Fit Education October Fitness News

Welcome to our October Newsletter

Spring is well and truly here, the weather is warming up, and people are getting moving! ☀️

As the warmer months roll in, more people start thinking about getting back into exercise, setting new goals and feeling their best, and that can often mean looking for the support of a great trainer to help get them there.

This month’s newsletter is packed with ideas and inspiration to help you support those clients. We’re putting the glutes in the spotlight as our Muscle of the Month, taking a closer look at beef as our Food of the Month, and exploring the powerful connection between nutrition and mental wellbeing with psychiatrist Drew Ramsey in Feed Your Mental Health.

We’re also celebrating our amazing Fit Education graduate, Natalie, who has taken out the AusActive Personal Trainer of the Year award, a fantastic achievement and a great example of where the right education, passion and commitment can take you.

And if nutrition is an area you’d like to add to your professional toolkit, now is a great time to think about our Practitioner Certificate in Nutrition. We’ve included a snippet from the text book Fixing a Broken Diet, which highlights important considerations for the Nutritionist when prescribing a diet plan.

With Christmas fast approaching, completing your Nutrition qualification now could have you ready to confidently support clients through the busy New Year period when motivation is high and many people are setting fresh health and fitness goals.

So grab a cuppa, have a read and get inspired for the season ahead. There’s plenty happening in the world of fitness, and plenty of opportunity to help people make positive changes. 💪

The Fit Education Team

Muscle of the Month

The Gluteal Muscles

When it comes to glute training, bigger weights don’t necessarily mean better results. One of the most common mistakes is allowing momentum or other muscles to take over, particularly during exercises such as hip thrusts, squats and lunges. As a coach, watch for clients rushing through the movement, losing control of their pelvis or relying on their lower back to complete the exercise. Good technique should always come before adding more load.

Coaching Cue: Encourage clients to think about driving through the floor and finishing the movement by squeezing the glutes, rather than simply moving the weight from A to B. During hip thrusts and glute bridges, remind clients to keep their ribs controlled and avoid excessive arching through the lower back at the top. The goal is to achieve strong hip extension while maintaining control of the pelvis.

Another common mistake is assuming that every glute exercise needs to look like a squat or hip thrust. The gluteal muscles contribute to several different movements, including hip extension, abduction and external rotation, so variety can help challenge them in different ways. Exercises such as lateral band walks, step-ups, Romanian deadlifts, split squats, single-leg bridges and abduction machine can all provide different challenges while also helping clients develop strength and control. Check out how to do a lateral band walk here.

Coach’s Tip: Don’t just watch the weight, watch the movement! A client performing a lighter load with excellent control and a full, comfortable range of motion may be getting far more from the exercise than someone lifting heavier with poor technique. Remember, your role as a coach is to help clients understand how to move, not simply how much they can lift.

Food of the Month

Beef

Beef can be an excellent protein choice, but when you’re watching your calorie intake, the cut you choose can make a big difference. Beef cuts vary considerably in their fat content, with visible fat and marbling contributing to the overall energy content. Choosing leaner cuts such as eye fillet, topside, silverside, round or trimmed rump can give you plenty of high-quality protein without adding as much fat and energy to your meal. But leaner doesn’t have to mean less enjoyable, it often just means you need to choose the right cooking method.

This is where understanding your cuts becomes useful. Tender, lean cuts are generally best cooked quickly over high heat, such as grilling, pan-frying or barbecuing. Overcooking them can cause them to become dry and tough, so don’t be afraid to keep an eye on cooking time. Cuts with more connective tissue, such as chuck, brisket and shin, are different. They benefit from low-and-slow cooking, which allows the connective tissue to break down and produces tender, flavourful meat. Knowing how a cut responds to cooking can make a big difference to the final result.

And what about those little white flecks you see running through a steak? That’s marbling, or intramuscular fat. Marbling can contribute to tenderness, juiciness and flavour, but it also adds fat and therefore calories. This is one reason two steaks of a similar size can have quite different nutritional profiles. If you’re choosing beef for a calorie-controlled diet, looking for a leaner, well-trimmed cut can be a simple way to manage your overall energy intake while still enjoying beef as a valuable source of protein, iron, zinc and vitamin B12.

Fit Ed Food Tip: Don’t just look for the leanest piece of meat, learn how to cook it! A lean steak cooked quickly and carefully can be incredibly tender and flavourful. Try marinating leaner cuts, slicing them thinly for stir-fries, or using them in tacos, salads and rice bowls. Choosing a lean cut and cooking it well means you don’t have to sacrifice flavour to support your nutrition goals.

Want to learn more about nutrition? – Click here

Upcoming Events

We offer a range of events that cater to a wide range of students and delivers across Australia. These events range from First Aid and CPR to Teacher Professional Development Days. You can register for any of these events directly from this page.

Job Board

Don’t forget to visit our Jobs Board regularly to stay up to date with the latest employment opportunities. With the Brisbane Olympics fast approaching, the industry is continuing to grow, and demand for qualified professionals is on the rise. Now is the perfect time to get qualified, gain valuable experience, and kick start an exciting career.

Graduate Spotlight

🏆 Congratulations Natalie Terry-Bedwell – 2026 AUSactive Personal Trainer of the Year!

We couldn’t be prouder to celebrate an incredible achievement by one of our Fit Education graduates, Natalie Terry-Bedwell, who has been named the 2026 AUSactive National Personal Trainer of the Year!

This is a highly sought-after national industry award, recognising excellence among Australia’s exercise and active health professionals — and we couldn’t think of anyone more deserving.

Natalie completed her Certificate III and Certificate IV in Fitness with Fit Education in 2025, and in an incredibly short time has gone on to make a significant impact within the fitness and community sector.

As the founder of Honoured Social Enterprise Gym, Natalie has created much more than a gym. Honoured provides inclusive training, mentoring and employment pathways for young people, young carers and people with disability, combining accredited fitness training with real-world work experience and ongoing support.

What makes Natalie’s story particularly special to us is that her journey with Fit Education didn’t finish when she graduated.

Our partnership with Honoured has allowed us to continue working alongside Natalie and her team, delivering nationally recognised Certificate III and IV qualifications within their inclusive social enterprise environment.

Natalie is a wonderful example of what can happen when a graduate takes their knowledge, passion and purpose into the industry and turns it into something bigger than themselves.

From completing her qualifications with Fit Education, to establishing an innovative social enterprise, creating opportunities for others and now being recognised as Australia’s AUSactive Personal Trainer of the Year. What an incredible journey!

Congratulations Natalie!

We are incredibly proud to call you one of our Fit Education graduates and honoured to continue being part of your journey.

Natalie is a fantastic example of what our graduates can achieve when they take their qualifications, passion and purpose into the industry.

Podcast Pick/Ted Talk

Feed Your Mental Health – Drew Ramsey

We often talk about nutrition in terms of physical health, body composition and performance… but what about brain health and mental wellbeing?

Psychiatrist Drew Ramsey explores the powerful connection between what we eat and how we feel, highlighting research linking a nutrient-rich diet with better mood and a lower risk of depression. He shines a spotlight on foods such as seafood, leafy greens, nuts, beans and dark chocolate, which provide key nutrients that support brain health, reduce inflammation and contribute to a healthy gut microbiome.

For fitness professionals, it’s a great reminder that helping clients make positive changes to their diet isn’t just about physical transformation. Supporting better nutrition can also support their mental wellbeing, energy, mood and overall quality of life.

🎧 Give Feed Your Mental Health a listen, it’s a great reminder that looking after the body also means looking after the brain.

Snippets from our

Practitioner Certificate in Nutrition

How to fix a Broken Diet

When a client’s nutritional intake deviates from the recommended intake, it is imperative to take a multidisciplinary approach to identify and address any underlying factors before initiating a nutritional intervention.

An assessment of the client’s clinical symptoms and signs is crucial, particularly if a nutrient deficiency is suspected. In such cases, a referral to a registered dietitian is necessary to address the deficiency and provide appropriate treatment. Optimal client outcomes can be achieved through collaboration and communication among healthcare professionals to ensure the best possible care is delivered to the client.

Nutritional Therapists are tasked with identifying underlying issues that may be causing a broken diet for clients, even in cases where the client appears mostly healthy and asymptomatic. For instance, a restrained eater who struggles with a constant internal battle of whether or not to consume a cookie may require an in-depth assessment of their dietary habits to address the root cause of their dietary struggles. Such individuals tend to oscillate between controlled eating and overconsumption, often due to an obsession with monitoring their food intake and imposing self-imposed dietary restrictions to maintain their health.

However, this constant focus on food consumption can lead to frequent dietary relapses and overeating, compromising their health goals. Notably, restrained eaters rely on external cues to determine their dietary habits, rather than internal physiological cues, leading to significant weight fluctuations.

Want to learn more? Study our Practitioner Certificate in Nutrition.