Introduction: Welcome to the Women’s Fitness Specialization
The Women’s Fitness Specialization (WFS) is a comprehensive program for fitness professionals delivered in an immersive online experience. Highlighted are the WFS program learning objectives, how to interact with the course features, and how to earn the NASM-WFS credential.
Chapter 1: Current Status of Women’s Health
Each stage in a woman's life comes with its challenges and benefits. We’ll examine the unique physical and medical aspects of biological women to help be more aware of these stages, women-specific health issues, potential risk factors, and how these may affect exercise programming and goal setting.
Chapter 2: Neuromuscular, Skeletal, Cardiorespiratory, and Endocrine Considerations
An overview of the changes that happen to a woman’s body throughout her lifespan (puberty, pregnancy, and menopause).
Chapter 3: Hormones and Weight Control
Get an up-close look at metabolism, regulating hormones, and unique aspects of a woman’s physiology to understand weight concerns.
Chapter 4: Pregnancy and Postnatal Considerations
A close look at the physiological and anatomical considerations when working with pregnant and postnatal clients. It will also cover exercise modifications based on these changes.
Chapter 5: Menopause Considerations
A review of the physiological and anatomical considerations of perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause, and exercise modification strategies for common symptoms.
Chapter 6: Fitness Assessments for Women
Understand the components of fitness assessments, how to implement both subjective and objective assessments, and also review assessment modifications for prenatal and menopausal clients.
Chapter 7: Flexibility Training for Women
This chapter unpacks the rationale behind flexibility training for women and the guidelines for training methods, including precautions for pregnant and postnatal clients.
Chapter 8: Cardiorespiratory Training for Women
We look over the benefits of cardiorespiratory training that helps women maintain optimal health and manage the dynamics of a changing body throughout their lifespan.
Chapter 9: Core, Balance, Plyometric, and SAQ Training for Women
Bring the importance of core, balance, plyometric (reactive), and SAQ training techniques to the forefront.
Chapter 10: Resistance Training for Women
See why resistance training and weightlifting is a vital component of women's exercise programming while understanding how to apply training guidelines and modifications to help clients achieve their goals.
Chapter 11: Integrated Program Design for Women
This chapter shows you how to take the information identified through the assessment process and design safe and effective progressive programs to meet the needs and wants of your female clients utilizing NASM’s OPT™ Model.
Chapter 12: Nutrition Guidelines for Women
See how important of a role nutrition plays for women across their lifespan through general nutritional guidelines and considerations for this population while staying within a fitness professional’s scope of practice.
Chapter 13: Psychological and Motivational Considerations
Explore the psychological and motivational elements to consider when working with women in a health and fitness setting. Additionally, techniques for implementing effective communication, maximizing goal setting, and improving motivation will be discussed.
Chapter 14: Business and Professionalism
We’ll break down the business and ethical responsibilities of a WFS while exploring how to market and sell these services.
Final Exam
After the completion of the course, you will take an online final exam from the comfort of your own home or wherever you prefer to take tests. The exam consists of 100 questions and there is a time limit of 90 minutes. You must pass with a score of 70% or better.
