About Summer Strand
Summer Strand is an exercise developer, master personal trainer, fitness instructor, sports nutrition specialist, life fitness coach, and all-around fitness personality, drawing on years of experience developing techniques and methods for herself and her clients.
Summer has always "made her own school," taking classes and disciplines from various teachers and methods and making it her own. Her broad background in all manner of fitness programs gives her a unique take on physical well-being. She has designed hundreds of exercises that have been and are being used all over the world, as well as here in New York. Summer is an outside-the-box trainer, taking into consideration each individual's life, body, mind, and spirit. She's motivational with her clients, tailoring to each client's specific needs and dreams. She credits her eye for correct form and details to her extensive dance background and to her continuous interest in further educating herself.
Summer Strand has had her workouts published in national magazines, has worked alongside inventors of internationally recognized fitness programs, and continues to exist on the cutting edge of exercise development.
Certifications
Summer's certifications represent a broad and diverse set of skills and knowledge she brings to every client.
International Fitness Professionals Association (IFPA)
Master Personal Fitness Trainer
IFPA's flagship, NCCA-accredited personal-training credential, recognizing advanced mastery of assessment, program design, and coaching across the full range of clients.
Advanced Personal Trainer Specialist
The IFPA Advanced Personal Fitness Trainer is the most authoritative and practical course in the industry.
Personal Fitness Trainer
The IFPA Personal Fitness Trainer Certification is the core program for safe and effective personal training. The course teaches and tests on the essential information to train individuals in gyms, health clubs, and other one-on-one fitness training environments.
Certified Specialist: Advanced Lifestyle Fitness Coach Level I
This certification combines the personal-training skills of exercise management with the lifestyle-coaching skills of counseling, communicating, motivating, and educating — developing the effective dialogues that are critical to influencing more people to begin and maintain a healthy and fit lifestyle.
Certified Specialist: Advanced Lifestyle Fitness Coach Level II
Summer knows how to identify the personality, temperament, character, and intelligence qualities of her clients, and can effectively communicate with words, thoughts, and deeds that the client understands. This lets her reach more people, more quickly, with far greater efficiency — and achieve far greater success at motivation.
Post-Secondary Rehabilitation Specialist
Most athletic injuries can only be healed through the safe and effective use of exercise prescriptions; drugs provide temporary relief from pain, but because the underlying injury hasn't healed, the patient often increases the damage to the injured area. Summer has the knowledge to truly help people eliminate pain, heal their injuries, and return to full, optimal functionality.
Sports Nutrition Specialist
Summer knows how nutritional intake can maximize exercise training and boost athletic performance. She can explain how the body uses food for fuel and the different roles key nutrients play in keeping us strong and healthy. The scientifically grounded understanding of sports nutrition taught by this certification allows Summer to guide her clients' fitness goals both in and out of the gym.
Pilates Instructor
Certification to teach Pilates — core-focused, controlled movement that builds strength, stability, and body awareness. Summer can lead clients through mat work that complements and rounds out their training.
Advanced Flexibility Specialist
Advanced training in flexibility and mobility — assessment, stretching methods, and how to safely expand a client's range of motion. It deepens the corrective and rehabilitative work that runs throughout Summer's practice.
Flexibility Specialist
The foundational flexibility credential — assessing range of motion and applying safe, effective stretching techniques. It's the groundwork beneath Summer's advanced flexibility and corrective work.
Tai Chi Instructor
Certification to teach Tai Chi — slow, deliberate movement that develops balance, control, and mind-body connection. A low-impact discipline Summer can bring to clients seeking stability, stress relief, and active recovery.
M.E.L.T. Method
MELT Hand and Foot: New Science of the Human Body
The New Science of the Human Body, the foundation of MELT professional training, examines the latest scientific understanding of the human body as it relates to alignment, stress, chronic pain, and the negative effects associated with aging.
CEU: ACE 1.4 · NASM 1.4
MELT Instructor Training
Summer is able to teach her clients how to relieve chronic aches and pains, prevent injuries, create effortless stability and movement, and much more — the keys to living a long, active, and pain-free life.
CEU: ACE 5.0 · NASM 1.9
MELT Strength
Once a body is stable, improving standing mobility and movement efficiency can be more easily achieved. The MELT Strength Immersion Series trainings expanded Summer's understanding of neurocore and girdle-stabilization exercises — specific to shoulder and pelvic-girdle stability as well as spinal and core stability.
CEU: ACE 1.4 · NASM 1.2
TRX Suspension Training
TRX Suspension Training Certification
Summer knows the fundamentals of TRX® Suspension Training® and how to incorporate it into her client programs. She knows how to progress and regress TRX exercises for all fitness levels, adjust resistance and stability for all exercises, and cue and correct common faults.
CEC: ACE 0.7 · NASM 0.7 · AFAA 5.5 · NSCA 0.8 · Can Fit Pro 4.0 · NESTA 0.8 · PTA Global 7.0 · ISSA 7.0 · IYCA 3.5 · REPS 8.0
Henkin Fitness Ultimate Sandbag
L.I.F.T. Certification
Loaded Integrated Functional Training (L.I.F.T.) is a sandbag-based method focused on movement over muscles, progressive overload, mixing simplicity with complexity, and addressing the specific needs of clients. L.I.F.T. is about making wise choices about the equipment and methods that help the majority of clients.
Aerobics and Fitness Association of America
Aerobic Instructor Certification
AFAA's group-aerobics instructor credential, covering the choreography, cueing, and class structure behind safe, effective aerobic instruction. Summer earned it to lead energetic group fitness classes from the front of the room.
Annette Lang Education Systems
Training the Pregnant and Postpartum Client
A workshop focused on the physiological and biomechanical changes of a pre- and post-natal pregnant client, and how those relate to the design of a training program. Focus is given to any medical guidelines that directly affect program design. Summer learned about pelvic tilts, kegel exercises, core training, diastasis recti, joint laxity, and more. ACOG guidelines are followed. Most importantly, Summer has been empowered to make educated decisions regarding activity levels and exercises for a pregnant client.
Foundations of Flexibility Training
This certification teaches the role of the neuromuscular system in stretching. PNF, muscle spindles, and golgi tendon organs are reviewed. Summer also learned how to assess "normal" ranges of motion and whether a client needs stretching, strengthening, stability, or mobility instead — and how to assess imbalances between the right and left sides.
Eric I. Degis, MS, DC, CSCS
Post-Rehabilitation of the Lumbar Spine Complex
CEC: 0.3 NASM
Post-Rehab of the Shoulder Complex
CEC: 0.3 NASM
Post-Rehabilitation of the Lower Extremity
CEC: 0.3 NASM
Functional Exercise Anatomy
CEC: 0.6 NASM
American Council on Exercise (ACE)
Reebok One to One Flexibility Training
CEC: 0.6 ACE
Double Trouble Fitness — Practical Training Program (GFI)
CEC: ACE 1.5
GMP Fitness
Golf Conditioning Specialist
Specifically designed around client assessment and exercise development for improved golf performance and the well-being of clients on the golf course.
CEU: ACE 1.6 · WITS 16 · BCRPS 16 · ISSA 12 · NFPT 5 · NSPA 16 · NSCA 1.6 · NCFS 5 · NASM 1.6 · NETA 16 · NESTA 16 · AFPA 8 · SFA 1.6
Duke Chiropractic P.C.
Functional Anatomy
CEC: 0.3 NASM
Core Stabilization
CEC: 0.3 NASM
The Athletic Shoulder
CEC: 0.3 NASM
S.M.A.R.T.
Special Population Exercise Specialist
Training in how to design safe, effective exercise programs for clients whose needs go beyond the general population — older adults, pre- and post-natal women, youth, and people managing chronic conditions, disabilities, or recovery. Summer learned to adapt programming around each population's medical considerations and limitations, so the people who most need careful, knowledgeable guidance can train with confidence.
CEC: ACE 0.4
SMART Back: Preventing and Managing Back Pain
A back-specific course spanning spinal anatomy, biomechanics, and the causes and warning signs of injury — from microtrauma to frank trauma. Summer learned to recognize when to refer a client out, deliver first aid in the gym, correctly stretch and strengthen the back-stabilizing muscles, and train clients through the stages of pre- and post-rehabilitation under a doctor's prescription.
CEC: ACE 0.4
Chiropractic Rehabilitation Internship — Dr. Matthew Cooper
Hands-on clinical experience interning under chiropractor Dr. Matthew Cooper, focused on rehabilitation exercise for the knee, ankle, foot, shoulder, and back, alongside full-body stretching. Summer worked alongside patients recovering from injury, translating clinical rehab protocols into safe, progressive exercise programming.
Exercise Etc. Inc.
Making Fitness a Career — Angles, Positions, Variations: Upper Body
A course on getting more out of upper-body training by manipulating exercise angles, body positions, and movement variations. Summer learned how small adjustments to a familiar exercise change the muscles it targets and the results it delivers — expanding her toolkit for programming varied, effective upper-body work.
CEC: ACE 0.2 · AFAA 2.0 · AIFE 2.0 · ISSA 2.0 · NASM 2.0 · NATA 2.0 · NSCA 0.2
Making Fitness a Career — Angles, Positions, Variations: Lower Body
The lower-body companion to the Upper Body course, applying the same angle, position, and variation principles to the legs and hips. Summer learned how to vary squats, lunges, and other foundational movements to shift emphasis, work around limitations, and keep lower-body programs fresh and effective.
CEC: ACE 0.2 · AFAA 2.0 · AIFE 2.0 · ISSA 2.0 · NASM 2.0 · NATA 2.0 · NSCA 0.2
Designing Practical Programs: Exercise & the Knee
A practical-programming course centered on the knee — its mechanics, the dysfunctions that commonly show up, and how to design exercise programs that strengthen and protect the joint. Summer learned to build knee-conscious training for clients managing or working around knee issues.
CEC: ACE 0.2 · AFAA 2.0 · AIFE 2.0 · ISSA 2.0 · NASM 2.0 · NATA 2.0 · NSCA 0.2
New York Health & Racquet Club
Let the Music Move You
A group-fitness course on using music — tempo, rhythm, and phrasing — to structure a class and drive its energy. Summer learned to choreograph movement to the beat and use music as a tool to motivate a room and pace a workout.
CEC: AFAA 2.5
Alive and Kicking
A cardio-kickboxing format covering the kicks, punches, and combinations that make up a high-energy class. Summer learned to teach safe, effective striking technique and build combinations that keep participants engaged and moving.
CEC: AFAA 2.5
Strength Training Basics
A foundational course in resistance-training principles — proper form, programming, and progression for building strength safely. Summer reinforced the fundamentals that underpin every strength program she designs for her clients.
CEC: AFAA 2.5
From Start to Finish
A course on structuring a complete training session from warm-up through cool-down, sequencing each segment so it sets up the next. Summer learned to build sessions that flow logically and safely from the first movement to the last.
CEC: AFAA 2.5
Stretch Your Limits
A flexibility-focused course on stretching technique and mobility work — how and when to stretch for the greatest gains in range of motion. Summer learned to integrate effective stretching into training to improve mobility and reduce injury risk.
CEC: AFAA 2.5