As somebody relatively new to personal training I have a lot of difficulty understanding what would be a good starting point for somebody new, specially with more compound lifts like the squat and RDLs. Testing 1RM seems to me to be too dangerous for a beginner (maybe I'm overestimating the dangers?) and at submaximal efforts I have problems assessing what's the real RPE. Does somebody have general advice? How do you make a first assessment with compound lifts?

I'm looking for papers or other type of resources about that topic.

this one’s for all the other PT’s out there. while I agree with Angus that we are not obligated to formally assess clients, many of the clients in my context come to me expecting some sort of assessment, so I’ve built it into my first session with them. my “assessment” movements look like this — rotational MB throw skipping crawling (usually bear crawl) goblet squat max output assault bike generally throw some pogos at them in that first session as well, or some type of two legged jumping. what I like about each of these is that none are high skill, so they allow for me to see how the client self-organizes their technique, and all can be taken to a pretty high level of output in a safe manner. these movement can also be used to reevaluate progress fairly easily, so make for good benchmark movements to include in your programming. also is a great tool for prospecting on the gym floor as you can walk someone through a 15 min “workout” that includes all of these, give them a good workout, and be able to tell them a lot about how they move (makes ya seem like a wizard).

Apps, youtube channels, books. Whatever works. Leave your recommendations below :)

I’ve recently started doing more metcon classes with gen pop clients - has anyone got any resource recommendations to learn more about programming these sort of sessions?