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Fitness buff Ahmed Mazen Alumran is aiming to bridge the gap between brains and brawn by becoming a ‘strength and conditioning specialist’ so that he can help educate the kingdom’s active youngsters and athletes about the importance of proper training.
The 25-year-old engineer from Zinj recently completed the course at the University of Bahrain, under the tutelage of fitness guru Khaled Alnaser.
This six-month course applies the use of scientific knowledge to improve athletes’ performance. It is approved by the National Strength and Conditioning Association in America and was created by Kinetik Sports Items to prepare Ahmed and other future professionals for the examination, which was held on Saturday.
Ahmed is now waiting on his certification, which will enable him to design, administer and supervise training programmes to help improve athletic performance and reduce the likelihood of injury.
Ahmed said: “I have always been what my friends and family refer to as ‘a healthy-kind of-guy’. I spent a lot of time at the gym and playing sports while growing up, but I never had a full knowledge as to how our bodies work and what the right methods are to strengthen and condition ourselves.
“When I heard about this course, I knew it was my calling. I do believe that more strength and conditioning coaches are needed in Bahrain. I hope to introduce a new kind of training not just to athletes, but to our society in general.
“Most schools use physical education as a fun hour of playing football or other sports, where, in fact, in my opinion they should be teaching and educating kids about the importance of training and exercising in a safe way.
“We need to start educating them from a young age and offer them that opportunity to veer their future careers towards sports, health and fitness, if they wish. Most kids in our society appear to be forced into accepting desk-bound positions because they’ve never had the opportunity or right education to discover different career options.
“Also, many people believe that playing football, or any other sport for that matter, is a kind of workout that helps train you to get fitter and stronger. But the fact is most injuries are caused by this misconception.
“People should use strength and conditioning to improve their performance when playing, even if it’s just for fun, and also to prevent injury. Even simple stretching is often misunderstood.”
According to the American Kinesiology Association, strength and conditioning coaches differ from personal trainers and instructors as the clients they work with are focused on improving their performance or skill in a particular sport.
Strength coaches improve an athlete’s performance in speed, strength, and power. Conditioning coaches develop systematic training programmes for both teams and individual athletes, often working in close association with specialist coaches.
Ahmed says that every sport requires a different training method since each has different movements. For example, a marathon runner does not have to change directions quickly like a football player.
“Training for one sport, may not make you better at performing another and many injuries are caused because of this,” he explained. “When understanding these aspects, strength and conditioning professionals can design programmes and select exercises that are more sport specific. This allows the body to familiarise itself with these movements and essentially prevent itself from getting injured.”
Mr Alnaser, CEO of Kinetik, a company which supplies strength and conditioning equipment and related educational services, said his students learn scientific foundations, including anatomy and the psychology of athletes, as well as exercises such as resistance training and other applications.
For details, email umran5657@gmail.com or call 39428428.
