It’s good to be back in Las Vegas after going to a personal training conference in LA.  Boy did I learn A LOT!  I had an amazing experience listening to some of the top minds and coaches in the NATION in the fitness field.  There were top personal trainers, top marketing people, and exercise equipment manufacturers.  This conference covered everything that I love.  I’m just going to share with you some small parts of my experience, the seminars i went to and some interesting happenings. 

Basically what I did at the conference was be in school for 3 days straight.  From 7 in the morning until 6 at night, we were in either workouts, seminars, or workshops, that had to do with various aspects of the health and fitness world.  Some had to do with group exercise, some with personal training, and some with the management of your business.  For the sake of you guys and not going into boredom, I am going to stick with the ones I attended that had to do with exercise and personal training.

Bright and Early at 8:10 am, I went to a workshop that had to do only with kettlebells.  If you don’t know what these are, they basically look like an iron ball with a handle at the top.  Well, that IS what they are, but anyway.  This class basically taught me the fundamentals of kettlebell training, how you can do total workouts with them, and what the benefits of them are.  You can use these as an alternative to dumbells but also they are more versatile because of the form of the kettlebell.  Needless to say, I came back to Las Vegas with an extra 45 pound ball.  That’s heavy.

Another workout /workshop I went to, was at 7 am.  yeah.. that’s NOT the most fun thing in the world, but it’s all worth it when you are kind of a fitness nerd like myself.  This was called MELT.  It basically was 45 minutes of learning how to release tight muscles in the foot, thigh, and lower back.  We used a foam roller, and two different densities of little bouncy balls.  You can do this at home with a tennis ball and pvc pipe, but the lady uses her own tools so you buy them and make her money:)  It was a good class, and left me loose for what was coming next.

After the MELT class, I did this workout called 4 Top Guns.  This was the class I was looking forward to the most, and it did NOT disappoint me.  There were 4 top trainers, two of which are my two favorite, and they took you through an hour and fifty minute workout.  I don’t know if I have ever sweat this much in my life.  There were four different stations, one for each trainer, and each station had a few sub-stations.  Within the stations there were a few different exercises, and sequences that you had to run through.  There was a TRX station, and if you are one of my clients, you KNOW how much I love the TRX.  I got to spend 20 minutes nonstop doing different exercises on the TRX with Fraser Quelch(one of my favorites).  He got me sweating a little, and that was just in the first 20 minutes.  Then it was off to do some routines on the battling ropes, some agility drills, power bands, and bosu balls.  After the class, I met up with Emily who instantly laughed when she saw me, because I was DRENCHED in sweat.

The last class I will talk about is a functional seminar I took. It was called Motion Drivers-What Turns YOU On?  Kinky, I know.  This class was showing us how the body uses more muscles that the average person thinks, when doing daily activity, and if you can mimic daily activity movement in your exercise routine, you will be much better off.  The presenter brought up a great point by saying functional exercise is the way to go.  Athletes use exercises like these.  And he brought up the example of a bodybuilder.  The way bodybuilders train is SOLELY for vanity.  There is no relay to normal activity when you train like a bodybuilder.  Have you ever seen a bodybuilder try to play sports?  It’s actually pretty comical.  Anyway.  I had fun in this guys presentation because he kind of reinforced the way I think.

Well, that is a little taste of what i went through this weekend.  In total, I took 9 classes/workshops/seminars/workouts, and I enjoyed every one of them.  This is something I will go to again, every year.  I think there is never an end to learning, and everyone can benefit from better educating themselves.  I am going to take some of the new tips I learned, and implement them into my own training.  Future clients, BEWARE!