Hi Gang,

I spent the last few days at the Can Fit Pro conference in Toronto, ON.  It is a huge conference!  There are thousands of delegates from all different aspects of the fitness industry including:  Group Exercise Instructors, Personal Trainers, Strength and Conditioning Coaches, Phys. Ed Teachers, Massage Therapist, Sport Coaches and so on.  This makes for a pretty diverse group and I wanted to share a few of my observations:

• There are some great new fitness coaches out there doing some great, innovative things with a firm basis in exercise science (as opposed to – “wow this is hard…let’s do it”).  The session that Fraser Quelch ran integrating the TRX and the functional movement screen sticks out.  This one session was worth the price of admission.
• There are some not so great fitness coaches out there doing the same crappy stuff, with no basis in science and a full flock of trainers who just follow along – monkey see monkey do.  I was in a session where one instructor was teaching a group of about 200 fitness instructors some high velocity rotary power exercises.  I saw some terrible technique…I mean REALLY terrible!  What’s worse there was no technique correction or teaching at all, it was basically a laundry list of exercises that some of those instructors will be teaching their members this morning without any idea that they are doing them incorrectly while putting their clients (and themselves) at risk for serious lower back injury.
• Group exercise instructors have tons of energy and certainly are passionate about what they do!  I felt like I was at a half conference – half pep rally! 
• I learned a new word – “indefatiguable”.  Can I use it in a sentence?  You bet!  Muscle spasm is indefatiguable.  Meaning that a muscle in spasm cannot be stretched or exercised into fatigue and relaxation.  Cool ‘eh?
• Finally, I am WAY behind the fashion curve.  Okay, so that is not a newsflash.  Some of the combinations I saw this weekend were remarkable.  I saw more than one gold lamae top paired with workout bottoms – ready to go right from the gym to the night club!  I saw workout gear paired with high heel shoes?? 

All in all it was a great education in many ways!  If you get the chance you should check it out next year – it is affordable and has lots to offer!

Cheers,

Maria