Interested in advancing your fitness education? Due to the many requests for internships, recommended reading and evidence-based education, the Bayesian Bodybuilding team has developed a comprehensive educational course on the science and practice of personal training. You will learn the full Bayesian Bodybuilding methodology and become a Certified Bayesian Personal Trainer if you pass the exam.

Page lay-out

• Who is it for?
• Overview
• Course outline
• What does it cost?
• How do I sign up?
• Reviews
• FAQ

Who is it for?

The course is primarily aimed at personal trainers and other fitness professionals that coach clients or aspire to coach clients with the goal of muscle growth, fat loss or strength development. Health and psychology will also be discussed in detail. You don’t have to be a personal trainer to join the course: many non-professionals have already followed the course simply for the sake of self-improvement and their personal education.

Overview

The course is fully online, with the exception of a physical meet-up that will be recorded for those that can’t attend. The course covers the science and practice of strength training, muscle hypertrophy, strength development and fat loss. Health and psychology will also be discussed in detail.

• Become an official Certified Bayesian Personal Trainer if you pass the exam. The Latin honors system is applied to the exam and your certificate.
• Have your personal training services featured and promoted on Bayesian Bodybuilding (for free).
• Extensive recommended reading lists.
• Videos and articles on a new topic every week (see course outline below).
• Q&A sessions.
• Client case studies of Menno Henselmans’s clients, such as the full program of a national powerlifting champion and an IFBB Pro physique athlete. You can also submit case studies of your own clients or yourself to be analyzed.
• Unlimited access to Menno Henselmans’s inbox for questions.
• A Facebook discussion group where you can ask questions and discuss best practices with the other class members. Feedback shows most members experience networking with the world’s evidence-based fitness community as a major benefit to being in the course. However, if you want to remain anonymous, you can simply create an empty Facebook account to participate in the group.

Curriculum Bayesian Bodybuilding

Week 1

• Do-it-yourself science & Bayesian reasoning
• Optimizing macros: protein intake

Week 2

• Optimizing macros: carbohydrate intakeDietary fiber
• Optimizing macros: fat intake

Week 3

• Customizing the diet to an individual, including carb tolerance testing
• Ketogenic dieting: a complete overview

Week 4

• Human metabolismWhat is energy? Thermodyamics and energy balance
• Determinants of energy expenditure, refeeds, set-point theory, metabolic damage, adaptive thermogenesis, reverse dieting and the yo-yo effect

Week 5

• Optimizing caloric intake: cutting, bulking and body recompositionCut or bulk?
• Tracking progresWeight vs. body composition
• How to measure body fat percentage
• How to track your macros

Week 6

• Nutrient timing IIntermittent fasting & alternate day fasting
• Meal frequency
• Circadian rhythm effects

Week 7

• Nutrient timing IIFasted training
• Workout nutrition and the anabolic window

Weeks 8

• Nutrition case studies and Q&As (reduced study load for the holiday period)

Week 9

• Understanding how muscle growsNeural and morphological adaptations to strength training
• Mechanisms of muscle growth
• Strength vs. size
• Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy
• Cardio for fat loss

Week 10

• Optimal training program design: volume, frequency and intensity

Week 11

• Interindividual variability: why there’s no one-size-fits-all programAutoregulation & muscle-specific hypertrophy
• Work capacity
• Gender specific programming: including contraception, pregnancy, the menstrual cycle and other female specific topics
• Age specific programming: the elderly and youth

Week 12

• The fitness lifestyleCircadian rhythm control
• Optimizing sleep quality
• Stress management

Week 13

• Optimizing your exercise selectionAccommodating resistance: biomechanics, bands and chains
• Exercise selection reference list
• Counting volume: how much does a certain exercise stimulate a certain muscle?
• Training in a home gym

Week 14

• Repetition tempo
• Exercise techniqueInternal vs. external cueing
• The mind-muscle connection

Week 15

• Rest intervalsActive recovery
• Optimizing your exercise orderingCircuit training, (antagonistic) supersets and paired sets

Week 16

• Advanced training techniques for muscle hypertrophyTraining to failure, forced reps and drop sets
• RPEs and autoregulation
• Reverse pyramiding, cluster sets and myo-reps
• Weighted stretching
• Eccentric emphasized training/eccentric overloading
• Post-activation potentiation
• KAATSU/blood flow restriction training

Weeks 17-18

• Note: Reduced study load during the holiday period.
• Periodization and progressionCybernetic/autoregulatory, undulating and linear periodization
• Benchmarking and autoregulation
• What is fatigue?
• Overtraining, overreaching and deloading
• Autoregulatory Volume Training and Reactive Deloading

Week 19

• Training program case studies and Q&A

Week 20

• Injury management and flexibility trainingInjury diagnosis, treatment and active recovery
• Pain science
• Ice vs. heat, NSAIDs and RICE
• Rehabilitative equipment: braces, sleeves, tape, etc.
• Stretching
• Foam rolling and massage
• Chiropractic
• Warming up and cooling down
• Common injuries of each body part

Week 21

• Client compliance and program adherence: the psychology of how to stick to your diet and exercise programPsychological effects of nutrition
• Goal setting
• Client empowerment
• Cheat meals
• Food cravings
• Assessing client adherence and motivation

Week 22

• Ad libitum dieting: how to lose fat and gain muscle without tracking your macrosHunger management

Week 23

• Training gearWeightlifting belts
• Footwear: what to wear in the gym
• Knee wraps
• Lifting straps

Week 24

• Health science and food choicesWhat makes a diet healthy?
• Effects of food processing
• Organic food
• Cholesterol
• Saturated fat
• Low calorie sweeteners, sugar and dietary fiber
• Food choices for health and anabolismMeat, fish and poultry
• Dairy and eggs
• Grains, wheat and gluten
• Soy
• Fruit and vegetables

Week 25

• Supplements: a complete guide
• Beyond macros: micronutritionHow to fill in your micros
• Micronutrients in detail: which
• An objective look at anabolic androgenic steroids: costs and benefitsUnderstanding hormones

Week 26

• Contest prep and peak week protocols: how to perfect your physique for a contest or photoshootCarbloading
• Sodium and electrolyte manipulation
• Diuretics and water cutting
• ‘Shitloading’