Course Description & Instructor Bio

This is the foundational course for Exercise Professional Education.

It is 108 hours of live course delivery covering everything from how to meet an individual in your community and determine if they are a qualified candidate for your service, to all of the technical information for gathering the critical data to analyze and make a decision about where to begin working and planning that work, and then developing a lifelong client relationship managing that individual’s exercise and muscle system health.

There simply is no other course like it on the market.

Instructor Bio

Greg Mack’s earliest experiences in the fitness industry inform the current perspective offered in this course. Greg attended the 2^nd Annual IDEA Personal Training Summit in Washington, D.C. in 1991. Jeff Bensky, Ph.D, an Educational Psychologist, who at the time was President of the Benfield Group, delivered one of the continuing education workshops. Dr. Bensky was presenting demographic research in the area of healthcare that was summarizing some of the issues surrounding the emerging “baby boomer” population and their interests regarding managing their health. One of the research points revealed was that this population wanted their personal trainer to coordinate their exercise programming with their doctors. Greg took this to heart, got certified as a personal trainer through the American Council of Exercise, built a business plan, and raised money for a company he operates to this day called Physicians Fitness. The fundamental idea driving this company was to do what Dr. Bensky’s research recommended. For the last 32 years, the Physicians Fitness exercise specialists have been working to partner and collaborate with the medical community. This proved to be a controversial process as the medical community’s highly defined, and rigorous, academic requirements – and its legislated scope of practice, with its own language – and the hierarchical inter-practitioner relationships, did not readily match up with the academic process (or lack thereof), language, and the absence of legal standing of personal trainers and exercise professionals.

The medical-fitness relationship was, and continues to be, difficult to establish and maintain given the professional turf issues and non-clinical status of the personal trainer. Finding someone with the formal training to meet the exercise needs of those individuals who have been diagnosed, and treated, by the medical community who still have health issues that are affected, or could be exacerbated by exercise was, and continues to be, a real challenge.

As Founder and CEO, Greg’s vision for Exercise Professional Education were shaped over 30 years ago while working as a lay assistant to physicians in a sports medicine clinic. It was during this tenure that he noticed the unfortunate reality that most of the patients of the clinic were there as a result of poor physical conditioning. He observed that the patient base consisted of individuals who would return to the clinic for treatment of re-injury to a problem area, or the development of new symptoms, due to compensation patterns created by the original pathophysiology. The medical and chiropractic staff encouraged these patients to participate in exercise and fitness programs but did not have the time or resources to effectively assess, develop, and implement a safe, individualized exercise plan to improve their muscle function and health. That’s when he decided to start Physicians Fitness (www.physiciansfitness.com) Since then Greg is also a co-founder and partner in the Muscle System Consortia LLC, (www.musclesystemconsortia.com) an education and research company dedicated to creating and teaching a more mature and comprehensive understanding of the dynamic nature of skeletal muscle and its influence on the other body systems in order to appreciate its vital contribution to lifelong human health and performance, ultimately changing the world’s perspective on its care, use, and maintenance.

His experience in working in such diverse venues as community gyms and medical practices enhanced his awareness of the wide gulf that exists between the medical community and fitness facilities, particularly for those individuals trying to recover from and manage a diagnosed disease. This led to the development of a comprehensive documentation and communication system that coordinates fitness programs for individuals with diagnosed diseases from the medical community, the core of Physicians Fitness operations.

As a graduate of the US Navy’s Nuclear Engineering School with an emphasis in Mechanical Engineering and a qualified US Navy Diver, Greg uses his foundation of practical engineering knowledge and skills, his enthusiasm for exercise, academic certifications ACE- Personal Trainer (CPFT), ACE-Medical Exercise Specialist (CMES) (American Council on Exercise), and Resistance Training Specialist Mastery (resistancetrainingspecialist.com) – and his experiences working with a wide variety of medical professionals (e.g. physical therapists, chiropractors, pain specialists, internal medicine physicians, physiatrists, psychologists) to develop the philosophy and methodologies that constitute the Muscle System Specialist ™ Training and Certification Program.

Greg has taught courses for several industry education companies on topics ranging from functional musculoskeletal anatomy, manual muscle testing, biomechanics, selling philosophy and methodology, physical assessment, decision-making, and science-based methodologies in muscle and motor control assessment and data interpretation. He has written articles as well as published in IDEA Personal Trainer Magazine, American Fitness Quarterly, Body Conditioning Magazine, IDEA Health and Fitness Source Magazine, and The American Journal of Medicine and Sports.

He achieved the “Master Level” designation as a personal fitness professional from IDEA (www.ideafit.com). Greg received the IDEA International Personal Trainer of the Year Award for the year 2003 and was the Chairman of the IDEA Personal Trainer Committee, an influential body steering important issues related to fitness professionals.