Either folks were on a roll from last night 's anniversary to-do or they were already warming up for this evening's bash, but 7:00 am was party time for attendees at the IDEA World Fitness Convention. Picture mood lighting and raucous applause as Buddy Macuha fired up participants in an encore performance of karaoke cycling. I stayed just long enough to hear Kathy from New Jersey bellow out "It's a-rainin' men (hallelujah!)." Nothing wrong with Kathy’s lungs! Then a quick dash to the Marriott to catch Jeff McMullen in a session billed as INTENSuality. You missed it? Look for some of those sexy moves at the Stingaree tonight.

Seriously Though

It's not all play, of course. What a terrific education people get in these four days! Greg Roskopf's InTensive on Muscle Activation Techniques gave participants an in-depth look at a proven method for pinpointing and correcting muscle imbalances. This was all pretty new to me, but it was fascinating: I learned about muscle spindles and what the gamma motor neuron does, and how, if range of motion is compromised, you identify which muscle isn't firing, because no activation means the "battery cables" are loose--and you don't want that, since as long as you have instability, you just won't get the mobility you're after. Okay, I got that--now can I just hire Greg to figure out which of my muscles aren't firing?

Pilates Galore

I'm continually impressed by the high level of Pilates instruction at IDEA events. STOTT PILATES® workshops are consistently excellent—you’ve got to hand it to them, they are just so efficient. This morning I was a fly on the wall in Melanie Byford-Young’s session on knee stability and function. This was one of those intimate, very hands-on workshops with real attendees demonstrating real misalignments—and getting the professional attention we all crave. Students were soaking it up. “How do you know if the muscle is working too hard?” someone asked. “It’s the difference between cooked meat and bone,” said Melanie. “If it feels like bone, the muscle is working too hard.”
 Still on Pilates, I also dropped in on Siri Dharma Galliano’s New York classic reformer workshop. I hadn’t realized there was such an East Coast-West Coast split in the Pilates world—but apparently there is. East Coasters tend to teach the method very much as it was handed down from Mr. Pilates, whereas West Coasters thrive on a little creativity.

A tidbit from Nia's Debbie Rosas: “We have 75 trillion cells that respond to vibration before we even hear sound.” As always, Debbie is pushing the envelope, exploring movement in new ways and asking questions others haven’t thought of yet. What’s she curious about now? How vibrations can elicit movement, and how the art of listening can transform our exercise experience.