Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Notes from a Conference

Last week, I attended the IDEA World Fitness Convention in Los Angeles. 12000 attendees from 50 countries – a world-wide event indeed.

I have to credit IDEA with making me the trainer I am today. Being exposed to the best in the industry, learning the latest trends and getting inspired be presenters and fellow trainers brings out the best in us.

My focus in this year’s conference was a mix of Barre and corrective exercise.

I have obtained a Barre certification a few months ago and was using the conference to deepen my knowledge. No matter how much Barre gets its inspiration from ballet, it is really a very effective way to work on muscular endurance with minimal equipment. Not even a ballet barre is necessary; a chair will do, then add some light elastic resistance or dumbbell and a little ball, and you have a Barre workout.

Stay tuned for my announcement of a combination of Barre and MELT.

Corrective exercises get more and more of my attention. Our wonderful modern life has left us in a dysfunctional dilemma. Back and shoulder problems are ever increasing, and many are brought on by prolonged sitting with an incorrect head position. Unless those issues are not addressed in an appropriate way, the best designed workout will fail and potentially lead to injury. So finding ways to assess (or self-assess as in the case of MELT) and then being proactive has become a foundation of my training.


One last word on fascia. I never heard that word mentioned as often as at this conference. I am pretty sure I heard is in every session. One presenter went as far as calling it an organ. I don’t think that it has been elevated to that status but it’s on the way. And MELT was definitely a forerunner of that movement.

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