I love fitness. I always have. The most frustrating thing for me as an obese child growing up in an obese family was lack of physical activity. I felt trapped inside my body. I couldn’t understand why my body didn’t bend, twist and maneuver the way other kids’ bodies did. Why couldn’t I tumble, use the monkey bars and dodge the ball quicker? I felt like an athlete and I succeeded at some sports; but I never felt as if I lived up to my true potential. I’ve made it a mission to find that lost athlete inside me in my adult years.
I’ve done pretty well--with quite a few injuries and setbacks. I’ve even taken my passion a step further and become a certified personal trainer, registered yoga teacher and an indoor cycling instructor. I am an editor and writer for the most respected magazine for fitness professionals in the industry, IDEA Fitness Journal. I have learned a lot about the body and I am constantly learning more. I’m very happy with my progress and yet, something has always bothered me: Pilates.
It’s not that I don’t like Pilates; I just never felt that drawn to it. I’ve been researching, writing and creating content for Pilates professionals for more than 10 years now. I’m also senior editor for IDEA Pilates Today, a publication solely dedicated to the topic of Pilates. When it comes to exercise physiology, biomechanics, group fitness trends and techniques and anything related to yoga, I feel quite confident. Not so with Pilates. Honestly, I’ve felt like a bit of a fake. I don’t think it’s necessary to be a Pilates professional or enthusiast to be the lead editor of a publication; however, I do feel it’s important to have a visceral understanding of your content. I’ve always felt as if I’ve been scratching the surface. And so, I decided to roll up my yoga mat for a spell and take some Pilates classes. This is something I have never done. I’ve been to plenty of conference sessions and I’ve edited many Pilates articles. But I have never experienced it firsthand.
My goal in this endeavor is to embody the method and hopefully find a deeper understanding of why so many people are so passionate about it. I had my first private session today with Jennifer Curry Wingrove, owner of Pilates On Park in San Diego, a renowned ballerina of the California Ballet Company, and a STOTT PILATES ® certified instructor.
What was it like? It was like relearning how to move. I have great body awareness, but this is a whole new level of neuromuscular integration. The breathing techniques are different from what we do in yoga and I had to constantly remind myself to switch gears. When on the closed chain environment of the reformer my body immediately let me know where and how I’ve been cheating—especially with my right shoulder, which I injured years ago. The prepatory moves were both familiar and distinctly distant. Learning the compound movements, matching my breath and staying centered throughout was a mental workout. I quickly learned this is not something you do mindlessly. If you are doing Pilates mindlessly, you’re not doing Pilates.
Curry did an excellent job of seamlessly moving me through my first session and pulled me back when I needed to regroup. Afterwards I felt intensely invigorated and my right shoulder, which has a hard time staying back and down, had somehow shifted in its socket. I felt more stable, upright and confident. My mood had lifted. I guess I had the Pilates glow I keep reading and writing about but never had firsthand knowledge of.
This is what I hope to share with you, the Pilates professional. I want to not only deepen my understanding of what you do so I can deliver the best content possible, I want to remind you what it’s like to approach Pilates from a beginner’s mind. While the repertoire may be simple and flowing for you now, can you remember what it was like to bottom out the carriage or not know which strap to pull? Try on a beginner’s mind again and reach new clients like me in myriad new ways through your cuing, knowledge and presence.
I am leaving IDEA Personal Trainer Institute today--hopefully a step ahead of the "wintry mix"--in a better body that houses a better mind and spirit. I personally believe that a healthy body is the gateway to a healthy mind, but then again I also believe the whole kit and kaboodle is intertwined to a point that we don't really know the main influencer.
I do know this: I feel better when I take care of my vehicle. This seems to also be the case with the folks who trust me to train them. My clients come in wearing a mask of stress and they leave more relaxed, happy, calm and ready to tackle their lives.
That's why I do what I do. How about you?
I met a good cross section of personal trainers this weekend of all shapes, sizes and ages. Some are old school and some are just feeling out the bubble to test its boundaries and see how far it floats. Some never satiate their hunger for information and research and others just want you to hand them a template so they can automate their practices. In any case, no matter what your judgment is about what a personal trainer should or shouldn't be, is it still true that we all have a chance to make a difference in someone's life? That's a pretty big deal.
Don't waste it.
This morning was tough. I'm still on California time and for some reason the third day of getting up at 4 a.m. on my body clock's time felt excruciatingly difficult. But I dragged my SoCal butt out of bed and made the rounds. My brain lit up like a Lite Brite at all the drive, passion, fun and intelligent design in the sessions. I was inspired by Rodney Corn's plea to meet your client inside their comfort zone, not yours. I was intrigued by unstable surface research that made me think. Brett Klika's session on training weekend warriors opened my eyes to new possibilities and profit centers.
I want to give the world a chance to happy, healthy and productive. What do you want to give the world, when can you start and how are you going to make it happen?
Why aren't you at this event? Do you already know it all?
In her session, One of the Top 10 Biggest Mistakes Trainers Make and How to Avoid Them, Nicki Anderson listed the know-it-all mentality as one trap personal trainers fall into. "I have a degree and 7 years of experience. I don't need to go to a conference to learn anything new. There's nothing new. I know it all." How can that be possible? I really want to know.
Hardly anyone was talking about fascial lines 10 years ago. As the conversation has expanded, now we've moved beyond foam rolling and basic self-myofascial release techniques to deeper understandings of other integrated systems that tie into and synergize with fascia. A lot of the programming I've seen at this event focuses on preparing the entire organism for movement. Pre-stress, pre-generate, pre-think the system clean before the system has a chance to clog. I'm not talking about warm-ups, either. I'm talking about the prequel to warming up.
If you were here, you'd know what I'm talking about. I know, I know...you are here in spirit. Many of you are. A lot of personal trainers, however, are missing the mark in their assessments and foundations, and this includes business acumen. But when it comes to the body--understanding it and training it--you really need to light a match in your brain and let that fire build.
In his session Walking Tall--What Your Client's Gait Can Tell You Before They Even Speak, Dan Hellman, PT, talked about how important a properly functioning pelvis is. If you think you already know this, then can you explain the myofascial slings in detail? Can you speak to how organ function might inhibit the inner unit? Are you smart and conscientious enough to not allow your clients to run before they can walk? "The pelvis is your foundation for the spine, your dream home," Hellman said. "You must be able to properly assess this when looking at gait."
Have you built your career on a weak foundation? Are you running when you can't even walk properly? There are plenty of personal trainers here who struggle to do a squat, can't name primary movers and who ignore their own body's plea for regeneration. I'm not knocking them--I give them lots of credit for being here. My question is: if we're not strengthening the foundation of our own bodies, minds and spirits, then how can we train and coach others to do the same effectively?
Check in with your dream home, whatever that means to you. Are you burned out from working too much? Is your body crying out for some TLC? Is your client base currently all doing the same workout? Now take a look at your foundation--your health, your education, your sense of purpose. Don't be afraid to tear something down and start over. That's how muscles get strong, after all.
I start looking forward to IDEA Personal Trainer Institute around November when all the holiday hub bub starts. I am not a fan of the holidays, but this event is like Christmas to me and it's one gift after another--continuing education, networking, a break from routine and play. After enjoying a nice, full day of the conference I can definitely say I am like a kid who got exactly what she wanted for "Christmas."
The key must have been unlocking the power of my psoas first thing this morning in Sue Hitzmann's session by the same name. Hitzmann's passion for the neurofascial system and her commitment to sharing details about tensegrity in smart and entertaining ways speaks to the trapped inner athlete in me. The one who enjoys pain-free function, that is. Whatever you think you know about the psoas, you owe it to yourself to revisit your understanding and check it against your own body's intelligence. There's a lot more going on than a guide wire from your lumbar spine to your leg (to oversimplify it).
This is where I start getting philosophical about life. Consider yourself forewarned.
With a freshly decompressed lower back, it seemed a little easier to weave through the rest of the day. I was feeling less stressed, less tired, and I enjoyed the company of others a lot more. It also seemed easier to concentrate on the material being presented in the sessions. In fact, although I am more of a kinesthetic learner, I think I might have actually embodied a few concepts from the TRX Rip Training Workout simply from watching. However, it was from a place of action that I think I learned the most important piece of information today.
I am thinking about buying a heavy rope for my personal training practice (I can hear Sandy Todd Webster and Ryan Halvorson chuckling because I am known for collecting toys). I stepped in on Power Systems: Fit on a Rope session led by Don Bahneman and Shannon Fable to watch and determine whether or not I really needed to add this to my toolbox. What I didn't count on was joining in for a few Tabata drills.
I'm not new to this training tool, or much of the programming, but I definitely learned something new today. Maybe it's because I've been thinking too much about personal matters or not thinking enough about others around me. Whatever the reason, working with the ropes and a perfect stranger (new friend) became a metaphor for life. This is what I walked away with:
* Ropes are heavy; life is heavy. You have to grip it with both hands and not let go.
* Like life, heavy rope training encourages sustained output. You need periods of rest and recovery, however, to make real progress.
* You can't train with heavy ropes without some sort of anchor, whether it is a stationary object, a heavy kettlebell or another person. Likewise, it's important to have some sort of anchor in your life to keep you grounded.
* You can't just use your arms to create the movement; you have to use your entire body, from nose to toes. When challenged by life, you have to dig deep to meet it head-on.
* Finally, and most importantly, if you're not playing and having fun, what's the point? It's just a big, fat rope.
So the next time a client irks you, your practice isn't up to par or things just simply aren't going your way, take it to the ropes and see if your mindset shifts with your metabolism.
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.
