I was running from the parking deck, yoga mat in hand, afraid of missing one millisecond of the 2011 Inner IDEA Conference when I was quite literally smacked down by what can only be described as deliberate slowness. You know, relaxation. It was palpable. I felt a twinge of shame for being in a rush. That's how magnetic this micrososm of wellness was at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines hotel. I realized I was going to have to hang up my hurries, which was fine with me. Eventually.
What's most alive in me is to share what I experienced "under cover" as an attendee. I am a yoga teacher and I have been to many yoga conferences this past year. I know I am biased, but nothing, nothing comes remotely close to the level and depth of education Inner IDEA provides. The body has layers--if you study it long enough, you know this. So why wouldn't you present education in fine layers? I don't want to know how to teach an asana; I want to know why. I want to know how to make it better and what words and actions will help my students feel better in their practices.
Every session I went to challenged me mentally, physically and dare I say spiritually. I like being challenged, but it hurts a little. I absorbed every last drop of information I could and found I wanted and needed more. I could write a book about that. This is a blog. So I will focus on the issue of self-care.
I am not a parent but a lot of IDEA members are, or are caretakers at some level. In addition, they are service-oriented people who thrive on helping others. This is beautiful. What struck me as a stark contrast is that people don't properly take care of themselves. Think about the old oxygen mask metaphor. You have to take care of yourself if you want to have enough reserves to take care of others.
Here's what I noticed. In sessions like Leann Carey's "Developing the Teacher's Eye," where she singled out people who had certain imbalances in their postures, there was a lot of self-deprecating self-talk. "Oh I knew you were going to pick me because I'm terrible." This session was amazing, by the way, I learned so much. And I was one of the people she chose as an example of a missing belly-to-throat connection. What a great learning opportunity this was!
Back to my point: so many of us demand perfection from our bodies. What is perfection? I saw so many people who put themselves down, expected the impossible from their bodies and resented regressing a move that they obviously could not do. My question: If we're so negative about making a pose easier (and better) for ourselves, how are we supposed to be able to help others? I would love to see a major overhaul of our attitudes and I think it starts with taking better care of ourselves--our bodies, our attitudes and our speech. People notice.
Luckily the classes on myofascial release, proper alignment, nutrition and other self-care tools were pretty full. I hope everyone puts these principles into action. Including myself. It starts with you and fans out.
A note on Rodney Yee's and Colleen Saidman Yee's Sessions today. I've been a fan of Rodney Yee for many years so I thought I had a good "read" on his presence. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the teacher who showed up today. I don't know what I was expecting as he's a consummate professional. It's easy to see why he's been so successful. He doesn't dominate a room, he holds it. He balances the energy in a way that makes you feel contained. His cues were impeccable: "Open the front canvas of the body," for example. The visuals were also compelling: "Make the sailor tattoo on your belly move on the ocean of your skin." Say what you want--it worked.
Colleen Saidman Yee also shared a sweet word of wisdom that ties back in to self-care. She reminded us to think about where we are in space and how we relate to gravity as we tackle our days. "You hold on to more than you realize, and you don't even need to. Learn how to relax your body as you move through your life."
Take care of yourself!
This morning I woke up to a warm fire crackling around me. Turbo Fire, to be precise. While the showcase room at the J.W. Marriott did have a panoply of video-generated fire on multiple screens (you have to check out this room!), the real fire came from Chalene Johnson. She led us through a high-intensity bout of cardiovascular training (better than coffee any day) and reminded us how inspirational it is to combine music with movement and motivation.
When the sound system stalled, Johnson personified the improvisational nature of the business and quickly went to plan b and plan c before pausing between drills to say “It’s just like a real class, right?” Of course the crowd knew what she meant and had buckets of sympathy. Everyone had been in her place before. The camaraderie was palpable.
Every time I have the pleasure of taking one of Johnson’s classes it ignites my outer fire. I feel more alive, tap into my fun zone and I take that spark with me to the rest of the world. This ability to start a fire beneath anyone you meet is so rare and so valuable.
On my way to the next class I overheard a very interesting phone conversation in which a woman was trying her best to describe the ViPR. She had just taken an introductory class and was obviously excited about the piece of equipment. It does so many things and is backed by some pretty cool science so it was fun to hear her try to describe it. “It has handles and it’s a tube, but it’s kind of rubber and you can throw it.” I doubt the person on the other end of the line truly grasped the concept. His or her best bet is to come to the conference and try it out!
Speaking of trying out new things, just when you thought you knew how to mobilize and stabilize everything (which is a dangerous assumption, actually), you are reminded you don’t know jack -- or that the research has changed. This was the reality that settled around me as I popped in Eric Beard’s session “Save Your Back: Get Your Butt in Gear.” I thought I knew my way around a foam roller, but was happily proven wrong as I learned how to go deeper with rotation and cross-fiber action. Ahhh … my hips are back in town.
Muscle fibers are fascinating and if you’re looking for a new way to cue transverse abdominus activation, I’ve got a good one for you. This tidbit comes from Cathleen Murakami’s brilliant session “Two-Point Touch for Cuing and Alignment.” Murakami believes in working in, not working out, and says she likes to introduce clients to their “inner Spanx.” If you don’t know what Spanx is, perhaps you remember the shiny spandex from the 1980s? It’s essentially the same. She uses this as a metaphor for pulling the interior of the body in, redesigning the structure.
Obviously I like this visual. If you’re able to find your inner Spanx, you’re less likely to need outer Spanx. Regardless, don’t ever let that fire go out.
"Teaching is an art. Some are born with the talent but it can definitely be developed. All it takes is someone who is passionate about a subject and wants to share that passionl."
I always feel like a bit of a rock star anytime I put a conference lanyard around my neck. It makes me feel as if I have special access to something. And of course, I do. I have insider information to some of the highest quality education, training techniques and philosophies in the fitness industry--right here under my feet at The 2011 IDEA World Fitness Convention in Los Angeles. Well, I should say around my feet, beside my feet, behind my feet and above my feet. It’s a bubble. Let me explain.
It’s hard not to get excited about being a personal trainer when attending a session led by Rodney Corn and Michol Dalcourt. Rodney is goofy in all the good ways and Michol is a down-to-earth brainiac who makes you want to sit down and read an anatomy book for pleasure. Together, with the rest of the PTA Global crew, they presented the premier seminar “Systems, Sciences & Tools--Mastering Your Trade.”
This is where the bubble comes in. Throughout the session we were reminded of the bubble--essentially our propioceptive awareness and place in space. We’re not talking about just the planes of motion, but rather all the nooks and crannies around and between the planes of motion that many fitness professionals weren’t taught in school. That’s because we were given a “muscle and bone model” when we really needed a fascial one, according to Dalcourt.
When moving within your bubble you can go diagonally right, horizontally left, above, below, behind--you get the picture. The benefits to your body’s systems are innumerable. You can stay within your bubble, keeping it safe. You can expand your bubble as your confidence climbs.
How is your bubble? Mine is expanding. It has a lot to do with the injection of positive energy I’m already feeling. The vibe was ridiculously upbeat in the PTA Global session, as well as motivational. Everyone was either a “super trainer” or a “genius.”
On the other side of the wall, Douglas Brooks proved once again why he’s a mainstay at fitness conferences. His expert and enlightened instruction in “Training the Fascial Lines” had attendees on their toes--literally. If you want to know at least one method for training the fascial lines, here it is: vary your loads, speed and angles. There’s much more to it than this, of course, and as the body of research grows we are learning that we are really training fascia, not muscles.
We are living in a great time where access to information (and to each other) is immediate and deep. Let’s take advantage of it this weekend. Here’s to emerging from our bubbles on Sunday smarter, leaner and brighter!
Every year I return home from IDEA’s conferences a changed woman in one way or another. Sometimes I feel like I come home a better writer and editor because I’ve been immersed in a new world of experiences. Other times I come back feeling like a better person just because I’ve stepped outside myself, met some amazing people, and allowed my head and heart to expand a bit. I’ve worked at IDEA for almost 9 years, and before that I attended conferences as a staff member at the American Council on Exercise. So you can say I am a fan. Why the obsequious build up?
I swear this year was different.
Maybe it’s because I’ve expanded my own expertise as a personal trainer over the past year and the education means that much more to me. Maybe it’s because this sold-out event was packed with high-energy minds. I guess it doesn’t really matter. However, I do want to go out on a limb here and say that I am feeling the undercurrent of a tsunami in our industry. It’s been building for a while, and I think it’s about to hit the “mainland.”
It seems we have discovered something new and fascinating. It’s a piece of equipment that is intelligent beyond our wildest dreams and imaginings. Harnessing the intelligence of this miraculous fitness device will take us to places we never thought possible. The best part--it’s free! It just needs a little tender loving care to get activated the right way.
It’s the human body.
After years of approaching fitness and wellness from an external model--use this widget and that doo-hickey to “fix” yourself, we’ve come home to an irrefutable truth: befriend your body and let it show YOU how to fix it. I saw evidence of this in almost every session. Some of the greatest brains in the business kept driving home this message: deconstruct the physical body to its very essence and there you will find the building blocks for your programming. Address the pain and compensation. Check. Assess the body systems. Check. What’s going on in the attitude and lifestyle department? Check. And finally, can the body be its own weight machine? Well, duh.
I love it that Geoff Neupert spent an entire hour deconstructing the Turkish Get-up in his session “Rethinking Body Weight Training.” How many people do you know who skip this basic rite of strongman passage to hurl the kettlebell through space? Believe me, attendees got quite a bit of a workout from this session and nary a kettlebell was lifted. Alwyn Cosgrove had people begging for mercy in his combo corrective exercise, strength and metabolic meltdown session. Don’t get me wrong--I’m all for toys and equipment. And many clients want and need this introduction to fitness. But let’s not stray too far from how the body likes to move. Let’s not abandon our joints and fascia. Let’s remember our cells.
How do I distill the three days of somatic enlightenment I experienced at the IDEA Personal Trainer Institute? Hopefully you’ll see flashes of it in IDEA’s publications and content, so let’s keep in contact. Keep up the excellent work and share your magic with everyone you can.
Forget multiplanar. I want multilocation. Why oh why can’t I be in all sessions at the same time? There are so many amazing options to up the ante on education and I am feeling anxious. While I want to be taking notes on the unstable pelvis and how to assess masses and spaces, I also want to be trying out the five different variations on the Turkish Get-up and I also want to take on the heavy rope. Argh! I want it all and I want it now!
In short, Training with a Purpose means finding your purpose and training within that beautiful realm of self-knowing. It means responding to that inner jump of passion that wakes you when you hear your truth. It’s the meeting of the minds here at IDEA Personal Trainer Institute--and I am feeling my own mind light up like Gary Gray’s 3D Matrix. Yes! Body-mind/mind-body. It’s that integration thing you keep hearing about.
That leads me to one of the words of the weekend: neuro. This is the “it” word in fitness right now, in my opinion. Or at least one of them. Training is not relegated to the body, and never really has been. However, thanks to an avalanche of research that’s come out recently, we now have a better understanding of just how crucial the nervous system is in fitness and wellness programming. Muscles, bones, connective tissue, fascia--it takes nerves to train someone the right way.
I really wish you were here. Forget the education stuff--we’re having fun. Seriously, although it may seem as if they’re are way too many cooks in the kitchen when you walk into a room of 120 personal trainers, by the same token they’re all coaches and most of them are “people” people. So attendees are getting free assessments from their colleagues. They’re playing games with slam balls, tubing and weird configurations of agility ladders. And in some sessions it’s more like being in a spa. People leave Sue Hitzmann’s and Cassidy Phillips’ sessions looking as if they just got a Thai massage.
And then there’s the subtalar joint puppet. This is the term I have coined for Gary Gray’s informative and unique teaching style whereby he personifies an area of the body, in this case the subtalar joint. When Gray gives this joint a voice, he tells you what and how proper usage will do for the rest of the kinetic chain. Apparently, the subtalar joint is in cahoots with the gluteus maximus, among others. It’s a fun way to better understand why I keep having issues with my illiotibial band and why, perhaps, my piriformis is currently upset with me.
How’s your masses and spaces? Your clients’? What’s the biggest news in your inner circle? I’d love to hear from you.
Stepping off the airplane, on to a shuttle and into the world of IDEA Personal Trainer Institute in Alexandria, Virginia, is like opening the door from black and white to technicolor. For you younger folks who may not get the reference, this is what happened to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, after the tornado died down and she stepped a pre-ruby red slippered foot on to the beginning of the yellow brick road. I hope I haven’t used this reference before--perhaps I have. Regardless, I do feel as if I’m this close to the Emerald city. The yellow brick road is the ever-winding path to education and professionalism.
Approximately 700 people have met me here to explore programming that isn’t just creative--it kind of boggles the mind. You see the description on the schedule and think “Hmmm “ I’m not sure about that, but I will check it out.” Then you try it. Then you say to the person next to you “Wow, why didn’t I think of that? It makes so much sense.”
How can I describe the vibe here? It does feel like coming home. Once the hotel doors slide open and you run into another person who has the same functional gleam in his or her eye, you feel as if you yourself have been seen. It’s not just about fit bodies. We’ve expanded our concepts and defintions to include fit minds and sometimes fit souls.
As a family of professionals, we are really getting it. People don’t come to us to lose weight--although that may be what they think they want. But the truth is they need someone to accept them exactly as they are in this moment. Fat and lack of motivation included. They want someone to teach them the right way to do a squat and make them feel successful when they lean that butt back one millimeter more.
Speaking of squats, Fraser Quelch shared a funny and personal anecdote about the functionality of squatting, why we should be able to do it but can’t, and how cultural differences throw a wrench into the mix. The next time you see him, be sure to ask him about it. It’s a great story. On a side note, make it your homework to study a 2-year-old. Not only can they squat with perfect ease, they can rotate, move in all planes of motion and eat Cheerios at the same time. They haven’t met compensations yet.
Muscular compensations were alive and well in Cassidy Phillips’ session “Trigger Point Performance Therapy: Ultimate Six--Functional Fascia for Better Biomechanics.” Self myofascial release and trigger point manipulation is not a new area of study, but Phillips brings a fresh infusion of grit and passion to this component of corrective exercise. It amazes me how many fitness professionals don’t already do this with their clients--or themselves. I’ll let Greg Roskopf, MS, make my point, which he did during his session “Are We Ready to Stretch?” “Would you drive your car cross-country with it out of alignment? Of course not, but this is what we do with our clients everyday. Exercise can create intolerances.”
It’s your job as a personal trainer to make movement more tolerable, not less. And it’s while attending conferences like this one that you get the support and education you need from other travelers on the yellow brick road. This time, however, the Wizard is real. You can trust the man behind the curtain. Why? Because the wizard stays up to date with his continuing education credits--just like you.
So yesterday, midway through my day, my old friend illiotibial band syndrome woke up. This time, on my left leg (it’s usually my right that’s affected). If you’ve never experienced this before, I’m sure you know someone who has, maybe a client or participant. It manifests as pain in the lateral aspect of the knee and can get progressively worse if you don’t pay therapeutic attention to it. Hobbling around for the remaining days of the conference was not an option. Luckily I’ve had this before. In fact, this little dysfunction is what introduced me to the delights of self-mysofacsial release techniques almost 10 years ago. What in the beginning took me months to figure out took me a matter of hours this time. Rest-roll-ice. That’s what a searing need to alleviate pain and extreme thirst for knowledge can do for you. Efficient outcomes. And you become an epic geek who wants to show the world how the right tweaks can help you move pain-free. I am a geek among geeks here at the 2010 IDEA World Fitness Convention, and it’s always nice to come home to fitness geekville. Yes, the education is top-notch, but do you want to know what moves me even more? This morning as I was leaving the women’s bathroom I saw one of IDEA’s international members from a Spanish-speaking country teaching an L.A. Convention Center custodian dance moves. In the bathroom, folks. My guess is the convention center employee had little experience with “aerobicos,” based on her shy gleefulness. However, she was eager and smiling and willing to go on this new adventure with her new IDEA friend, a fitness professional who obviously likes to inspire wherever she goes. Who knows what might have happened after I left? They probably devised some sort of ingenious programming using the mop! I wouldn’t be surprised in the least. Speaking of exercise programming, I heard an interesting anecdote from Bill Sonnemaker in his session “Corrective Exercise Solutions Using Myofascial Lines.” He said a colleague new to personal training asked him where he came up with all the exercises that he uses in his program design. “Do you get them from a video library or a magazine?” Bill realized that this young man, along with many others apparently, had no idea what the myofasical lines were and how integral this knowledge is to understanding muscles and movement. It’s key to have this deep knowledge because it opens up a wellspring of creativity. If you know how these lines works, you know how to program for muliplanar movement. See what I mean? Geekville. By the way,what an amazing awards show last night! For a jaded person like myself to be impressed, it takes an extra ounce of pizazz, personality and pomp and that’s exactly how things landed. If you missed the ceremony, I wish I could replay for you the authenticity and warmth the U.S. Surgeon General portrayed or the dazzling dance numbers or the class Andre Agassi showed, his grace and generosity of spirit. There was also a lot of buzz about IDEA Fitness Connect and rightly so--it’s going to revolutionize the fitness industry. It’s 100% FREE, and I have an account myself. So go ahead and get started on yours, you won’t regret it.
It’s the calm before the storm here at 2010 IDEA World Fitness Convention in Los Angeles. Oh sure, if you walk by the Zumba room you feel a warm front of funkiness. If you stroll past the other premier sessions, people are huddled beneath an umbrella of education that is both poetic and practical. It’s the day before thousands descend on the Los Angeles Convention Center and you feel the coming crush like the queasy-good feeling in your stomach before a much-needed thunderstorm. It’s time to thrust learning into overdrive.In addition to being senior editor of IDEA’s publications, I am now also a certified personal trainer and indoor cycling instructor. It was an easy and no-brainer leap to make after being in the industry for 10 years as a writer, editor and general fitness enthusiast. Honestly, I do feel more like an “insider,” even though I only train and teach part-time. I’m a happy, lucky camper. I get to write and edit about a topic I am passionate about. Not only that, I am exposed to the best fitness education and educators in the world. What a perk!You can barely throw a medicine ball here without hitting a golden learning opportunity. Case in point: within 5 minutes of being in Doug Gray and Gary Gray’s session “Gray Institute: Optimize Your Current Skills in 3-D,”I learned about 10 new ways to train myself and my clients. That’s efficient. In addition to this, Gray said something that stuck with me. Regarding balance, he challenged us all to think about what “neutral” is and whether or not we really want to train and live from a perfectly balanced state. His point was if you are perfectly balanced, you’re frozen, fixated in a moment. What you want to do instead is “move through neutral.” Balancing while in motion is a good way to live life. There is no time for malaise to settle on your bones.The Fitness & Wellness Expo is even more impressive this year than it was last year, with more than 150 booths from a wide range of exhibitors. Check out some of the new programming from your favorite companies and meet some new favorites. I hope to see you moving through neutral on the expo hall floor or in the session rooms.
It’s the calm before the storm here at 2010 IDEA World Fitness Convention in Los Angeles. Oh sure, if you walk by the Zumba room you feel a warm front of funkiness. If you stroll past the other premier sessions, people are huddled beneath an umbrella of education that is both poetic and practical. It’s the day before thousands descend on the Los Angeles Convention Center and you feel the coming crush like the queasy-good feeling in your stomach before a much-needed thunderstorm.
It’s time to thrust learning into overdrive.
In addition to being senior editor of IDEA’s publications, I am now also a certified personal trainer and indoor cycling instructor. It was an easy and no-brainer leap to make after being in the industry for 10 years as a writer, editor and general fitness enthusiast. Honestly, I do feel more like an “insider,” even though I only train and teach part-time. I’m a happy, lucky camper. I get to write and edit about a topic I am passionate about. Not only that, I am exposed to the best fitness education and educators in the world. What a perk!
You can barely throw a medicine ball here without hitting a golden learning opportunity. Case in point: within 5 minutes of being in Doug Gray and Gary Gray’s session “Gray Institute: Optimize Your Current Skills in 3-D,” I learned about 10 new ways to train myself and my clients. That’s efficient. In addition to this, Gray said something that stuck with me. Regarding balance, he challenged us all to think about what “neutral” is and whether or not we really want to train and live from a perfectly balanced state. His point was if you are perfectly balanced, you’re frozen, fixated in a moment. What you want to do instead is “move through neutral.” Balancing while in motion is a good way to live life. There is no time for malaise to settle on your bones.
The Fitness Expo is even more impressive this year than it was last year, with more than 150 booths from a wide range of exhibitors. Check out some of the new programming from your favorite companies and meet some new favorites. I hope to see you moving through neutral on the expo hall floor or in the session rooms.
After three days of total body mastery immersion here in Alexandria, my brain is buzzing just as much if not more than my aching, happy muscles. Being part of such an incredible event is probably the best job perk I’ve ever had in my career (although telecommuting is quite nice). This year’s theme is “Elevate Your Game.” I officially consider my game as elevated. Based on the blissed out faces mirrored in the attendees, I’d say they agree.
If you look at the class schedule you see it’s peppered with the following words: corrective, functional, performance, regression, progression, matrix, strategies, metabolic, power, creative and solutions. These words are tags for a successful personal training practice (among many others, of course). This weekend I watched all levels of personal trainers from across the country share what works for them while learning new ways to do it better.
Attending a conference to learn theory and research is one thing. Attending a conference to learn theory AND then how to take it and USE it in more than one way is quite another. That’s what happened here this weekend—just the regular magic of being open to education. How on earth are you going to learn 50 or so things to do with your in-home client in less than one hour if Annette Lang didn’t take the time to wow you with her very cool, tested and true ideas? Would you have known about the role the amygdala has in your client’s level of motivation if Robert Cappuccio hadn’t taught it?
I’m excited about taking the details of this weekend home with me to use with my own clients—with the proper modifications, of course. This kind of immersion stays with you, it lingers on your psyche for weeks and months and it shows in the work you do. If you don’t believe me, I challenge you to attend one of IDEA’s upcoming events. If your game is not elevated to planetary heights, I’ll do crab walks down the street.
