Teaching Tuesday is going to be dedicated to discuss something I've been studying in my ACSM exam prep stuff until I take the exam. Exam date has been changed. They called me and asked me to reschedule so now it's going to happen on Friday, March 19th. The 16th is the last you'll have to deal with this if you're totally annoyed that I'm subjecting you to my own self torture.
Ah relax, you might just learn something useful. Probably not this week but maybe as time goes by, I'll have something valuable to share. Today, I apologize but I'm just not prepared. I forgot to grab my notes before I left the house so I'm operating purely on memory which isn't so reliable since I got very little sleep and don't really understand what I'm reading anyway. Having adequately warned you, here's what I'm workin' with.
So far this week, I've been focusing on two aspects of exam prep.
First, I'm still struggling to get through the anatomy and kinesiology stuff. I've never taken any anatomy classes....EVER. I didn't even know what kinesiology meant until I started reading this material. So that should give you a little hint as to how much I'm struggling through it all. I just got done reading about the shoulder. What muscles, tendons, bones, and ligaments make up the shoulder. How the shoulder tends to get injured and how to treat the injury. Did you know that the shoulder is the most likely area of the body to be injured? Because the shoulder has so many working parts and the range of motion is far greater than any other part of the body, it's much easier to injure (the shoulder has the ability to move in all planes - sagittal plane, frontal plane, and transverse plane (circumduction)). All it really takes is falling with an outstretched arm and you can injure yourself in 10 different ways. Most often though, it's the rotator cuff that sustains the injury. Bones of the shoulder region include the humerus, scapula, and clavicle. Joints of the shoulder include glenohumeral, acromioclavicular, sternoclavicular, and scapulothoracic (not a true joint, considered and functional joint). Shoulder muscles are classified as either joint muscles or girdle muscles. The two types of muscles work together to produce a movement. The joint muscles move the arm where the girdle muscles stabilize the scapula (shoulder blade bone). Some of the muscles that I remember are the deltoid of course, biceps brachii, pectoralis minor, pectoralis major, trapezius, teres minor, teres major, rhomboideus minor, rhomboideus major, and there's one in the neck called sternocl....blah blah something.
Okay, I think that's enough of that for now.
Second thing I've been working on this week is doing what I can to get a decent grasp on what to expect for the exam and how to adequately prepare for it. I have three books. One is a giant text book called the resouces for the personal trainer, another is a certification prep book, and the third is dedicated to exercise prescription. On the ACSM website, it breaks down the expected knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that we are suppose to focus our attention on. But the KSAs aren't broken down in the text so it's slightly frustrating feeling like I'm studying in the dark here. Also, there is so much detail in the text that I just don't know how much I need to retain for the exam. I can't help but feel like I'm going about it all wrong.
So what I did was contact a few people in my area that are ACSM Certified Personal Trainers to pick their brains. I contacted 6 people and 4 have responded. Not a bad turn out actually. I was hoping that one would give me the time of day. I spoke to one woman yesterday and it was very helpful. I've been emailing back and forth with two others as well. I plan to contact the 4th person today. The common theme among them as far as advice goes is that I do not need to read every page of every book and memorize all the charts and graphs and diagrams of the human body. Nope. Instead, what each of them agree on is the online practice tests. There are online practice tests that I can pay for and take as many times as I want. It was suggested that I take the tests over and over and study what I got wrong using the text book as an encyclopedia of sorts. I've studied this way before so I'm very familiar with what they're talking about and I think they're right. It really is helpful. I had to study for and take multiple SEC series exams while getting licensed to sell investments and insurance. I used that method and it was wonderful. So I think I'm changing it up a bit. I'm going to pull out the certification prep book and use that to read from (it also has practice tests in it) while taking and studying from the online practice tests.
Here is the list of topics suggested to focus my attention on:
- ATP
- Glycolosis
- Energy producing
- Lactic acid
- anaerobic/aerobic
- creb cycle
- RICE
- correct form
- safety measures
- cardiovascular testing
- terminology
- muscle groups
- what muscles are responsible for producting certain movements
- heart chambers and how it works
- stroke volume
- cardiac output
5 comments:
It's a lot of work, but it sounds like you're doing better than you give yourself credit for. Contacting people who have actually passed the exam is a great idea. I'm sure they'll agree, a lot of those things really do seem more daunting then they are. Once you get into it, you'll realize you've got yourself worried over nothing.
Additionally, you'll find that a lot of these actually intertwine with each other, so you're just learning several pieces of the same puzzle as opposed to multiple puzzles. That's a good thing, because you might feel totally overwhelmed for a while because you're still trying to find pieces, but then as the puzzle comes closer and closer to completion, you'll realize you actually know way more than you thought and the big picture will be a lot easier to see.
And you're right, anatomy? Totally not interesting, yet absolutely necessary. But the rest of the stuff should be, especially as it starts to make more and more sense.
One other thing I'd recommend for your posts, as you get further along make sure you discuss at least a little how what you're talking about that week relates to what you've talked about in previous weeks. That'll help you pull it all together, as sometimes it'll be obvious and sometimes it won't. Also, doing this without notes might help you more than doing it with notes. With notes, you subconciously allow yourself to cheat. Without notes, you actually have to dig into your brain and pull out what you truly know (and what you don't, thus discovering where you need to study more). This is true for me, at least. :)
How much are the practice tests, btw? Hopefully they're a reasonable price so you can take it every two weeks or something! :) You're doing great so far.
Thanks! This is great. While you are struggling with this, you are also making HUGE strides to move forward and take action. That is commendable! There are several things on your list that I look forward to learning more about.
i care!!! Um, what's ACSM?!
enlighten me! xx
Kind of gives you a whole new level of appreciation for the amazing body and how complex it is.
Great job Salina!
ME
Go, Frannie! What great advice!
and go, Salina Lyn! You can do this! It might also be helpful in a way to book an hour and half massage with someone who does treatment work, and have them explain which muscles their working, so that you will have a real-body frame of reference.
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