardiorespiratory endurance.

The class鈥檚 16 students were each paired with an adult faculty or staff volunteer, who they met with for six sessions under Schmidt鈥檚 guidance. Kicking off the program with an orientation meeting, students introduced themselves and the nature of the program, oriented their clients to the fitness center and its resources, and identified their clients鈥� goals. Throughout each of the remaining 45-minute sessions, clients and their student personal trainers worked on various elements of fitness, beginning with low-intensity walking and moderate-intensity aerobic machine conditioning and evolving into formal strength training using variable resistance machines and free weights.

Patricia Duran, senior director of student accounts in the Office of the Bursar, says her personal trainer, Kaela Walker, opened her eyes to new forms of exercise. 鈥淜aela surprised me with what I was able to do with her guidance.鈥�

Each student maintained a logbook where they recorded their client鈥檚 exercises, repetitions, and how many sets were performed. Assessments of flexibility, body composition, blood pressure, upper and lower body strength, and cardiorespiratory fitness established benchmarks for each client and trainer to create an individualized program to maintain or improve upon.

Some of the adult participants dove into the nutrition side of things as well. Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Lorraine Mongiello, DrPh, RDN, led Health Education and Promotion. Separate from Schmidt鈥檚 exercise programs class, Mongiello鈥檚 students implemented a 鈥渇ood challenge鈥� as a class project to promote health. After a presentation to School of Health Professions faculty and staff, five teams were created; each team chose to take on four of the seven presented challenges.

_{Participants received certificates of achievement to celebrate all they had learned and accomplished during the three-week program.}

Tasks like 鈥渘o ultra-processed food for seven days,鈥� 鈥渃hoose five servings of fruit or vegetables daily,鈥� and 鈥�30 different plants in seven days鈥� created attainable goals and encouraged participants to think differently about what they put on their plates each day.

鈥淭he goal was to promote incremental changes that collectively lead to a substantial impact on participants鈥� health and well-being,鈥� Mongiello says. 鈥淧eople generally have more success when they set goals, create a plan of action, and share their progress with friends and colleagues.鈥�

By the end of the sixth exercise session, not only did students have a completed business model and a client profile of the individual they worked with, but clients noted feeling motivated and comfortable enough to visit the fitness center on their own and follow their trainer-recommended exercise regimen鈥攅xactly what Schmidt had in mind when establishing the program.

鈥淭his was a great opportunity for me to not only get back into an exercise program but also to support our exercise science students鈥� practical learning, and it鈥檚 been a fantastic experience,鈥� says School of Health Professions Administrative Specialist Jill Byrne, who worked one-on-one with aspiring occupational therapist Tasheima Johnson.

Working with her client in this program was a learning moment for Johnson, who says she鈥檚 gained skills in building strong relationships with clients. Most people, she says, don鈥檛 know their own strength until they are pushed beyond their comfort zone鈥攂ut that requires a large amount of trust between client and trainer. 

Student veteran Bernie Acevedo, who worked with Assistant Professor of Nursing Linda Schneider, Ph.D., hopes to become a physical therapist running his own clinic. He says this experience enabled him to apply his classroom learning and adapt it to 鈥渞eal people with diverse health backgrounds and fitness levels.鈥�

鈥淯sing our available resources at 黑料导航, we put together a program that can be a model of fitness training,鈥� Schmidt says. 鈥淚 am confident that these students will be strong contributors to the healthcare and exercise industry.鈥�