Title: Fitness Professional’s Handbook, 7th Edition
Authors: Edward T. Howley & Dixie L. Thompson
Publisher: Human Kinetics Australia, ISBN: 9781492523376
Details: Hardback, 592pp + web resources
RRP: $179.00 OR $143.20 when you use the code HK20 to SAVE 20% at the checkout HERE.
PLEASE NOTE: Human Kinetics has a new Australian distributor, so purchases are now made via a different website than you may previously have visited.
Review by Tony Boutagy
The Fitness Professional’s Handbook – now in its seventh edition – remains the one-stop reference book of choice for personal trainers and those working in the fitness industry. I used the 2nd edition in the 1990’s while studying sport science at university and have, for two decades, recommended every edition since to students studying to become personal trainers and to those trainers who were looking for the best reference text covering everything they ever wanted to know! The Fitness Professional’s Handbook has no equal in its comprehensive chapters of material covering all aspects of information required by those in the fitness industry.
The twenty chapters, spanning an impressive 572 pages, are divided into six sections:
(1) Physical activity and its relationship to health, fitness and performance.
(2) The scientific foundations of fitness and health, with individual chapters covering anatomy and biomechanics, exercise physiology, nutrition and energetics.
(3) Fitness assessments, detailing testing cardiorespiratory fitness, assessing body composition, measuring muscular strength/endurance and flexibility (with special reference to low back pain).
(4) Exercise prescription with five chapters covering the prescription of exercise for cardiovascular fitness, weight management, strength, flexibility and low back function, and sports performance.
(5) Special populations, outlining the considerations for children and youth, the elderly, women, cardiac patients, the obese, diabetics and those with pulmonary disease.
(6) Other programming issues, such as behavioural change, cardiac physiology, injury prevention and management and legal considerations.
Each chapter is written by a leading authority on the topic and a real highlight of the text is how user-friendly and learning-oriented the chapters are. Each chapter has a Key Point and Section Summary boxes to reinforce the targeted learning material, and concludes with Review Questions and Case Studies. There are numerous graphs and illustrations to further explain the material.
The seventh edition of the Fitness Professional’s Handbook is a highly recommended resource for all those working in the fitness industry (or studying to become a trainer), as it is the most up-to-date, comprehensive one-stop book that covers every topic ever needed by a personal trainer.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
