The Client-Centered Exercise Prescription continuing education course teaches fitness professionals how to develop exercise programs for each of their client’s unique and changing needs. The programming models presented include activity counseling, cardiovascular conditioning, resistance training, weight management, exercise design, and program demonstration and modification, as well as the much-neglected area of assessment and treatment for muscle balance. The program explains the vital role that muscle balance plays in maintaining musculoskeletal health and teaches how to recognize and treat muscle imbalance before it causes serious damage. Reproducible worksheets—ranging from informational forms for clients to checklists and prescription cards for professionals—facilitate the use of the models to make exercise prescription easy and precise.

The step-by-step programming models include information on activity counseling as well as client motivation and address the following issues:

• Establishing rapport and increasing adherence by prescribing exercise programs that match clients’ desires, needs, and lifestyles
• Understanding clients’ unique psychological needs and using that information to keep them motivated and on track
• Integrating principles and strategies for client-centered assessment and prescription that will enable fitness professionals to address and monitor clients’ needs both as they are originally presented and as they evolve over time
• Detailing the competencies of exercise demonstration, design modification, and follow-up monitoring
• Applying strategies for treating and preventing overuse injuries so that clients avoid injury and frustration, thereby avoiding withdrawal from the program

The Client-Centered Exercise Prescription course is an outstanding resource for all professionals interested in learning to prescribe exercise for each client’s unique and changing needs. The course clearly presents a unique, personalized approach to prescribing exercise and to helping clients adopt, enjoy, and maintain active lifestyles.