American Council on Exercise

Just returned from a meeting with the American Council on Exercise (ACE). I am impressed with their direction, focus, development of their assessment piece, the credentialing process, and overall professionalism. The seek input (thus why I was there) and respect the integrity of our profession. When others may falter, ACE will remain leading the pack and I am very proud to be associated.

IDEA World Fitness Convention, August 4-8, 2010

For those of you attending the "World" in Los Angeles, California....don't forget to register for my extended session (if interested). The session is entitled, "Zone in on Lower Back Post rehabilitation - Synergy, Science and Income." It will be held on Sunday morning. Would love to have you in attendance. The latest research studies and application will be presented. IDEA has contracted for the session to be video taped so it will be available on CD after the conference!!! See you there.

"Sales Tips for Personal Trainers"

Check out the informative article from IDEA Fitness Manager here.

Cardiovascular Health Goals

The American Heart Association's (AHA) 2020 impact goals were established last year and stated: "By 2020, to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by 20% while reducing deaths from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and stroke by 20%."

While this is a staggering goal with lots of work to do....The article in IDEA Fitness Journal, May 2020, page 14 also states.. "The AHA recognizes that defining and setting goals is a major first step, it is exercise professionals and health/fitness advocates who will direct the charge and implement exercise and intervention campaigns to inspire citizens to realize these goals."

Our work as fitness professionals is "cut-out for us". The statistics from the 2009 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics (Lloyd-Jones et al. 2009) reported that 62% of adults over 18 years of age lead completely sedentary lifestyles.

We just have to encourage people to MOVE.....and keep MOVING. Do you all agree?

hip flexors

Thought.....if you have a middle age woman, wanting to get into shape, not competing for an athletic event, why would you have her hang by an overhead bar, and have her pull her knees up to her chest??? I wish someone would explain this to me. Am I missing something?? Seriously....are we stable enough within the scapula-thoracic area...do we really recruit more than the iliopsoas...how much abdominal is recruited during this movement...

Yes, this can be discussed, but shouldn't it be discussed before we tried the movement on a middle age woman? AND is this exercise appropriate for this gal?? THINK!!!!!

thank you for the "listening" today

Thanks to the MFA and their respective "listening" for today's teleconference. It was a unique experience and I am grateful for the questions and the attendance. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me......

In time with Post Rehabilitation

When I have the opportunity to see clients who have had injury, illness, disease, etc., it always amazes me how rushed we all want to return them to being 100% immediately. The deeper I get into the fitness post rehabilitation "mode", the more I have realized that we all need to "slow down". The need to allow the muscles to respond, the need to allow the joints to acquire the support, the need to be patient so that the body can begin and continue to heal. In addition, when I say rushed, I am meaning that our program design takes the progression too fast too soon. Unloaded programming may take longer than we wish to admit. The key is to ask why are we rushing? Are we wanting to progress the client and demonstrate more difficult exercises?.....wrong! Are we wanting to show progression......may be, but more than likely, we as fitness professionals think we need to .....WE DO NOT. Slow down, allow the muscles to respond, allow the body to heal and perform correctly, and continue to provide quality of care.