Health and Fitness are only two of the many different words used to describe people's physiological condition. The Health and Fitness industry is not a clearly defined industry, for it includes many aspects, and it overlaps onto many other fields, such a medicine, sports, recreation, tourism, education and so on. As you commence this course, your perception of the scope of this field may be limited, but by the time you complete the course, your perspective will have broadened considerably. Your ability to identify prospects for employment, and to pursue those that suit you, will have also broadened.

Many different services and products are on offer, all promising to improve or maintain the state of person's wellbeing. They include such different things as medical services, sport, recreation services, food, and natural therapies. Any and all of these goods and services can be considered to be part of the health and fitness industry.

Job opportunities in health and fitness are equally varied. The following are just some of the organisations/businesses that might employ people with management skills in the health and fitness industry:

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Health and Fitness
2. Exercise Physiology
3. Exercise Principles and Cardiorespiratory Programming
4. Biomechanics and Risk
5. Fitness Program Design
6. Delivering a Fitness Program
7. Safety, Injury and General Wellbeing
8. Fitness Programs for Special Groups

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

• To explain the nature of the health and fitness industries.
• To explain the relationship between the body and health, fitness & exercise, with reference to physiological processes.
• To explain the relationship between the body and health, fitness & exercise, with respect to risk involved in exercise.
• To evaluate body movements during different exercises.
• To design fitness programs, which are both safe and effective, to fulfil specified requirements of an individual.
• To deliver a fitness program to a small group of clients.
• To manage the wellbeing of participants in a fitness program, including safety and injury.
• To design fitness programs, which are both safe and effective, catering to needs of special populations (including weight control programs and programs for handicapped/disabled persons).

• Explain the philosophical basis of health and fitness in a workplace you are familiar with, explain legal implications of providing fitness services in a gymnasium in your locality and explain official systems of accreditation, registration, and licensing which relate to providing services in the health and fitness industries, on a local, state or national basis.
• Explain the status of professionalism, in the health and fitness industry and develop guidelines for ethical behaviour of staff in a health and fitness industry workplace.
• Explain a physiological response to a balanced exercise program over a period of months, in an adult who has not regularly exercised for many years (i.e. what happens to the adult over the time period of the exercise).
• Explain the mechanics of body movement during three different exercises, using illustrations.
• Apply the principles of training, to design an exercise program to suit your lifestyle, resources and aims and design instructions, for two different series of stretching routines, for different purposes.