The capacity to affect our clients positively relies largely upon our ability to assess their specific needs, wants, and goals. The success we achieve is based upon utilizing the optimal treatment, rehabilitation and/or training strategies that best fit the needs of our client. It is the ability to understand the 'art' of exercise progression that differentiates the good trainer/coach from the great trainer/coach.

Part of this art involves improving the client's threshold to exercise.

What is exercise threshold?

It is simply the client's ability to withstand increasing levels of stress.

Athletes, younger and high-functioning individuals possess a greater tolerance to exercise. They generally are not suffering from a history of injuries, possess a higher level of motor skills and have better recuperative abilities. In other words, their training programs can be more intense.

However, when training the general population, we are often dealing with individuals who are at the lower end of motor skill levels, are more likely to have had significant injuries or surgeries, and have diminished recuperative abilities.

Therefore, as trainers we must be acutely aware of our client's exercise threshold.

Exercise can be a positive factor on the body if the body is able to withstand the stress. Exercise can be considered eustress (a positive stress) when the exercise is complemented by adequate rest, nutrition, and a healthy emotional state thereby serving to strengthen the body's systems. If one of these components is missing, then exercise becomes distress, or taxing to the system.

How do I know this?

Because I regularly consult with individuals who complain that as soon as they begin exercising or increasing physical activity, they experience pain and have to stop. Pain is the body's way of telling us it is not tolerating stress (exercise) well. What are some other signs that the body is not tolerating stress well?

· A client is expressing increased levels of fatigue that are not decreased with adequate rest and sleep.

· A client is experiencing elevated blood pressure not improved by exercise. Many of these individuals are also on blood pressure medications.

· A client demonstrates the inability to lose weight even when performing an intense enough exercise regimen that should facilitate weight loss or result in significant net calorie deficit.

· The client often shows symptoms of a cold or the flu, or always seems to "catch" whatever illness is going around at the time.

We must recognize these signs of distress and address them appropriately through our programs.

How can we accomplish this?

• Determining which positions or movement patterns are dysfunctional.

• Shift focus to improving the strength, stability and endurance in those dysfunctional positions or patterns.

One very effective way to bring about a shift from dysfunctional to properly functioning position is the use of isometric contraction in the positions of weakness.

Isometric contractions enable the individual to activate low level muscle fibers that are often inhibited by pain, injury and even slight levels of chronic inflammation. Low level muscle activation helps restore recruitment of low threshold muscle fibers (type I stabilization fibers) thereby improving motor sequencing. Additionally, this helps reestablish the oxidative capacity of the muscles. Isometric contractions also play an important role in developing the endurance capacity of these fibers. Many injuries and compensative movement patterns occur because the individual has poor endurance to stabilize a joint (or joints) in a particular position during functional movement patterns.

A practical way to begin the shift toward proper functioning using isometric contractions is to:

1. Perform 10 sets of 10-second holds utilizing 10-20% of the individual's maximum contraction.

2. After a brief period (a few days or weeks, depending on the client), the intensity of contraction can be raised to 50-75% of maximum contraction.

3. Once strength is increased in these isolated positions, the client is trained to apply those newly developed strengths while performing appropriate series of functional movement progressions.

In conclusion, when working with the general population, if you wish to improve a client's likelihood of success, you must first improve that client's ability to tolerate exercise.

Improving the functioning of the stabilization fibers and encouraging the maintenance of a well rounded lifestyle including plenty of eustress gives our clients the greatest chance of success when undertaking a training program.

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