Outdoor Fitness with Tina Vindum

Fresh Air

IDEA Personal Trainer Magazine

Developing outdoor training programs can enrich your client’s exercise experience and provide an additional revenue stream for your business.

To Be Certified or Not to Be Certified?

One person who strongly believes in outdoor training certification is Tina Vindum, founder of Outdoor Action Fitness in the San Francisco area. Also and IDEA presenter and ACE-Faculty Member and certified trainer, Vindum created the Outdoor Action Fitness Certification for fitness professionals.  She charges $269 (plus $30 for materials) for the extensive 2-day, 12 hour workshop, which includes lectures and hands-on physical training experience. Upon successful completion of the written and practical exam, participants obtain a certificate of completion (1.0 ACE CECs) for the Outdoor Action Fitness Level I Workshop.

Why does Vindum, a former world-champion mountain biker, see the need for an outdoor training certification? “We see more and more people take to outdoor and boot-camp-style training,” she points out. “There are no set standards or guidelines for fitness professionals who want to teach in the outdoors.” Vindum claims to have both witnessed accidents and heard horrific stories involving people seriously injured in boot camps and other outdoor training pursuits. In contrast, she has seen only one sprained ankle in her program since starting in 1995.

The Outdoor Action Fitness course prepares trainers for many types of outdoor terrain, whether Manhattan’s Central Park, a Kansas corn field, a Colorado mountain peak or a sunny Southern California beach. The program also teaches how to create, structure, and administer a safe, effective and time-efficient program.

“Outdoor training is a wonderful way to augment a trainer’s indoor programming,” says Vindum, who also trains clients privately for approximately $85 per session. She believes that, if a trainer (or fitness club) offers outdoor fitness in addition to indoor training, the trainer will both gain and retain clients.

Another reason Vindum created her certification program is to help trainers who struggle with structuring outdoor programs and setting up their businesses to include outdoor sessions. Her program provides information on scouting locations, spotting, exercise form, communication, terrain issues, bugs, poisonous plants, weather factors and proper clothing.

To learn more about Outdoor Fitness Instructor Training head to http://www.OutdoorFitness.com and click on the “Instructor link