Fitness Specialist Interview Questions And Answers

We have written previous blogs about the benefits of HIIT here and here. This term makes the list because it is often used to refer to exercise performed at maximal intensity. However, it’s important to remember that intensity can be subjective—what may be low intensity for some may be high intensity for others.

For individuals with a history of being sedentary or who have been dealing with chronic medical conditions that limit their ability to exercise, simply walking continuously for a few minutes at a time could be considered “high intensity.”

A number of exercise programs and classes are called Tabata, which is an actual person. Twenty years ago, Dr. Izumi Tabata, an exercise scientist from Japan, and his colleagues conducted research on ways to improve aerobic capacity using short intervals of extremely high-intensity exercise. They found that exercising at 170% of aerobic capacity on cycle ergometers for a work interval of 20 seconds followed by a brief recovery interval of only 10 seconds, repeated to exhaustion, was extremely effective at boosting aerobic capacity. Since publishing the study in 1997, Dr. Tabata’s name has been used to refer to a protocol of high-intensity interval training featuring 20-second work intervals followed by 10-second recovery intervals for eight cycles (a total of four minutes).

Concerning the heart and respiratory system.

The maximum capacity for oxygen consumption by the body during maximum exercise. Also known as aerobic power or maximal oxygen intake/consumption. VO2max is commonly used as a measure of aerobic fitness.

A person, normally your workout partner, who watches your lifts for technique and safety. Their role is also to help you finish your movement.

One of the fundamentals of Core Performance nutrition, eating clean means choosing healthy, natural, and minimally processed foods to fuel your body.

One foot forward and the other foot back with your knees bent so that your back knee is just off the floor. This may also be referred to as a split squat position

A critical component to any training plan, Regeneration restores balance in your body, helping to relieve aches and pains while enhancing your body’s response to training. You’ll stretch, massage, and recover to recharge your mind and body. Think of it as preparing for your next workout. This training component often appears last in a workout or standalone.

Type of stretching in which you use a rope to gently assist in pulling a muscle a little farther than your body would normally allow to increase flexibility gains.

The body's metabolic rate (rate of energy use) early in the morning after an overnight fast and a full eight hours' sleep. This is different than Basal metabolic rate.

A measurement of the work done by the heart, commonly expressed as the number of beats per minute (bpm).

Meaning with oxygen. Aerobic training is at a lower intensity, with the purpose of stimulating aerobic metabolism to improve.

A popular consumer-oriented fitness program claims to be based on the science of “muscle confusion.” This is simply a marketing term created to describe the physiological effect of periodization, which is a method of organizing exercise programs based on alternating periods of intensity. The concept of periodization was developed by Soviet Union sport scientists who recognized that periods of high-intensity exercise (high stress) should be followed by a period of low-intensity exercise (low stress) to let the body to fully recover from the workouts and allow the time for the physiological adaptations to occur.

When it comes to exercise, burning is often used to refer to the feeling of when muscles experience an accumulation of metabolic waste, which creates fatigue. Acidosis is a change in blood acidity—specifically, elevated levels of lactic acid and hydrogen ions—that is often the result of moderate- to high-intensity exercise. A burning sensation in a muscle is an indication of acidosis. It’s also a sign that it is time for a recovery period to allow the body to remove metabolic waste from the working muscles and replenish the nutrients required to continue performing muscle contractions.

Many programs or fitness classes refer to using plyos, which is short for plyometrics. Looking at the etiology of the word, ‘plyo’ (from pleio) is a pre-fix for “more” and metric refers to length; therefore, plyometric means “more length.” This describes the physiological affect of the involved muscles during jump training (the most common application for the lower body) or explosive movements such as medicine ball throws (often used for upper-body plyometric training).

Plyometric training was developed by Soviet sport scientists who originally referred to it as “shock training” because of the high forces experienced by the involved tissue. That’s why it’s important to perform only a few repetitions at a time to achieve the highest level of force output possible. Any program requiring participants to perform more than five or six rapid movements (i.e., jumps or explosive lifts) in a row can significantly increase the risk of injury by placing too much force on the involved tissue.

The point during increasingly intensive exercise at which blood lactate begins to accumulate above resting levels.

Movement Preparation, or Movement Prep, is an efficient warm-up that consists of dynamic stretches designed to lengthen, strengthen, and stabilize your body. Not only will it prepare your mind and body for better workouts, but it will actually make you stronger and help you move more efficiently. Think of it as warming up with a purpose. Movement Prep is typically the first or second training component (following Pillar Prep) in Core Performance workouts, but you can also perform it anytime, anywhere.

This has become one of the most popular and overused fitness terms of the past several years. It seems as if almost any fitness class, workout program or equipment will provide “core training” benefits. The “core” most often refers to the muscles that make up the mid-section of the body, including the ever-elusive six-pack. However, it is much more effective to think of the body’s core as the center of gravity and not an actual group of muscles. When we look at how the body functions during upright movement patterns such as walking, lifting an object off of the ground or moving an object from one place to another, we have to consider the fact that any muscle that attaches to the spine, rib cage or pelvis influences movement around the body’s center of gravity.

This term is commonly used to describe a general mode of exercise such as yoga or Pilates, because they are traditionally performed with bodyweight (with the exception of Pilates programs involving equipment such as a reformer or barrel) and require concentration to execute challenging movement sequences. However, any purposeful movement, whether it’s a biceps curl or downward facing dog, requires conscious effort. Therefore, almost any physical activity that involves learning and executing movement patterns, no matter how basic, requires cognitive focus and should technically be classified as mind-body.

The lowest rate of body metabolism (rate of energy use) that can sustain life, measured after a full night's sleep in a laboratory under optimal conditions of quiet, rest and relaxation.

The highest number of heart beats per minute (bpm) when exercising maximally.

ESD is the cardiovascular component of Core Performance training programs. The intensity of the workouts is broken up into three different heart rate zones, which are differentiated by color: Yellow is easy/recovery, green is moderate/strength, and red is hard/power. Instead of slow, plodding workouts, ESD will have your muscles, nervous system, and hormones acting together to help your body work as efficiently as possible.

Ability to know where your joint is in space—for instance, when standing on one leg—due to a system of pressure sensors in the joints, muscles, and tendons that provide the body with information to maintain balance.

Cardio is short for cardiorespiratory or cardiovascular exercise and refers to exercise that elevates the heart rate to pump oxygen and nutrient-carrying blood to the working muscles. Most often used for exercise performed on equipment like treadmills, elliptical runners or stationary bikes, it is important to know that ANY exercise that elevates the heart rate can provide cardiorespiratory benefits. Circuit training with free-weights or performing an AMRAP (as many rounds of a particular circuit as possible in a given amount of time) can be considered cardiorespiratory exercise.

A measure of how well your blood transports oxygen around the body, and how well your muscles utilize the oxygen.