When most people think of fitness training they focus on aerobic fitness and muscular fitness, but as an article on the Mayo Clinic's website points out, a good fitness education training program balances five elements, aerobic fitness, strength fitness, stretching, core exercise, and balance training. The article does a good job of explaining the importance of each element while giving examples of different exercises that one could put to use in their fitness education system. Below is a brief rundown of each element according to the Mayo Clinic's article. Mayo clinic describes aerobic fitness as "any physical activity that uses large
muscle groups and increases your heart rate." Why does the Mayo Clinic consider it important? "Aerobic exercise causes you to breathe faster and more deeply, which maximizes the amount of oxygen in your blood. The better your aerobic fitness, the more efficiently your heart, lungs and blood vessels transport oxygen throughout your body, and the easier it is to complete routine physical tasks and rise to unexpected challenges, such as running to your car in the pouring rain." Aerobic fitness should be a pillar in your fitness education programs.

Muscular fitness is a very important element in fitness education, and may be one of the most popular. The article suggest strength training at least twice a week, which can increase muscular fitness and bone strength while helping you maintain muscle mass during a weight loss program Core exercises is the first of three that many people know little about and tend to avoid doing in their workout programs. Mayoclinic.com describes core exercise as any exercise that uses the trunk of your body without support "Core exercises focus on the muscles in your abdomen, lower back and pelvis. Why does the mayo clinic think it's important? Your core helps protect your back and connects your upper and lower body movement. Balance training is important in fitness education, particularly with clients who are older adults. Why does the Mayo Clinic think it's important? "Because balance tends to deteriorate with age, which can lead to falls and fractures." The article suggests "standing on one leg for increasing periods of time to improve your overall stability."

Finally the Mayo Clinic lists stretching as the fifth element enlisted in fitness education. Why does the Mayo Clinic think it's important? "Stretching exercises are
effective in increasing flexibility, and thereby can allow people to more easily do activities that require greater flexibility. Stretching also improves the range of motion of your joints and promotes better posture and regular stretching can even help relieve stress." A good fitness education program should include each of these elements. The Mayo Clinic suggests that "it isn't necessary to fit each of these into every fitness session, but factoring them into your regular routine can help you promote fitness for life."

Most people can agree that physical activity is vital to our health and living a long life, but this does not mean everyone engages in exercise and eats well-balanced, nutritional meals. Obesity seems to be on the high rise, not just with adults, but with children, as well. These youngsters are the future of our generation, of the world, and how are we supposed to witness their potential if they never make it past their formative years due to obesity, poor diet, and almost no physical exercise? Staying active are of the utmost importance for the development of growing children. For them to achieve their goals and fulfill their dreams, whatever they may be, it all starts with exercise.

Exercise gives them the energy to do things productively on a day-to-day basis. However, while this sounds all poetic and inspirational, the reality of it is that many schools lack fitness education programs. People do not realize just how crucial a physical education class is as opposed to a Biology class, an English class, or a Math class. Fitness education is just as important. Why do people work out? Simple. To boost their metabolism and have more energy throughout the day and just to, overall, feel good about them selves. That is our goal for the children of America.

How can this goal be reached? Former President Bill Clinton, co-founder of The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, launched The Fit for a Healthier Generation Campaign. This fitness campaign is to get kids moving with BOKS, an initiative of Reebok, celebrity trainers Bob Harper, Tara Stiles, Billy Blanks, and global fitness brand Zumba Fitness. This campaign has 3-5 minute recorded DVDs that classrooms can use as physical activity breaks. This can even be used at home for parents to get their children active. The goal is to get the kids up and moving. This sounds fun right? Exactly! Because exercise should be fun, especially for kids. These come at no cost as BOKS, a fitness program, will sponsor the distribution of over 30,000 of these DVDs to communities across the country. It consists of simple, classroom, and program-appropriate exercises to get the kids’ heart rates up and just have some fun.

Clinton made it known that “less than 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools, and 2 percent of high schools provide opportunities for daily physical education” (Mazzulo, 2012). These are alarmingly low percentages. No wonder our country is in danger of tripling its obesity rates in 10-20 years. We need to work on the most important demographic of this issue: children. Who knows? These kids could be the next fitness professionals! Or even a future President of the United States. Through this campaign and fitness education program, kids can learn the benefits of living fit and leading healthier lives.

Latest Fitness Trends

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, one of the principal fitness trends involves nothing more than your own body weight.

ACSM asked 3,346 corporate, clinical, community, commercial and academic health and fitness experts to answer the question, what is likely to make up the most popular fitness trends in 2013. The participants discussed emerging trends and whether or not last years’ trendy programs continued to be appealing. The survey listed 37 possible choices and the specialists rated the top 20.

This year’s ‘it’ fitness programs include a blend of new ways to sweat it out as well as some previous fitness regimens. Body weight training, a technique that uses your body’s weight as the foundation of resistance for strength training and muscle endurance. Spinning and Pilates, however, were less popular.

“[Older trends] are coming back, and some are coming back and safer.” says ACSM’s national director of certification, Dick Cotton.

The most universally used exercises in body weight training entail push-ups and crunches, which require very little, if any, equipment. Although some brands like TRX systems, have banked on its attractiveness by creating suspension training equipment, many boot camp-style classes are promoting the use of everyday objects, which fitness experts hope will help lower the hurdles to exercising regularly.

Staying away from expensive specialized equipment is a plus, says Cotton.

Here is the full list of the top 10 fitness trends of 2013 from ACSM:

1. Educated, Certified and Experienced Fitness Professionals

2. Strength Training

3. Body Weight Training

4. Children and Obesity Related Exercise

5. Exercise and Weight Loss

6. Fitness Programs for Older Adults

7. Personal Training

8. Functional Fitness

9. Core Training

10. Group Personal

Between going to work, running errands, walking the dog, chasing the kids, getting a workout in and all the other odds and ends of life, sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day! Sometimes something’s just gotta give, but fitness education guru Beth Shaw has found a way to help busy people combine a couple key daily tasks.

Beth Shaw, Founder and CEO of YogaFit Training Systems Worldwide, is no stranger to fitness education. YogaFit has been running since 1994 and has trained thousands of fitness professionals all over the world, are currently expanding into China and are beginning to teach some courses in Spanish. Now they’re releasing a program that allows busy people to combine a couple essential daily tasks - walking the dog, and getting in some yoga. 

Furociously Fit 20/30/40 is a DVD program that allows for the maximum amount of dog walking time while the pooch's owner gets in some valueable yoga time. For optimum dog health, its suggested that there is a 20 minute walk in the morning, a 30 minute walk at noon, and a 40 minute walk in the evening. This seems like a lot of time devoted to walking the pup, but if you look at it as 90 minutes a day that not only benefits the dog, but you as well with yoga, then that time is doubly well spent.

For the busy animal loving yogi, this could be a winning combination. This innovative approach of incorporating workouts into everyday activities like walking the dog is a great thing to encourage for busy clients!

Look at this article at seattlepi.com to read more, or visit YogaFit.com to check out the Furocioulsy Fit DVD.