Course at a glance
Introduction
There has been a growing trend of obesity reaching epidemic proportions in the UK and globally. With people of all ages having inactive lives, access to over-eating especially of bad and unhealthy food creating lifestyles effecting health of both the young and the old. There is a need for intervention and ways to reduce or control weight and diet such as through the use of a Coach or Personal Trainer. Diabetes, heart disease and some cancers are related to being overweight. Chances of these aliments affecting an individual are greatly increased if people are obese. An increase of people leading inactive and unhealthy lives have meant that there has been a demand for people to train and coach people into a fitter and healthier lifestyles.
Accredited Level 3 Personal Training / Sports Coaching Diploma Entry Requirement
Entry to this Accredited Level 3 Personal Training / Sports Coaching Diploma requires that potential students have gained GCSE/IGCSE or equivalent qualifications and have, good English oral, reading and writing skills.
Advice on enrolment and guidance of prior learning (APL) can be obtained through out contact centre. The course is a rolling programme and can be started at any point in the year. Successful students can go on to Higher Education, including remaining as students at OLC to complete courses in our portfolio of higher awards.
All students must be aged 16 or over.
Assessment
The coursework is assessed through continuous assessment with no formal exit examinations.
Study Hours
Approximately: 200 hours of personal study time for the entire course is recommended. All of which is supported by the OLC Course Tutor, who we greatly encourage students to access support from throughout their course.
Quality Assurance
This course has been developed by the College’s professional team of tutors to meet the needs of sector based employers and employees. It is also part of the College’s validated level three Diplomas’, recognised internationally. Further details of our accreditations are provided on our website.
Course Length
1 Year.
Awarding Body
Accredited Level 3 Personal Training / Sports Coaching Diploma Course Content
Unit 1: Becoming a Personal Trainer or Sports Coach
In this unit, students will look at the role of a personal trainer or coach. It also talks about professionalism in this role including the importance of getting certified and obtaining insurance, which is an important aspect for those who wish to become fully fledged personal trainers. This unit also has activities embedded to help you evaluate your performance as a personal trainer, for example, evaluating your communication skills. This unit takes you through valid information on how to start work as a personal trainer.
Unit 2: Knowing About Anatomy and Physiology
As a personal trainer, it is important to know how the body responds so that you can effectively train your clients to reach their fitness goals whether it would be losing weight or strength training. In this unit, students will learn about structures and the functions of joints, muscles, and tendons that make up the human body. Muscles that support the lumbar spine commonly known as core stability will also be explored. This unit will look at the effects of exercise on the heart, the circulatory and the respiratory system, and the effects of smoking on the respiratory system.
Unit 3: Knowing About Nutrition
As a personal trainer, it is important to advise people on what to eat in order for clients to reach their fitness goals. This unit takes you through the digestive system and will look at how the body processes food along with touching on the digestive system’s problems. In this part of the unit, the course guide will take the learner through information about nutrition and show the importance of coaching their client to include carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in their diet. This unit will also cover the relevance of the diet and nutrition journals.
Unit 4: Knowing your Clients
This part of the course will advise on the important information that is needed from a client before they start exercise. The consultation is an important aspect of personal training. Not only does this help to get to know clients, but it will also build an exercise programme that is based on their current fitness levels, their goals, and their likes and dislikes. A personal trainer would need to gather personal information about their clients before they start exercise, including information regarding their medical fitness. As a personal trainer, you will have to ensure that your clients are medically fit to exercise. The learner will go through what happens before an initial consultation and will look at the importance of completing fitness assessments and medical screening. This unit takes you through how to carry out measurements like blood pressure, heart rate, and body composition. There is further information about body composition assessments and how to carry out cardiovascular testing and flexibility testing.
Unit 5: Knowing About Exercising
Once you know your client, you will look at how to train your client. This part of the course looks at the basis of planning an exercise programme to help you achieve this. This unit will look at ways to train your client, looking at the advantages of doing exercise in different locations, and through different types of training. Aerobic training is commonly an important part of an exercise programme, and this part of the diploma will take the learner though the different ways of improving cardiovascular fitness. Training zones are good way of making sure that your client is working at the right level for their fitness and for their exercise goals. This unit will look at heart rate training zone to help you and your client work at the right exercise intensity. Exercise frequency for clients to follow depending on their fitness is touched upon here. Resistance training is another important component of an exercise programme. This will look at the advantages of resistance training and the advantages and disadvantages of free weights and machine weights. This unit finishes by exploring the importance of pushing your client to the next level and amending workouts, and also has running long distance information.
Unit 6: Training Young People
There are many things to consider when training young people or coaching a group of young people. The differences in work out requirements are explored and explained in this unit.
Unit 7: Training Groups with Particular Requirements
Unit seven helps you to prepare for working with different clients who have particular requirements, namely women, and older adults. This unit goes into depth in regard to how women may experience the female triad, and the learner will explore the different signs and symptoms of this. Exercise is also beneficial for women who are pregnant. In this part of the course, the leaner will learn how to exercise this client group with sample exercise programmes. Exercise for older people is also beneficial, and in this unit, we will look at the benefits of strength training and aerobic exercise for this group.
Unit 8: Advising About Weight Management
Many people want advice on weight loss and this unit looks at strategies for weight loss. Different type of diets that people may go on are covered so that you can advise appropriately as a personal trainer and give informed knowledge on exactly what these diets will do to the body. Food and fitness diaries will be looked at in this unit, as well as weight gain tips, disordered eating, and the issues surrounding obesity.
Unit 9: Advising About Fluid Management
This unit talks about what happens when we are dehydrated, and the importance of being hydrated before, during, and after exercise. This unit will also look at the function of water as well as sports drinks, and cover alcohol consumption and how to drink alcohol sensibility.
Unit 10: Building and Maintaining a Successful Personal Training Business
The last unit in this course will look at creating a business and marketing plan to develop your personal training business. This part of the course will look at important legal aspects including insurance cover for your clients and accident reporting forms. It will also give you information about how to create an image for your personal training business. Looking at the business in more detail including charging clients, producing invoices, paying taxes, retaining clients, and employing staff for your business is covered.
Progression
This Accredited Level 3 Personal Training / Sports Coaching Diploma can be used to gain entry to a Level 4 Diploma or higher.
Further information on our Level 4 Diplomas can be found here: https://www.oxfordcollege.ac/courses/accredited-level-4-diplomas/