2009 IDEA World Fitness Convention™ - Thursday Blog Entries

I'm not usually a name dropper, but today's blog requires that I drop a lot of them. This morning's Opening Ceremonies alone had more big names than most red carpet reports.

The Barry Manilow Theater in the Hilton Hotel is famously the last remaining historic showroom in Las Vegas and the one-time stage home-away-from-home to the King himself, Elvis Presley. IDEA's sizzling opener proved worthy of such hallowed ground.

After a percussive wake up call by Carrie Ekins and the Drums Alive™ crew, the morning glided into the prestigous IDEA Health & Fitness Awards (congrats to Nicki Anderson, PJ O'Clair and Shirley Archer for their respective honors as Personal Trainer, Program Director and Group Exercise Instructor of the year). Former President Bill Clinton taped a substantial spot recognizing and personally thanking IDEA members for their volunteer role in IDEA's partnership with the Clinton Foundation's and American Heart Association's Alliance for a Healthier Generation. Next, KABA Modern, a fly hip hop group that was featured as a finalist on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew and won the 2007 Hip Hop International Dance Competition, cranked up the energy even higher with a seriously phat dance groove.

Next, 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon Dan O'Brien appeared from backstage (and, ladies don't forget his invitation to visit his booth in the Expo for hugs) to introduce 2008 IDEA Inspiration Award winner 22-year old Brian Boyle. This is a young man I have a feeling we'll be hearing much more about in the future. His is a miracle story: Four years ago a speeding dump truck slammed into the driver's side of his car as he drove home from swim practice. He was rushed to the hospital, basically dead on arrival. He was taken into surgery, where his heart stopped and was restarted EIGHT TIMES. He woke up very slowly after a chemically induced coma and made his way back to the land of the living. His dream before the accident was to go to college and make the swim team (both of which he did), and one day compete in an Ironman triathlon. Some said he'd be lucky to even walk again. To prove the naysayers wrong, he walked across the finish line last October at the Ironman tri in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii--after he swam 2.4 miles, biked 112 miles and ran 26.2 miles (minus the couple of steps at the end tape, for emphasis). And guess what? He became a personal trainer because he wants to help people realize the joy of movement. He promised the IDEA crowd this morning he'd make us all proud. Okay. Goosebumps.  After such a courageous journey back, I'll believe anything this kid tells me.   

Finally, best selling relationship author John Gray, PhD, (Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and 15 other books), capped off the morning with his dry witted and often hilarious insights.

All those names in one session that ended by 10:15 AM. What a fantastic running start to the convention! In case you missed it or would like to see some of the names and news dropped here,  access the recorded streaming video link of the opening ceremonies on the IDEA home page.

Industry Trends

Always one of the most insightful and enlightening sessions at IDEA World is the trends panel with the three IDEA Award winners. Look for indepth coverage of Nicki's, PJ's and Shirley's perspectives on their speciaty areas--and analysis of what those views could mean for your future in the industry-- in the September issue of IDEA Fit TIps & News, our free monthly e-newsletter, and in the October issue of IDEA Fitness Journal.

Mingling at the presenter reception is in my immediate future along with some more video capture (holy point and shoot, Batman! Having loads of fun with my [er, I mean, IDEA's] new little camera!) and the tedious upload that goes with it. I'm off into the Vegas evening...talk to you tomorrow. 

 

 

Remember when Pilates classes were quiet? They're not anymore. Sometimes it's background, sometimes the moves follow the beat. Regardless, from New Age to hip-hop, music has taken over. Golly, even in a circuit Pilates class with three stations (and three presenters cuing at once!) there was music playing underneath it all. That circuit was pretty wild--Stacey Lei Krauss saw my bemusement and clued me in: the goal was to bring fitness and Pilates together; to appeal to people who "don't want to have to be perfect before they move." Any men in there? Actually there were--more than in other Pilates classes I've visited. Let me mention two of my favorite sessions today. In the dawn block, I spent time in the Gyrokinesis workout with Stephanie Spencer. I get tingly watching this exercise--my body itches to do it, and somehow that makes sense. After all, when I doodle, I doodle in spirals, and on those days (they sometimes happen) when I'm home alone and I just have to dance, I dance in spirals. So a movement system built on spirals instinctively feels attractive. I also like the economy of effort--the end result is simple, elegant and effective, with no waste of energy. I think I'll stop by the booth in the expo hall and pick up a DVD. And the second session? Linda Freeman's "The New Yoga-Pilates Blend." New for new's sake isn't always a great idea, but this fusion class really seemed successful. Check it out next time if you missed it this time around. One thing that interests me at our events is how the presenters fall into two groups: those who basically teach a class, instructing attendees much as they would their clients back home; and those who teach a workshop, addressing attendees as instructors with their own clients back home and keeping the focus on teacher training. I'm talking about workshops here, not workouts, and it's a matter of degree, of course. My preference is for the latter--I feel that the deeper learning goes on in the teacher-training environment. But what do attendees say? I'm interested to hear.

Did you come to fitness via a need to quell pain? From my casual observation (and radar-equipped ears), I’ve seen and heard a lot of IDEA members talk about their personal histories and how they came to embrace fitness.

 

One woman was obese in high school and decided she wanted to join the cheerleading squad in college. She also had a crush on a football player, but he ignored her. The pain of rejection, coupled with the pain of being obese, combined to motivate her. She started walking on the track during football practice (so she could keep an eye on her favorite guy). Pretty soon she started running. Eventually she progressed to running 5 miles, and the weight melted off. And the football player? Who needed him! She decided to major in exercise science when college started and became a first-string cheerleader.

 

Another IDEA member said he became excited about fitness after an injury almost cost him his life. At 19 years old he broke his back in a car accident. Nothing seemed to help diminish his pain—surgeries, physical therapy and drugs all had minimal effects. It wasn’t until a very informed and skilled personal trainer helped him train the right muscles that he discovered the power of proper palpation and muscle recruitment. Now, he says his pain is a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10.

 

What’s your story? Do you have your own pain and freedom tale? How many of your clients come to you with pain (let me guess: 80%)? Are you able to show them how to help relieve that pain through exercise while remaining within your scope of practice?

 

Exercise is so much more than the three-legged stool of cardiovascular, strength and flexibility. It’s a doorway to optimal health and wellness.

 

So think about the pain and freedom paradigm when you’re working with deconditioned clients and participants. If you’ve been lucky enough to be healthy and free from pain most of your life, try to walk a half mile in an obese person’s shoes. During her session “Peak Pilates® for the Obese Client,” Zoey Trap, MSc, urged attendees to carefully assess clients. “When in doubt,” she said, “ask questions.”

 

She stressed the importance of modifications and had some pretty brilliant ideas on how to get results combining a stability ball with a reformer. She also talked about how dangerous it is to make assumptions when working with obese clients.

 

“Do not automatically presume that your new client can’t do a roll-up simply because she’s obese,” Trap said. “It’s your job to help her connect with her core musculature and find the juiciness of articulation in the spine.” Trap didn’t mince words when it came to which style of Pilates was more “correct.” “You may come up the hill on one side and I may come up on the opposite side,” she said. “The important thing is that a healthy client meets us at the top

 

Here’s to a pain-free, movement-happy life for all!

Last night I talked Gus, the intrepid I.T. guy from IDEA, into sitting with me while I ate dinner. I believe he was on a medically supervised diet that required him to just have sake!

But here's the interesting part - I got to sleep by 10:30. That has never been done before by me at a World conference. I had to attend my first class as it was entitled "Take the Curl Out," which sounded intriguing. It was all about strength training and had lots of useful info. Of course, me being me, I zeroed in on Bethany Diamond's sense of humor. With her Georgia accent, it was entertaining to hear her spell her name; "B E T H A N WHY and Diamond like the ring."

Then I crashed the Drums Alive Step and Drum. I was happy for Carrie that so many people came to see the program that she has worked so hard on for years, but that happiness was quickly tempered by fear when she fell off the back of the stage. She came back smiling, but going down embraced by a steel pole must feel like sitting on a T-bone. Today is a full day with lots of workouts so I'm determined to be completely fit by dinnertime. Uh, before dinner - I'm having dreams of dessert. After stepping and drumming, I headed to the "relaxation" of Nora St. John's "Roll, Release, Relax" class. Okay, I have the word "relaxation" in quotes because Nora tried to kill us. And the more we groaned, the more she laughed. May I just say that Nora has an extremely dry sense of humor, with no sadism involved. To be fair, it was a class about myofascial release, and the pain was an indicator of tension and knots. The only other times I can recall associating pain with "self-improvement" was when I did physical therapy for a reconstructed knee and of course, a few previous boyfriends.

Due to exercise guilt I then headed to a promotional seminar about fitness. It turned out to be mostly Pilates-based exercises, which I am far too lazy to fully attempt. In an effort to be a good citizen participant, I did my own version, which I've now named "PiLazees" as in L A Z Y. I've consulted extensively with Bethany Diamond (at least 5 minutes) and we've now created this new class. The equipment will be a recliner, cup of coffee, remote control and a friend to do the actual exercises while we gently inhale and exhale while taking restorative sips of our coffee. Hmmm, perhaps a lack of proper nutrition is making me punch-drunk. My apologies to proper Pilates instructors - I'm just jealous.

Time to get in line for Peter Twist's sport conditioning circuit class. He is so exuberant that you almost want to do all the crazy stuff he cooks up just to make him happy. Read his articles - he's a forward-thinker (that's Canadian for "he's a wild and crazy guy." If you are too young to remember Steve Martin and Dan Ackroyd doing Saturday Night Live, just let this cultural reference slide by. Oops, gotta hurry. I don't want to be late for my spot in the back where I sit and pretend to exercise.