Are you "Special Needs"???

I am on a roll here - 2 blogs this week. Some of you may know that in my former life I was a special needs educator. What I mean by this was that I was a teacher that worked with students that had been identified as having special needs. My areas of emphasis were kids that had been identified as learning disabled or behavior disordered and often times - both. My students appeared to have normal levels of functioning on the surface but usually had one or more "deficits" that impacted their ability to do work. For those kids with learning disabilities it was maybe the ability to process numerically or logically - a lot of them had language deficits like being unable to put their thoughts into writing and of course quite a few of them struggled to read. My behavior disordered kids - aka "emotionally disturbed students" - often had a behavioral issue (that most likely stemmed from an emotional issue that was a combination of environmental and biological causes) that impacted their ability to participate appropriately in classes and thus affected their learning. I am really watering this down as many kids were a complex blend of a variety of these issues and other disabilities that all worked together to make it difficult for them to reach their full potential.

SO what the heck does any of this have to do with what I currently do??? Well! One of the themes of being a "special educator" was inclusion. And part of inclusion meant giving kids the least amount of accommodations and modifications necessary to make them successful. Basically - don't give them too much help or then it becomes a crutch but give them exactly what they need to be successful. Sometimes these kids would "ween" themselves off of the accommodations we would give them. Some would not. Some would do better for awhile and then need to come back.

SO! - what does this have to do with fitness and personal training. Probably much to the chagrin of many of my peers - I feel like personal training should be viewed as anaccommodation with modifications made periodically. Training is a tool. I think a trainers professional responsibility is to educate their clients as much as possible so they have all the possible tools to take charge of their own training. For some people this means a great deal of accommodations at first. You may need to work with a trainer for every workout for the first weeks or even months. This way you have all the support necessary to do things safely and appropriately. When I work with my clients at first - it is all about finding out exactly about what works for their bodies, what is happening with them bio-mechanically, what deficits they have and also what strengths they have.

Of course there are those clients that need to work with a trainer pretty much weekly or even more than once a week even after the initial education process occurs. For whatever reason - those people need the accommodation of having a trainer - or in many cases - simply want it. This is just fine. It is actually a really smart way to get the most out of your workout regimen. But a trainer and a client must reach a agreement that if at any point the trainee is to reduce his "accommodations" then careful attention must be paid to making sure they have all the tools to go out and exact their program on their own without the support of the trainer. Modifications are changes that can be made periodically with the trainer once the client has moved towards a more independent (but not totally independent, as a trainer as a consult periodically is a hugely valuable tool) program. Often with my clients modifications of existing routines are a chance for me to follow up, see what progress has been made, talk about new challenges they would like to implement and reassess goals. Again, a truly fit person more often than not has taken full responsibility for their program and put time and energy into learning everything that does and doesn't work for them. It's called taking OWNERSHIP of your program and it is very similar to what we wanted our students to do ... take ownership of their educational program.

The truth is WE ALL HAVE SPECIAL NEEDS. We are all unique individuals with unique bodies that should have a specific program designed for us. A great part of my job is the chance to help accommodate, modify, and see my students ... er, clients grow and change!!!

Thanks for reading,

Andy