Just came back from the IDEA Personal Trainer Institute in Alexandria, Virginia. As with the many IDEA conferences I attended before, this one provided interesting sessions by world class presenters. I returned home with food for thought, 12 foam rollers, 1 Bosu (already spoken for) and 2 Lebert Equalizer bars.
As is always the case at IDEA conferences, it is an opportunity to renew acquaintances, to network and to exchange ideas with other trainers. It was fun to contrast this conference to IDEA World Fitness which is larger in scope and attendance and also focuses on group exercise. The dynamic of the (mostly) younger instructors makes IDEA World Fitness noisier, and the large international attendance has always been fun for me. But I also appreciated the lower key of the Personal Trainer Institute. It felt like a conference for the grown-ups :-)
The thing that struck me this time was the increased focus on stress reduction strategies which were discussed in several sessions I took. Of course, there is MELT with its application to quiet the stress reflex. But I also learned about the correlation of breathing and potential weight loss and nutrition consideration to reduce inflammation. The nervous system is beginning to be a more prominent player in the fitness consciousness, and the central role of the enteric nervous system (of the gut) is included in the discussion. Funny that I just finished reading an entire book about the enteric nervous system! It made comprehension of those concepts so much easier.
Now I need to digest the information without letting myself get stressed about it :-)
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