A comprehensive fitness assessment by an experienced CORE Fitness Certified Personal Trainer is the first step in planning your individualized CORE Fitness training program.  After you discuss your past medical history and your personal goals, you will undergo body composition testing, including weight, height, measurements, and body fat percentage. Then, you will have your posture analyzed, determine your “neutral” spine or “perfect posture”, and learn diaphragmatic breathing.  You will perform a Functional Movement Screen TM, which tests functional mobility, stability, and flexibility, and a Y-Balance Test  The objective is to identify asymmetries, imbalances, mobility/stability problems, and faulty movement patterns. Additional flexibility and balance tests will reinforce what we may have observed in your other tests.

If you experience any pain during the assessment, you will likely be referred to Kim Dare, PT, at Physical Therapy Connection  for an complimentary evaluation.  In an effort to provide you with the most effective and safest program, we have to know if there is an underlying injury.   After your assessment, we may recommend a specific shoe depending on your gait, mechanics, posture, and current activities.  If we find it necessary, you will be encouraged to go to Women’s Sports Specialty or Delaware Running Company for a specialized approach to getting the proper footwear. 

 Lastly, CORE Fitness will educate you on CORE Fitness’ training principles (functional training) and how to efficiently integrate them into your training and activities of daily living.   The fitness assessment is also an opportunity to build rapport with your trainer and for you to actively engage in your training.

For information on our golf specific evaluation, please click here.

OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE TRAINING

We integrate all components of fitness that are necessary for your optimum performance.  You will begin your workout with self- myofascial release in addition to an active and/or dynamic warm-up.  Based on your Functional Movement Screen, you will perform corrective exercises to improve a specific movement pattern, and they will be constantly re-evaluated.  Core stabilization is the first and most important step of training. 
 
Balance and Stability
Balance and stability have been proven to be very effective to train with efficiency.  The body’s stabilization has to function optimally to effectively utilize strength, power, neuromuscular control, and muscular endurance developed in the prime movers.

Body Weight Training
No matter who you are or what you do, most of life’s activities and athletics takes place on foot without external resistance.  Our bodies understand movement and develop motor patterns that permit us to overcome gravity using ground reaction and the mass and momentum of our bodies.  Teaching our neuromuscular system to control our bodyweight as an integrated unit through multiple planes, speeds, and magnitudes is the foundation for all training.  Bodyweight Training (BWT) reinforces strong motor programs and helps eliminate dysfunction.

Weight training is using any weighted implement to train the body to increase strength or power.  Implements can be barbells, weighted vests, body bars, dumbbells, bands, and many more.   The basic premise is that you are going to use an element of external resistance to take advantage of the overload principle.  The tool is not as important as the concept.

Weight training is typically done at least twice a week with a CORE Fitness Trainer.    Strength and power work with resistance (weight training) should always be preceded by a thorough, total body warm-up and ideally should be followed by some type of energy system work.

Additionally, speed and agility should be treated as a skill.  Speed is the rate at which something is done or occurs.  Agility is the ability to move our body quickly in many directions and speeds with great control and nimbleness.

REGENERATION AND RECOVERY

Regeneration and recovery are critical to your training program.  Reduced flexibility can be an indicator of poor recovery from a previous workout or athletic event.  Generalized stiffness and muscle fatigue can alter mobility and compromise movement patterns.  Therefore, at CORE Fitness, we will help you develop a routine that addresses your specific flexibility issues (markers).

Foam rolls are used for soft tissue work to desensitize the muscle prior to stretching. They can also help monitor limitations and track progress.  The “stick,” another self- roller massager, helps to relax and increase flexibility by increasing blood flow to the massaged area.  Foam rolling and stick can be helpful when trigger points are a problem but are also great when muscles are not fully recovered.

Static, active, and dynamic stretching are critical.  Lastly, a movement prep routine should be developed in an effort to increase the body’s awareness and control of its own center of mass while also improving vital postural strength by challenging the stability around the joints both statically and dynamically.

Cathy Servas, LMT, and CORE Fitness have paired up to help you excel in your training and further enhance your well-being. For more details, please click here.

ENHANCE YOUR LIFE:

CORE Fitness not only transforms your body, but it also provides a way you can  improve your everyday life.  CORE fitness’s intense focus on the muscles of your core - including abdominals, lower back, hips, and thighs – helps you to straighten your posture, eliminate aches and pains, sleep better, and approach everything you do with confidence and a positive attitude.  With CORE Fitness’ program you will develop more muscle mass, endurance, balance and flexibility, a tighter waist, and more strength; yet the biggest gain will be the ability to take charge of your life. CORE Fitness wants you to be excited about reaching your greatest potential and goals.  Along with fitness, CORE emphasizes nutrition in order to feed your muscles, lose fat, and feel energetic in your daily activities.  Nutrition along with the right exercise prescription pack power and life into your body so you can overcome all challenges.

Develops functional fitness essential to daily living and improves sports performance.

OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE TRAINING™

Designed exclusively by NASM, Optimum Performance Training™ (OPT™) is a systematic and integrated (total body) training, reconditioning and rehabilitation program that can be used with any client to reach any goal. By incorporating six components of training-flexibility, cardiorespiratory, core, balance, power and strength-into every program, the revolutionary and easy-to-use OPT™ method improves all biomotor abilities and builds high levels of functional strength, neuromuscular efficiency and dynamic flexibility.

Our proprietary method has been successful in training, reconditioning and rehabilitating elite, college, high school and recreational athletes alike. In addition to its effectiveness with athletes, OPT™ has also proven successful with the general health club population by decreasing body fat, increasing lean muscle mass and improving overall health. We've also seen marked results in specialized groups including cancer sufferers and survivors, pre- and post-natal clients, cardiac patients and sufferers of low-back pain.

OPT™ Methodology

Optimum Performance Training™
Until now, most training programs have been based almost entirely on the experiences and goals of bodybuilders, coaches and athletes. And the recent proliferation of scientifically unsupported training programs is not designed to meet the needs of our increasingly deconditioned and injury-prone society.

NASM's exclusive Optimum Performance Training™ (OPT™) method represents the industry's first and only comprehensive training program based on current scientific research that provides undisputed results specific to individual needs and goals.

Creating a new industry standard for success, OPT™ virtually eliminates programming and program-design guesswork for any fitness, sports-performance or sports-medicine professional. By following our systematic OPT™ method, our certified professionals now develop training, conditioning or rehabilitation programs scientifically proven to produce remarkable results.

By incorporating six types of training-flexibility, cardiorespiratory, core, balance, power and strength-into every program, the revolutionary and easy-to-use OPT™ method improves all biomotor abilities and builds high levels of functional strength, neuromuscular efficiency and dynamic flexibility.


Assessment
At the center of the OPT™ method is the assessment. All programs are designed based on a comprehensive and individualized kinetic chain assessment. This head-to-toe fitness and performance evaluation assesses an individual's strengths and weaknesses in the areas of posture, movement, strength, flexibility and athletic performance. Before embarking on a training program, it is essential to correct any existing imbalances to ensure success.

Individualized Program Design
The OPT™ method provides an easy-to-use system for exercise selection based on the client's needs, abilities and goals. The endless choices of exercises and the unique progressions keep every program fun, dynamic and, most importantly, successful. The following Pyramid of Success represents the various stages of the revolutionary OPT™ method.

Designed exclusively by NASM, Optimum Performance Training™ (OPT™) is a systematic and integrated (total-body) training, reconditioning and rehabilitation program that can be used with any person. By incorporating six types of training-flexibility, cardiorespiratory, core, balance, power and strength-into every program, the OPT method improves all biomotor abilities and builds high levels of functional strength, neuromuscular efficiency and dynamic flexibility.

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