Ashley Boehm

SER 310 Exercise Prescription

Individual Exercise Prescription Project

a My client is a teammate of mine. She is 18 years old, her height is 5’4” and her weight is 120 lbs.

For her ACSM risk stratification, she has no risk factors that will affect exercise levels of any kind. My

client does not smoke or have any history of smoking, does not have diabetes or dyslipidemia of any kind,

plays on Seton Hill’s softball team where she exercises daily, and her HDL cholesterol levels are fine.

Also, she does not have any family history that would affect her exercise and has a resting blood pressure

of 120/78 mmHg. There are no restrictions to my client’s plan that would make her need a medical

clearance.

b My client currently participates in regular aerobic exercise for her sport. Her predicted VO​2​ max

is at 33.98 ml/kg/min according to the 12 Minute Walk/Run Test. As a pitcher, she is required to run

certain days of the week to stay in shape. Other than this, she has no other aerobic exercise plan.

c The current musculoskeletal exercise that my client participates in takes place on certain days of

the week. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, my client preforms strength training. She

performs activities such as dynamic and isometric exercises in a series of stations. These stations consist

of full body exercises. At these, she performs exercises such as shoulder press, hip thrusters, hamstring

curls, single leg pistol squats, medicine ball slams, box jumps, inverted rows, seated rows, and foam

rolling.

d My client is very interested in strength training and doing aerobic exercise more than she does

now, but feels as if with class, practice, and homework that she does not have enough time. My clients

class schedule doesn’t really support her having time to exercise on her own, except after practice. By that
time, she states that she would be too tired to go to a gym or want to exercise in any way. Her attitude

towards exercising is very positive and motivating, but her schedule is not.

e A motivation that my client has is that she is a freshman in college. By saying this, she means that

she has gained a bit of weight by coming into college and having a different lifestyle. My client wants to

lose weight while also gaining muscle mass in return, just to look better. Some barriers that my client has

is that she is a pitcher for softball, so I would have to go easy with any arm exercises so she does not hurt

her tendonitis on the posterior side of her right elbow. I will have to choose correct exercises that will

allow the loss of weight, as well as, the toning of muscle while not hurting or restraining my client from

being able to pitch.

Clients Current Exercise History

Aerobic Exercise

Frequency Intensity Type Time Location

Wednesday RPE - 8 Running 16 minutes or 2 McKenna weight

afternoon (treadmill) miles room

Saturday morning RPE - 7 Running 8-16 minutes or McKenna weight

(treadmill) 1-2 miles room

Resistance and Flexibility Exercises

Exercise Frequency Intensity Sets Reps Additional Info

Hamstring curl M, W, F 90 lbs. 2 sets 45 second

max

Squats M, W, F 115 lbs. 3 sets 6-8 reps

Single leg M, W, F 45 lbs. 2 sets 45 second Switching leg

pistol squat max half way

through

duration

Weighted hip M, W, F 35 lbs. 2 sets 45 second

thrusters max

RDL M, W, F 65-85 lbs. 2 sets 45 second

max

Hip stretches M, W, F - - 30 seconds 4-way hip

each stretch, holds

each 30

seconds

Deadlifts M, W, F 115 lbs. 3 sets 6-8 reps

Dumbbell M, W, F 15 lbs. 2 sets 8-10 reps each This is during

Shoulder Press arm a 45 second

timed station,

so sometimes

8-10 reps each

arm is not met

Medicine Ball M, W, F 10-12 lbs. 2 sets 45 second This could be

Slams ball max reps regular slams,

rainbow slams,

wall slams, etc.

Box jumps M, W, F - 2 sets 45 second

max reps

Inverted rows M, W, F - 2 sets 10-15 reps Instructor

choses

different reps

each session

Seated Rows M, W, F 60 lbs. 2 sets 12 reps

Foam rolling M, W, F - 2 sets -

Toe touches M, W, F - - 30 seconds Alternating

stretching each leg

Quad stretch M, W, F - - 30 second Alternate each

stretching leg for 30

seconds

T-spine stretch M, W, F - - 30 second Alternate

stretching which leg is

brought up,

lifting that arm

up to stretch

back
2.

The first component that I will work on and improve on with you is muscular strength. Muscular strength

is defined as the amount of force a muscle can produce with a single maximal effort. You play softball, so

muscular strength comes into play more than the other components of fitness. Power is needed when

swinging a bat, throwing a ball or even pitching a ball. Power is a function of speed and strength. Having

a good muscular strength is good for you because pitching the ball requires a lot of power. Improving

muscular strength during my training sessions can lead to an increase in speed and velocity in your

pitches. Developing muscular strength will come in hand with this. When exercising muscular strength,

lower repetitions with higher weight is how one should be trained. When exercising muscular strength, I

am going to look to exercises that will not particularly put pressure on the arm development.

The next component of fitness that I will work on with you is cardiovascular fitness. Cardiovascular

fitness is the body’s ability to perform exercise that may force the cardiovascular system to work for

longer durations. The cardiovascular system consists of the heart and the lungs, which fuel the body with

the oxygen and blood they need to perform. In softball, a good cardio fitness is not a high requirement,

but it can be a base or foundation to the anaerobic system. This foundation of aerobic fitness could help

with recovering quicker from fatigue throughout a game. This is a very important factor not only for you

when pitching, but for anyone looking to start an exercise program. Even though muscular strength can be

very important to you because you are a pitcher, cardiovascular fitness goes into this as well. Increasing

your cardiovascular fitness with benefit you in many more ways than one, including your general fitness.

The third component of fitness that I will assess with you is muscular endurance. This is the ability of the

muscles to perform for an extended period of time. Muscular endurance is found in a longer duration of

time, which you will also need just as much as the rest. When pitching in softball, muscular endurance is
just as important as muscular strength. Not only do you need the power to pitch the ball in that short

duration, but you also need to be able to continue throwing for the rest the game. This can contribute to

your velocity comparison from the first inning to the last inning of the game. With this, muscular

endurance is very important to your position because you need to be able to throw the ball for multiple

innings.

The fourth component of fitness that I will be working on with you is your flexibility. Flexibility can be

defined as the quality of bending easily without breaking, or the range of motion around a joint.

Flexibility might not seem like a big need to play softball, but it will definitely help out. If flexibility was

not trained, there could be an increased risk for injury. The muscles and joints could become stiff and

movement could become limited and short. Some common sites of injury in softball are the shoulder,

knee, ankle, elbow, and hip. By increasing flexibility, these injuries could be prevented. Flexibility

training can help you go through an entire range of motion (ROM) without feeling stiff and not being able

to get a correct resistance training session in. Softball players need more of a dynamic flexibility, meaning

a movement flexibility rather than a stay still flexibility.

The last component of fitness that will be assessed is your body composition. Body composition is the

measurement that is used to show and describe the percentages of bone, fat, water and muscle that a

person may have in their body. This could be important in testing you because I can determine the amount

of muscle you have compared to fat. This will be a good measure of how defined and built you may

already be before testing, and where I can get you to improve on a personal level as well as an athletic

level.

3.

There are two different areas of health-related fitness that we are going to focus on the most. With these

we are going to have two different short term goals, which will be an intended outcome and the behavior
goals that go along with these. With the behavior goals, we will look at the SMART criteria, which stands

for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. By sticking to these criteria with your goals, it

will help better you to stick to your goals. Seeing from what you are seeking to improve in, we are going

to focus most on body composition and muscular endurance. Body composition is a factor that you have

been very concerned in since coming to college and being in a new environment, so this is the first that

we will look at.

To start, body composition is a big factor in where you want to be during and after training. Your

intended outcome is to be back to your physical shape that you were in before and to have a consistent

healthy diet while doing so. You have explained to me that you have added about 10 pounds since making

the transition to college, and how this is not healthy for you. We will set a behavior goal for you for the

first week of training. This can be weight training Monday, Wednesday and Friday consistently at 8 am,

since you do not have class or practice at this time. Also, we will have you run for 10-15 minutes on

Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 am. Because you are already an athlete and are used to physical activity like

this, we are going to start you off on a plan such as this. Also for behavior goals, we are going to change

your Netflix time to time where you can get up and be active. When you are sitting around on your free

time between class and practice, or whatever it may be, watching Netflix and lying in bed, you could be

instead up and walking around campus or doing other things that will be more productive, such as

homework or laundry.

The second area of fitness that we will focus on with you is muscular endurance. You expressed to me

that you are in a good muscular strength stance, but want to increase your muscular endurance. With this,

an intended outcome that you would like to see is improvement in everyday activity and be able to get

through a full 7-inning game without fatigue. A behavior goal that will tie in with your goal for body

composition is what exactly you are working on in your resistance training. We will have a goal of 12
repetitions at a tolerable weight for each exercise performed. Also, another behavior goal that we will set

will be

4.

A.​ T
​ he prescription that I have developed for my client consists of high repetition resistance exercises as

well as running and jogging twice a week. This program will help meet my clients intended outcomes and

behavior goals in the fitness components of body composition and muscular endurance. Her intended

outcome with body composition is to be in a better physical condition as well as healthier eating. These

outcomes will be met by an exercise frequency of 5 days a week, switching between resistance training

and aerobic exercise. Another intended outcome that my client had was to increase muscular endurance to

help with her sport and everyday activities. The intensity with this would be, during these 3 days of

resistance training, high repetition exercises with a tolerable weight. The time that we will take with each

of these days of exercise will be 60 minutes of resistance training, combining strength exercises with

circuit training. The aerobic exercise that she will go through will be for 10-15 minutes to start. This will

be at whatever intensity she can do for this time interval, whether it is jogging, running, or walking. From

there, we can increase the time and intensity to where she can handle. While moving on in the program,

the resistance training will change as we go. For example, I plan for my client to be able to handle heavier

loads for higher repetitions as we reach 3-4 weeks into the program. Also, I expect her to be able to run

for 15-20 minutes by this time as well. I also expect her VO​2max ​to increase with our program, since

intensity will increase and her oxygen demands will also increase. My client will be in better shape for

both herself and her sport.

B. For the first week of your prescription, we will focus on finding where you stand with intensity

and frequency of exercise, as well as sticking to your goals we have planned. For Monday, we will first

start with a warm up of dynamic and static stretching. Before stretching, we will have a quick 30 second

jog in place to get the muscles activated and your blood flowing. The stretches will consist of arm circles,
arm stretches, toe touches, seated hip stretches and stretches to left leg, then the right, then the middle.

From here we will move to dynamic stretching with Frankenstein’s, donkey kicks, alternating quad pulls,

figure 4’s, alternating lunges, and hip openers. The warm up should take about 5-10 minutes total. From

here, you will move to deadlifts Monday, squats Wednesday, and RDL’s Friday. For these, you will start

with 25 lbs. on either side of the bar and preform 12 repetitions for 4 sets. In between these sets, I will

have you rest 2 minutes. This, in total, should take you about 10 minutes.

Once done with these sets, we will move to a circuit in supersets, or sets that work the opposing muscle

group in each exercise. You will start with hamstring curls and leg press. You will perform each of these

for 50 seconds as many reps as you can at 30 pounds, which should be classified at 12-13 on the Borg

RPE scale for the hamstring curls, and 85 pounds for the leg press, which should also be the same RPE

level. If it is not and feels too easy for you, then increase a bit in weight for each, but not so much that you

cannot fully perform each of the exercises for the full duration.

From here, you will move onto the next superset. You will perform triceps dips and bicep curls. The

triceps dips will be at a bench level with no weight for an RPE also at around 12-13. The bicep curls will

be with 10 pound weights, or if this seems too hard or easy for you to perform for the whole duration,

then at a 12-13 RPE level. From here, we will move to some core work. You will perform suitcase

crunches and weight punches. Both exercises will be for the 50 second duration. Also, both exercises will

be with a 10-pound plate in hand. Switch to the next exercise as soon as the first time period ends.

Next, we will move to box step with one leg jumps, as well as side to side lunges. When doing the box

jumps, one leg steps up, the one leg jump is performed on this leg with the other leg jolting up in a bent

position towards the chest. Continue this back and forth on different legs each time for the 50 second

duration. Move to the side to side lunges next. Use a small band to put around your ankles for resistance

when reaching legs out back and forth. Alternate to which leg you are using each time.
From here, I will have you go through the circuit once more. After doing this, we will move into a cool

down. This will start with a light jog in place for 30 seconds, just to simply cool down and shake it off.

We will move on with alternating quad stretches, then arm stretches and circles, toe touches, seated hip

stretches, then stretches to the left leg, right leg, and the middle. You will continue this exercise for

Wednesday and Friday, and we will increase and change things up for the next week.

For Tuesday and Thursday of this week, we will work on aerobic exercise, or cardio work. We are going

to start by having you on the treadmill for about 10 minutes. Depending on what you can do in this time,

the speed will vary. We will start you with a warm up of walking at a 2.5 MPH speed at 0% grade for 3

minutes. Then, we will increase the speed to 5.0 MPH at 0% grade for about 7-10 minutes, or whatever is

bearable for you at an RPE of 12-13 on the Borg scale. After your jog/run, we will decrease the speed

back to 2.5 MPH for a 3-minute cool down. You will continue this on Thursday, and if you feel that you

can do more, increase the running time to 10-12 minutes.

WARM UP:

Warm up Frequency Intensity Sets Reps Additional Info/

explanation

Jog in place M, W, F - - - 30 seconds of

jogging in place

Arm circles M, W, F - - - 30 seconds

Arm stretches M, W, F - - - Switch back and

forth arms across

body, hold about

10 seconds each
Toe touches M, W, F - - - Switch legs after

10 seconds each

Hip stretch M, W, F - - - Alternating back

and forth 90

degree angles in

knees to ground

Stretch to each M, W, F - - - Down to each leg

leg and middle for about 10-15

seconds to mild

discomfort

Frankenstein’s M, W, F - - - Alternate

(toy soldiers) between legs,

don’t kick any

farther than able

Donkey Kicks M, W, F - - - Same as

Frankensteins in

technique

Alternating quad M, W, F - - -

pulls
Hip Openers M, W, F - - - Alternate legs,

opening gate

movement

DAILY EXERCISES:

Exercise Frequency Intensity Sets Reps Additional Info

Deadlift Monday 25 lbs. plates 4 sets 12 reps 2 minutes of

on each side rest in between

each set

Squats Wednesday 25 lbs. on 4 sets 12 reps 2 minutes of

each side of rest in between

bar each set

RDL’s Friday 10 lbs. on 4 sets 10 reps 2 minutes of

each side of rest in between

bar each set

 WEEK CIRCUIT:

Exercise Frequency Intensity Sets Reps Additional Info

Hamstring M, W, F 30 lbs. 2 sets for 50 - As many reps as

curls + leg hamstring seconds possible with

press curls, 85 lbs. good form in 50

leg press, or seconds

RPE of 12-13

for each

Triceps dips + M, W, F No weight for 2 sets for 50 - As many reps as

bicep curls dips, 10 lbs. or seconds possible with

RPE of 12-13 good form in 50

for bicep curls seconds

Suitcase M, W, F 10 lbs. plate 2 sets for 50 - As many reps as

crunches and for each seconds possible with

weight exercise good form in 50

punches seconds
Box step ups + M, W, F No weight for 2 sets for 50 - As many reps as

side lunges either, band seconds possible with

with band for side lunges good form in 50

seconds

COOL DOWN:

Cool down Frequency Intensity Sets Reps Additional Info/

explanation

Jog in place M, W, F - - - 30 seconds jog in

place

Alternating M, W, F - - - Alternate for 30

quad stretch seconds

Arm stretches M, W, F - - - Stretch arms back

and forth across

body for 10 seconds

each

Arm circles M, W, F - - - 30 seconds

 Toe touches M, W, F - - - Switch legs after 10

seconds each

Hip stretch M, W, F - - - Alternating back and

forth 90 degree

angles in knees to

ground

Stretch to each M, W, F - - - Down to each leg

leg and middle for about 10-15

seconds to mild

discomfort

5.

My client reacted very well to the prescription tailored to her. She enjoyed the circuit, saying that it got

her to stay into the exercise and fully push herself to get to the correct time assigned. There were a few

forms that I would have to explain and correct for her throughout, but other than this she did very well.

Getting used to the circuit training for her was a little bit of a problem, because of the constant changing

of exercises. Once she got this down and understood how it will help her, she enjoyed it very much and

performed very well. I was very happy that everything worked out for her and was able to create a

comfortable environment for her to feel confident exercising in. If anything was to not work, it would deal

with soreness from exercise. She was sore from the deadlifts when coming into Wednesday. She is not

used to this amount of reps for these types of exercises, so we had to adjust weight when we got past the

first day. Also, when doing aerobic exercise, she did not feel very fatigued after Tuesdays running, so we

increased the duration for Thursdays exercise.

As stated before, we had increased and decreased intensity as needed for the client. We may have started

at too high of weight for some of the exercises, which along with the repetitions performed, was a little

too much for my client and ended with soreness for the next session. We could have started a bit lighter

for some of the exercises so I could find a better starting point to go off of for the rest of the week, rather

than setting a weight for the whole week.

From this assignment have learned how to interact with a client even more than we have in Testing and

Prescription lab. With this, I interacted with my client about exercise history and had the chance to create

my own prescription for then from what I know. Before this, I never realized how hard and detailed it is

to create an exercise prescription, or what if feels like to be a personal trainer and put together a program.

Making this and showing my client new exercises and explaining to her how each one work and what

form is needed for each really helped me improve with my confidence in my work as well as allowed me

to put to use my knowledge that I have from the major thus far.