Prescribing Movement as Medicine

Prescribe movement with a focus on both immediate results and long-term health.

Developing realistic, sustainable, and adaptable client workout programs can seem like an overwhelming task. Prescribing Movement as Medicine: The Professional’s Guide to Exercise for Health and Longevity serves as a manual explaining the why and how behind building an exercise program to improve health and longevity.

Offering practical and tested methods for helping clients exercise consistently and effectively, this is a great resource for anyone building client programs, especially for clients who are not already active and who need help in establishing exercise as a habit. Dozens of ready-to-use exercises, drills, and assessments are provided:

• 17 mobility and flexibility drills
• 37 warm-up drills
• 7 assessments
• 38 power training exercises
• 69 strength training exercises
• 2 sample programs

Exploring physical activity, health, and chronic disease, this book initially establishes the need for lifelong thoughtful movement. Then it breaks down the components of a training program that are necessary to maintain optimal function as clients age.

Case studies featuring the author’s clients give insight into how concepts in the book are applied in a real-world context. Readers will explore the importance of including a variety of movement types in programming, including everyday physical activity, mobility and flexibility, power training, strength training, and cardiovascular training. These come together to make this an actionable resource for trainers and coaches who share the goal of creating engaging and flexible training programs for clients.

Prescribing Movement as Medicine is designed to aid trainers and coaches in helping clients build healthy, sustainable exercise habits to last a lifetime.

Earn continuing education credits/units! A continuing education exam that uses this book is also available. It may be purchased separately or as part of a package that includes both the book and exam.

Audience

Personal trainers, small group fitness coaches, and other health and fitness professionals who work with a general adult population.

Foreword by Ben Bruno

Part I. The Path to Longevity

Chapter 1. Roadblocks to Longevity

Chapter 2. The World’s Strongest Medicine

Part II. Low-Impact Movement for Longevity

Chapter 3. Everyday Physical Activity

Chapter 4. Mobility and Flexibility

Chapter 5. The Warm-Up

Part III. Essential Exercises for Longevity

Chapter 6. Power Training

Chapter 7. Strength Training

Chapter 8. Cardiovascular Training

Part IV. The Longevity Prescription

Chapter 9. Laying the Groundwork

Chapter 10. Designing a Program for Health and Longevity

Kevin Carr is a strength and conditioning coach and manager at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning (MBSC) as well as a massage therapist and cofounder of Movement as Medicine, a massage and movement therapy clinic in Woburn, Massachusetts. He is the creator of the Certified Functional Strength Coach certification. He has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a license in massage therapy from Cortiva Institute in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Carr amassed a wealth of experience in the field of sport performance and personal training while working at MBSC and has traveled all over the world to educate thousands of coaches and therapists about the MBSC coaching system. He has coached everyone from U.S. Olympians looking for a competitive edge to the average person looking to shed some pounds, move better, and improve their health.

“Kevin Carr has become one of the most trusted voices in the strength and conditioning world, and this book is a reflection of why. He has a unique ability to simplify complex concepts and turn them into practical strategies you can immediately apply. Whether you’re a coach, clinician, or athlete, this is a resource you’ll come back to time and time again.”

—Don Saladino, Coach and Consultant

“Most programming books teach you how to write the perfect program. Kevin teaches you how to get someone to actually do it. That’s the whole game. This is for anyone building client programs—especially the clients who aren’t already active and need help making exercise stick. Real-world and sustainable advice, written by someone who’s actually coached the people he’s writing about. If you want your clients still moving well decades from now, read it.”

—Alwyn Cosgrove, Co-owner of Results Fitness and Results Fitness University

“Kevin Carr is the real thing: a coach who actually coaches, day in and day out, with the people most books only talk about. He’s spent his career making complicated things simple and getting results that hold up. When Kevin presents, I’m in the room taking notes; when he writes something down, I read it. So should you.”

—Alwyn Cosgrove, Co-owner of Results Fitness and Results Fitness University

“If you want a blueprint for training when it comes to health and longevity, Kevin is your coach. He’s taken the science and applied it with real-world clients in a repeatable, proven system. This is an incredible resource for my team and coaches.”

—Luka Hocevar, Founder of Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance

“An absolute master class. This isn’t just theory. It’s a real-world road map for coaches striving to elevate their craft and deliver elite-level results for their clients.”

—Kelsey Heenan, Personal Trainer and Cofounder of HIITBurn