New gym training

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 431, 7 April 1992, Page 12

New gym training

Charles Mareikura and Siegfried Bauer of the Ruapehu Health and Fitness Centre gym recently attended an intensive weekend course in resistance training held in Auckland by the Fitness Leader Network. Fitness Leader Network is renown for its training programmes for the fitness industry and also recommended by the Hillary Commission for Sports and Recreation. The course covered the theoretical and practical

aspects of resistance training. Participants were shuttled between lecture and weight rooms where methods and techniques were demonstrated and practised. Subjects like anatomy and physiology, special consideration for children and the elderly, women's weight training, safe and effective stretching, overloading and other topics were dealt with. Demonstrations and lectures were shared be-

tween Garry Leong (director of Fitness Leader Network) and Mark Sutherland, a high profile coach and fitness specialist who works with national and international athletes up to Olympic level such as canoeists Ian Fergenson and Paul McDonald and others. The pair found the course very stimulating and informative. Normally they train and instruct in relative isolation and benefited from being with fitness professionals from the main centres. They discovered that their basic training

methods were sound but some adjustments are being made due to latest research findings and better methods learned in this course. Mr Mareikura is looking forward to implementing the 'special consideration for the elderly' theme in the "Fitness over 50" course he is to conduct soon at the Ruapehu Health and Fitness Centre gym, Ohakune. It is also hoped that sports teams and individual athletes as well as the wider community will make more use of the gym's facilities.