Flip the Script - Using Coaching Tactics to Maximize Your Client's Success

Neal Pire

Fitness professionals have been traditionally taught to “instruct” their clients - what to do, how much and how to do it. Unfortunately, this instructional model does not always address behavioral barriers – lack of motivation and confidence need to be overcome before a client successfully adopts and adheres to a “new” health behavior. This session will highlight some of these behavioral constructs and coaching tactics that a Fitness Professional can use to help a client overcome such barriers and successfully adopt the desired behaviors.

5 Keys to Fitness Leadership Mastery

Dan McDonogh

The fitness industry is a competitive, demanding, ego-centric & ever-evolving industry that requires us to be at our best every day. After two decades in this amazing industry I wholeheartedly believe that we need to do LESS BETTER in order to not only help our participants/clients achieve their goals but to ensure that we have the physical, mental and emotional capacity to meet the demands we face every day.

Are You Sure You Are Speaking Their Language?

Maurice Williams

Clear communication between the fit-pro and the client is essential. It is a science that comes with experience. However, inadequate communication can lead to a variety of pitfalls. In this session, we discuss the proper forms of communication like verbal cuing, augmented feedback and auditory learning to avoid disconnects. You will leave this session with practical examples of communication that prevent confusion and frustration within the relationship?

Career Roadmaps: Five Health & Wellness Pros (Nutrition/Personal Training, Health Coaching, University, Research & Worksite Health) share career development tips.

Lecture | Fitness Pro Focus

Anthony Wolfe, Diana Diamantopoulos, Paul Gallo, Reed Engel, Katie Hake

Five Health and Wellness Professionals from various disciplines (nutrition, health coaching, personal training, university instruction/research, and worksite health) share their career roadmaps, highlighting what worked well and offering recommendations for new, mid-, and senior-level professionals.

Creating Connection: Storytelling Strategies that Drive Growth

Bari Goldberg

The secret behind every thriving fitness business: high-quality content. This session is designed to equip you with the skills of authentic storytelling without draining your time or budget. You’ll learn to leverage your unique experience and expertise to establish credibility, build trust, and attract your dream clients.

Empowering People with Parkinson's Disease Through Exercise: Putting Research into Action

Eric Johnson

Exercise can be neuroprotective for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease, but it must be intense! 10+ years of research have proven the efficacy of exercise as a disease-modifying treatment for PD but how is this research being implemented in real life for people living with this disease? Fitness professionals have the ability and responsibility to help but we must learn WHAT it is we need to do and WHY we need to do it. Empowering people with Parkinson's means we must apply the science in an impactful way where the client feels the benefit.

Enhancing the Quality of Muscular Fitness and Balance Evaluation with Portable Movement Sensor Technology

Casey Filler, Kaitlin Moore

This session would involve demonstration and instruction on the use of 2 different movement sensor technology systems to enhance the quality of exercise assessment and improve delivery of exercise prescription:1) Use of MoveFactorX inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor for measuring objective upper and lower body functional strength metrics through a sensor attached to the lower back or embedded inside a smart medicine ball.2) Use of RAPID Rehab AI-led software for objective measurement of balance and gait analysis.This session could be interactive where listeners are given the chance to use and test out the equipment.

Exploring The Transformative Power of Trauma-Informed Care in the Health & Fitness Industry

Jessica Mather

More than ever, our clients need trauma-informed care. Even if we don’t treat trauma, virtually all experienced health and fitness providers have encountered a client living with a history of trauma which can impact the way they think, move, heal, and progress in our care. Being trauma-informed means we recognize the prevalence of trauma, acknowledge the signs and symptoms of trauma, respond and support in an informed manner, and aim to avoid re-traumatization. These critical skills can transform the way we serve our clientele and improve their outcomes in our care.

Fitness For All Abilities: Integration Of Individuals With Disabilities Into the Fitness Community

David Lorenzi, Leslie Stenger

Health and fitness professionals have the privilege of working with all populations to enhance lives.  However, a challenge exists when fitness professionals do not exhibit the confidence to work with individual with disabilities.  At the same time, those individuals with disabilities frequently report not feeling welcome in the fitness arena.  This  session will enable the fitness profession to apply practical methods of inclusion of individuals with disabilities into the fitness community.  Real-life examples of programs will be part of the presentation.

How to film and edit short form recipe videos as fitness and health professionals.

Wan Na Chun

We all know that nutrition plays a huge role in health and fitness goals. As short form video content starts to become the more dominant medium to communicate with your audience, one of the best ways to educate our audience is through sharing recipe videos. In this session, I break down all of my tips, techniques, softwares, and other editing secrets that I use to shoot my recipe videos. By leveraging recipe videos, we can attract a wider audience to foster a stronger community.

Improving the Health of People With Intellectual Disabilities: How Fitness Professionals Can Make a Difference

Melissa Otterbein

People with intellectual disabilities (PWID) are motivated to improve their fitness. A 2020 Special Olympics survey found that among PWID who belonged to a gym, most attended regularly, with 74% attending at least twice per week. However, PWID continue to face many barriers to fitness participation, including lack of access and social support. This session features fitness resources that will equip attendees to deliver impactful fitness programming for PWID. Attendees will understand pathways for engaging PWID on the individual level as clients, community level through roles such as Fitness Coach, and systems change strategies to improve fitness access for PWID.

Inexpensive Marketing for Growth and Profitability

Sara Kooperman

Examine how to market effectively, efficiently while remaining cost effective. Explore branding your business through various media driving it to success. Uncover your unique market position, develop pop-ups, postcards, social media posts, email, text messages, eNewsletters, and expand your social media presence. Explore ways to take your business to the next level with effective, strategic, and inexpensive marketing. Learn from this entrepreneur who started from a 3rd floor walk-up and created a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Leave with plenty of FREE advice and resources!

Intro to Multiple Sclerosis for fitness and wellness professionals

Emily Reilly

Join Emily Reilly, Adaptive Fitness Trainer and person living with multiple sclerosis to learn about this disease that impacts over 1 million people in the US. In this course you will learn safe & effective modifications for the various symptoms and better understand how you can help your clients living with MS know that "no matter what their limitation, they CAN keep moving!"

Just Start 1:1 Virtual Personal Training for Profit

Irene McCormick

Now is the time to upskill your current wellness offerings and add an additional income stream by going virtual! Virtual 1:1 personal training is relatively easy to start, and a convenient way for you to reach a largely untapped market - at-home exercisers. Meeting the evolving needs of today’s fitness community means exploring a larger landscape, but also finding a niche the fitness pro can grow in. Offering digital services using today’s technology requires some education and training, but it’s easier than you think. A small investment can grow your brand recognition today and yield greater financial results tomorrow.

Minimum-effective doses of resistance training: small dose, big gains!

Zachary Mang

Common adaptation to resistance training are associated with improved cardiovascular health and functional task performance. Despite these positive outcomes, the majority of American adults do not partake in structured resistance training programs, and many of them cite discomfort and lack of time as their primary barriers. High-volume resistance training sessions require a lot of time and may result in higher levels of fatigue and soreness, which contributes to the previously-cited barriers. Thus, in this class, you will learn how to significantly reduce your training volume and time commitment without compromising hypertrophy and strength.

Myth Busted: Resistance Training for Youth

Yvette Figueroa, Zainab Sherwani, Mahaa Siddiqui

Some authors have written statements discussing the longstanding and widespread belief about how resistance training might not be appropriate for children and adolescents because the strain might be too much for muscles and bones that are still developing, stunting growth, and increasing the risk of injury. These statements have been dispelled by JAMA pediatrics since then and as long as there is proper technique and guidance, strength training alongside aerobic exercises has been recommended by healthcare professionals (Brooks et al., 2022). This presentation will highlight the benefits of resistance training for youth and provide recommendations that fitness professionals can apply in this population.

Protein Requirements to Support Post-Exercise Recovery

David Church

Using an evidence based framework, protein recommendations will be provided to support and optimize post-workout recovery as well as total daily intake.

Redesigning Personalized Interval Training in Obesity: The Hybrid Model

Alexis Batrakoulis

Interval training seems to be a safe, enjoyable, and time-efficient exercise modality for non-athletes while being one of the top global trends in the health and fitness industry. In this session, latest research findings will be presented focusing on the efficacy of interval training protocols on body composition, physical performance, functional capacity, cardiometabolic health, and psychological well-being in real-world clients. Science-based and feasible hybrid-type protocols for adults living with obesity will be also presented, promoting exercise engagement through nontraditional training programs and focusing on the most prevalent type of adult population in the USA and worldwide.

Science-Based Body Weight Interval Training for Clinical Populations

Gabriella Bellissimo

Bodyweight exercise and high-intensity interval training stand out as prominent fitness trends worldwide. Notably, the fusion of these two approaches, known as bodyweight interval training (BW-IT), has garnered significant attention, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This lecture will commence with an analysis of the defining features of BW-IT, rooted in scientific findings. Subsequently, the lecture will consist of six customized workouts designed for specific clinical demographics, with a primary focus on adults dealing with obesity and individuals living with or susceptible to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

To Fast or Feast: An Evidence Based Look at the Social Media Giant Intermittent Fasting

Matthew Stratton

Intermittent fasting is an extremely popular diet. However, this popularity has caused a lot of misconceptions around not only what the diet is, but how it works and how it might affect your goals. Throughout this session we will focus on not only understanding the background that led to the social media giant, but what the data actually does and does not say. Additionally, we will discuss what to look for when examining IF studies so you can be better prepared for the future. Lastly, how to best implement IF if it seems right for you or your clients.