Personal Fitness Professional - June 2008 - (Page 17)

ucce uccess J LIMITING YOUR LIABILITY AND COVERING YOUR ASSETS INSURING ··· BY SCOTT PULLEN • Start and progress slowly — Let your client know from day one that you are not going to kill them. It takes time to “learn” a client and determine the most eﬀective way to train them. Making someone sore takes no talent. • Stress the importance of proper warm-up and cooldown — Dr. Anthony Abbott, FACSM, owner of Fitness Institute International, Inc. and a frequent expert witness in trainer lawsuits says that of the 40 or so cases he has dealt with, 26 deaths occurred. Of these deaths, many were attributed to cardiac arrest due to blood pooling, a problem often encountered with insuﬃcient cool-down. • Get insurance — For around $180 a year, you can be covered against unseen events that could potentially wipe you out. ﬂoor can be tripped over or toes stubbed upon. Toss frayed or cut tubing in the trash. Control the things you can control. and AED care is simply the price of admission. Certiﬁcation does not insulate you from legal action. • Set up and use proper assessment, screening and testing protocols — PAR-Q is designed to clear someone for moderate exercise only by ACSM standards. Many trainers subject clients to workouts that signiﬁcantly exceed this and are vigorous, by ACSM standards. • Know your limits — Being a trainer does not make you a doctor. Know when a client is not appropriate for you to train and requires you to refer them out to a more qualiﬁed health care professional by employing the above recommendation of proper screening, assessment, etc. Have a network of professionals that you have met and interviewed that you can refer clients to. Look for those professionals that share a similar belief in diet and exercise. Also, these contacts can increase your learning tremendously. • Make sure your training area and equipment are in good working order and clean — Eliminate any possibility of stupid accidents. Things that can roll will. Weights on the Know Your Insurance Not all insurance plans are similar. A discussion with Bob Kuchefski, an agent with Hoﬀmann Insurance Services, Inc., illuminated the two types of broad coverage: occurrence and claim. An occurrence policy covers any occurrence that takes place during the time the insured had the coverage, even if the claim is made years down the road. With a claims policy, the trainer is essentially covered while they have the policy, and that is it. So if a claim was made two years after the end of your coverage period for an event that took place during the coverage period, you are out of luck. Mr. Kuchefski also pointed out that trainers should know what type of coverage the policy includes. Some may only cover the trainer in a professional gym setting, and anything outside of that is excluded. Dr. Abbott recalled a case where a trainer was running outside with his client, and the client was struck by a car. The trainer’s insurance did not cover this environment. Dr. Abbott brought up an instance where a client exceeded the weight recommendations of his trainer on a lift done on his own. Realizing he had no health insurance, he brought suit against the trainer. If training correctly can ﬁnd you in a lawsuit, ensure you are not providing fodder for litigation. INSURANCE RESOURCES · FITNESS AND WELLNESS INSURANCE AGENCY www.fwidirect.com 800.395.8075, ext. 132 · K&K INSURANCE GROUP, INC. www.kandkinsurance.com 800.506.4856 · SPORTS & FITNESS INSURANCE CORPORATION www.sportsﬁtness.com 800.844.0536, ext. 2232 or 2293 Scott Pullen, MS, NASM-CPT, CES, graduated from Texas Tech University with a Human Nutrition and Dietetics degree and has a Masters in Rehab Sciences from California University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in post-rehab, corrective exercise and performance enhancement and athletic conditioning. Contact him at nasmscott@cox.net. ● JUNE-JULY2008 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM 17 http://www.fwidirect.com http://www.kandkinsurance.com http://www.sports?tness.com http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - June 2008

Personal Fitness Professional - June 2008 Contents Letter From the Editor, Writers To Franchise Or Not To Franchise? Current Controversies Insuring Success Case Study Exercise Spotlights Raising Rates Through Better Session Design Mark Your Calendar The Perfect Ad The Movement Triad Exercise Spotlights Product Profile New on the Market Spotlight: Brian Boyle

Personal Fitness Professional - June 2008

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