FitPro 2011 Spring Convention

For a want of better things to do with my life I grudgingly gave in to my elder sister and consented to attend the FitPro 2011 Spring Convention with her at Loughborough University. I thought that I was going to be the most unfit person there, who knew absolutely nothing about being a Personal Trainer, and stand out as a total loser. Plus I reckon it would have been uber boring as I was signed up for lectures and a couple of workshops.

Friday April 8

Day 1

Jay Blahnik, a premier fitness instructor kick started the convention with an opening address. He was incredible! One of the things he spoke about was being terminally unique. That is people who think they're so different from everyone else in the world and that no one would understand them and whatever problems they're going through. I've felt like one of those people at some point in my life.

Following the opening address was demos of workshops that would be taking place during the convention. There was Body Pump, some Step stuff, Martial Arts inspired stuff and lots of other things. This convention was starting to look up! The first lecture my sister and I arrived late but the lecturer, an Australian physio and fitness and health educator immediately caught my attention, talking about the anterior cruciate ligament, which I damaged while playing football 6 years ago. It was really interesting!

The day continued with another lecture, by legend Charles Poliquin and he was a sarcastic meanie! He said vegans are morons cause they have the arms of an 11-year-old boy and counting calories is for morons because the body uses x amount of calories to break down whatever you eat. He said loads of interesting things especially about toxins in the body. Toxins can enter your body through the makeup you wear, the shampoo and soap you use. Very interesting stuff indeed.

The highlight of the day however was a Zumba class. It's like aerobics to music with really upbeat tempos. The instructors were amazing. If Zumba can make me have awesome bodies like theirs, I'd do it! Another workshop I went to was Urban Funk, incorporating hiphop beats and dance to exercise! I couldn't wait for day 2.

Saturday, April 9

Day 2

My day consisted of four lectures. All extremely interesting. Women and Weights. Paul Wright spoke about the physiology of females and that while the lower body is stronger in females, the upper body needs to be worked to stabilise the body. It is important for women from an early age to build up their bone density which can prevent falls which can lead to fractures in old age. This is done by training with heavy weights. Weight training programmes should not be based on gender but rather by the individual. Furthermore, when women train hard and heavy, they're more likely to be happier. Twenty seven per cent of a woman's energy is lost due to psychology and women lose energy faster than men when training as well.

The other lectures were awesome as well, learning to run faster in 5 minutes was a bit of a workshop, British Olympic swimmer Mark Foster delivered a lecture on 'Know your goal', 20 years swimming and he still keeps at it because his goal is Olympic Gold! The awesome bit of day 2 was the burlesque chair dance.

The instructor was well built and had amazing muscle definition, broad shoulders and so forth but that woman could move! She usually teaches pole exercises (dancing) but she decided to do some burlesque and I've never felt sexier. Furthermore, I'm willing to show off the routine she taught.

Sunday, April 10

Day 3

Final day of FitPro. It began with a bang. 1.5 hours of Hydrospin, taking the traditional spin class and putting it in a pool. I love spin class but due to the knee injury I sustained I find it quite difficult. The buoyancy of the water took the pressure off my knees and I was able to completely enjoy the session and best of all, being in the water means I was cool all the way through!

Another legend delivered a lecture I attended, Paul Chek spoke about overcoming knee pain and the most interesting bit he spoke about was that the body compensates for injuries and when the pain is too much it transfers it to other parts of the body, in particular other areas that have been previously injured. So have you had an injury and then later on wondered why other body parts hurt when you have no recollection of injuring yourself recently? According to Chek, you never have a knee problem, you have a knee injury that creates a body problem.

The final lecture I attended was about fats and I sure learned a lot about cholesterol. Did you know that cholesterol does a lot of good? It makes repairs in the body and in the breakdown process it can be converted into 1 of 2 things, it either produces hormones or if you're stressed, produce cortisol. So being stressed isn't good because you'll constantly be producing cortisol and then wonder why you have no sex drive or functioning sexual organs :)

What I learned is that you must not judge people by their professions, especially when you think they're these big muscle heads or fitness junkies and bimbos. Every lecture I attended there was so much anatomy and reminders to the PT's in the room about muscles, bones, the spine, neurological and psychological functions and nutritional aspects. Qualified and certified PTs are actually pretty intelligent people and all these presenters had evidence to support all the claims they made by either academic research or in the case of Poliquin and Chek, results from their clients who include national and olympic sportsmen and women.

Oh, did I mention that on Friday night there's a Happy Hour for attendees at the convention at the Loughborough Students Union bar and on Saturday night there's a disco?

Also I wasn't the most unfit person there. I saw people with bigger tummies than me and they looked as exhausted from the workshops as I was.

Verdict: FitPro was amazing! I would definitely return to the UK just to attend this next year and probably convince my other sister to come along as well.

So, if you're interested in the FitPro Spring Convention check it out!