2008 IDEA World Fitness Convention™ - Friday Blog Entries

The night goes too fast. The morning comes too early. And these are Vegas nights and mornings, so I think you know how that goes. The in-between part when you're supposed to cool your heels with Mr. Sand Man somehow evaporates into the desert night.

Big Yawn. Stretch. Neck roll. Crack the knuckles and poise fingers over keyboard. Shaking my head with that familiar Day 3 feeling. Where in the blue blazes is my Visine?

Today is generally the day of the conference when I start to feel pent up and frustrated because I haven't been able to exercise for a couple of days. I'm a hopeless junkie for a good daily workout of some sort--I don't care if it's 6 hours in my garden spreading compost--I just need to move and sweat or I get cranky. Spectating here is a form of torture for me. I mean, yeah, it's great to see all the attendees having such fun...after all, that's the end goal for the IDEA staff. I'm really just completely envious that everyone gets to do 5 workouts a day if they choose to. It's a tradition for me to say this every year, so I'll say it now: Some day I will return to this convention as a spectator and overdose on movement. Those will be fine days, indeed.

Meantime, I did cover quite a bit of ground today. I got up and checked the website for the most recent posts, uploaded some more video and then jammed over to catch a few sessions in the 8:05 timeblock. Here's a quick slice of my day.

• Shannon Fable was showing off some great moves with the kettlebell in her "Core off the Floor" session. IDEA taped this session and has it posted as recorded streaming video, so if you couldn't make it to the conference, the session or just want to review what you learned, check it out. I'll also be posting video of the kettlebells stuff. Note that we also have Nicki Anderson's session "Helping Clients Move Beyond Diets and Into Health" from today posted as a bonus session as well.
• Pete Twist was "on" as usual. His dry witted delivery turns every session he does into pure "edutainment." I was videoing some great explosive plyo progressions for the blog and pretty much ruined the footage because I was laughing into the camera as he improvised and riffed away. (Okay, I actually managed to salvage some video, if you want to see it). Sometimes I wonder if he even knows how funny he is. Laugh while you learn. Is there any better way?
• Chuck Wolf wouldn't be Chuck Wolf without the infamously creepy rubber foam foot model he carries everywhere. I think that foot has more frequent flyer miles than I do. (I find it ironic that the foot either flies or gets carried everywhere it goes. Why doesn't it walk?). Of course, it was the perfect teaching prop for his "Assessment and Reaction-Foot Function" session. Note to self: Take up a collection to buy Chuck a new foot, as he is currently using a toothpick to hold the big toe in place. Looks painful.
• IDEA Personal Trainer Committee meeting was stimulating and rich with ideas, as usual. Shout out to all committee members: You guys are brilliant! Thanks for everything! 
• Imagine my surprise when I walked into the "Dynamic Sport Warm-Up for Strength and Power" session this afternoon expecting to see Mr. Manic himself--Douglas Brooks--hopping around and rapping out tempos only to see Candice Brooks filling in for Douglas as he crutched around the stage. Motocross accident, I heard. I think he was feeling the frustration I described above of not being able to move with the rest of the group. 
• IDEA author and first-time presenter Tom Terwilliger amped up a room of personal trainers into dreaming big dreams and taught them techniques for attaining those dreams and goals in "Keys to an Achieveable Outcome." "You can have all the tools on the outside, but if you don't have the inner game--any leak in that tool box--you're going to struggle," he said.
• Another first-time presenter, Jonathan Ross (2008 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year finalist) was torturing delegates in "Off Center Ball Training" using a Ballast Ball. I'll post video on this soon so you can see a sampling of the plank progression he demonstrated. Good luck--it looks pretty demanding.

Speaking of planks...I think I'll hit the rack for a power nap before the Welcome Party tonight. Then again, I could do a Chalene DVD in my room to shake the Ms. Cranky Pants persona I have going on. Hmmm. Oh, the irony! Chalene is here teaching live, yet I have to resort to DVD to fit her in my schedule!  

 

Okay, so it's the fourth day of the show for me and I am feeling wiped out. I am also feeling that familiar malaise that comes from covering a fitness convention and not being able to participate in the sessions. You might as well stick me in the middle of a room lined with the finest dark chocolate and tell me not to lick the walls. I am getting a lot of great ideas not only for the magazine, but also for my own personal workouts. If I can only remember them all....

As I sit here I struggle to write this entry. My brain is foggy from all the information and I am feeling overloaded. Sure, I have plenty of things to write about, but I don't know where to start. And I'm on deadline. Just when I begin my slow descent into panic, presenter Eve Fleck, who has just finished teaching her class "Definitions," walks in and inspires me.

Eve is glowing. She walks up to the table and sighs. "This is such a wonderful feeling," she says. "I love how I feel after I've taught a class." Eve talks about how she clicks into teaching mode when she needs to and then takes time afterward to decompress. I watched part of her class this morning. She does indeed go to another place. Thanks to her energy, I am able to click into writing mode. Eve not only Inspires the World to Fitness®, she inspires this editor to blog.

Our interaction is pretty typical here at IDEA World Fitness Convention™. Everywhere I look attendees engage each other and you can see brainwaves spark and new connections grow. This may be the under-appreciated benefit of attending World: networking. In fact, while I've been sitting here two presenters have approached me with excellent article ideas. I'm feeling a lot better about this blog entry as I go along.

The moral to this story is instead of contracting when you feel confronted and challenged, expand. If you are called on to sub for another instructor and you have no clue what you're going to teach, you're exhausted, and the class is upset because their favorite instructor is out, don't go into panic mode. Instead, transmute the energy with jokes and playful interaction. Let the participants guide the class. Click into a different mode.

Now that I am in a different mode, I am off to view more sessions and cull more excellent, practical ideas for IDEA's publications. Please look for these in upcoming issues, and let me know what you think!

 

Late yesterday afternoon I went to watch the Culture Shock presentation. I think "wow" is the word of this convention, and it applies here. Those kids are so talented and their dance moves defy gravity and anatomical laws, I'm sure. I opted out of the chance to take the master class out of an instinct to preserve my dignity (which means my 14-year old son would have disowned knowledge of me if he'd heard I'd tried to do hip-hop or anything like it). Last night was the IDEA-sponsored party. Let's be honest - who would pass up free food (including sushi), entertainment and dancing? At the party it was possible to ride a Segway (I didn't), do simulated surfing (I didn't do that either) and meet lots of people who really just wanted to put their drinks on our table! But I'm a lemonade from lemons kind of girl (see, even calling myself a girl is a true sign of optimism) so I made it my business to meet all those people. I met people from Turkey, Norway, France, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Argentina and the 28th floor of the hotel (okay, the last one was IDEA CEO Peter Davis, and I forgot to push the button for my floor. He probably thought I was stalking him to see if he had a better room). If any of you reading this are from outside the U.S., I totally encourage you to come to the convention next year. Why? Because you make the convention so much more interesting. And you seem to all have great evening wear! Oh, another thing that made the party so fun was the DJ. He did a highly choreographed dance routine for us all at one point in the evening. Can you imagine a DJ outdancing a throng of fitness movement specialists? The dude could move! I'm feeling a sudden urge to learn how to spin on my head....nope, it's passed. So, Friday morning and I got up on time (do you see that I've made it to all my morning classes? Please give me an award) to take Fred Hoffman's Zensational Step. He speaks so calmly and casually that you don't realize how quickly he's taught you all kinds of great moves. And his jokes are corny, according to him, and I just want to be a good friend and confirm that Fred is right. Take Fred's classes when you can and just check out his patter-by the end you'll be laughing in spite of yourself and you'll also feel like you've just met one of the world's gentle souls. Let me know it you agree once you've met him. Len Kravitz is a long-time presenter and I sign up for his classes automatically, no matter the subject presented. In person he looks like a dentist or researcher (he's at least one of those), but when he starts to talk you A: learn a lot of technical information quickly in a way that you can use later with your own students/clients, and B: fall off your seat laughing. How can you not be energized by a guy who says he gets goosebumps just thinking about fat metabolism? And the more syllables in his lecture titles, the more jokes he cracks. So if you see one next year entitled something like "Fat Metabolism, Lipolysis, Mitochondria and the Little Barges That Transport It, Divine Supramaximal Circuit Interval, Fartlek (don't laugh - the Swedes know what it means)Training and 100 Recipes for Walking Down and Up in a Brisk Fashion While Eating Ice Cream for Breakfast and Measuring VO2 Max in Unsuspecting University Students," you know it's a winner. If you don't take my advice you will be sooooorrrryyyyy. Just saying. Later today I have a lecture about the science of eating organic, and I am hoping for free snacks. You had me at "hormone-free beet" you rascal! Then I will go to a class about modifications for older adults. I work with that population; heck, I will be that population in a month, so I want to know those secrets, you betcha. Well, I am off to the Expo Hall to pay for my drumsticks (wooden, not turkey) and music CDs. Then, say it with me, Ssearch for free food." Gosh, you'd think I'm underfed. Look at my blog picture-I am not. But look at my picture anyway-my son took it and said he did a good job of making me look tolerable!

Presenters, be warned: if you make a claim of prowess to IDEA attendees, you risk being called on to prove it! Phil Block found that out this morning. He told us he'd learned to walk on his hands as a kid after his mother challenged him to do it for a dollar--"and 30 years later," he added, "I can still do it." Well, he wasn't getting away with that. The cheer went up for a demo, and Phil--a trifle bashful now ("okay, it's been awhile")--found himself promising to try after class. What a sport: Phil came through with flying colors, truly "walking his talk" and earning roaring applause from the floor. What's more, the lesson in there was as good as the fun: if we can get our kids moving when they are still kids, their bodies won't forget. Challenge a child to move in a new way today--and plant a seed. When we lay down exercise at the cellular level, we give our children a gift that will last a lifetime. This is my last day on-site, and the impressions of my time here are swarming around in my head. I think of Charles, from Kenya, whom I bumped into on the first morning. We walked together just long enough to locate a room--and by the time we got there, we were fast friends. Charles had traveled for 2.5 days, covering 22,000 miles, to attend this event--and he had the biggest smile on his face that I've seen in a long time. Charles, come back soon--we love you! I also think of all the languages I hear as I walk the corridors--Russian, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean--and it warms my heart to feel part of something that unites people from such different places. The industry feels like it's thriving. There is so much variety out there in the way of programs and equipment; veteran presenters have got so much experience to draw on as they teach the younger attendees; and the public's need for the skills and knowledge of fitness professionals has never been greater. So keep up the good work, everyone, and have a great year. Keep connected with each other--and let the IDEA editors know how you are and what you're up to. Bye for now.