GroupFitPower » Certification

A massive list of fitness conferences

kristaleopold — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:21:42 +0000

Update! I will NOT be attending DCAC this year. If you are going to be there, have fun!

I’ve been researching various workshops and conferences to attend before the end of next year, and I wanted to share the fruits of my labor. I’ve decided to attend the DCAC Fitness Convention in Alexandria, VA August 4-8, 2010. I’ve not been to DCAC before, so this will be interesting. The last conference I attended was Florida MANIA, which did not earn me any STAR Points for Spinning. But at DCAC I’ll be getting NASM, AFAA and Spinning CEU’s, so it is one-stop shopping for me!

If you are interested in DCAC, it will be in Alexandria, VA August 4-8. If you want to know more about DCAC or other major conferences, here is a compilation of what I considered before deciding to go to DC this year!

IDEA Health and Fitness Association

IDEA World Fitness Convention™ August 4-8, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA
Inner IDEA

Inner IDEA Conference Sept. 23-26, 2010 in Palm Springs, CA

IDEA Personal Trainer Institute™ was held in Alexandria, VA (Washington DC) in February 2010. Look for it in late Winter 2011
IDEA Fitness Fusion Conference™ was held in Rosemont, IL (Chicago) in April 2010. Look for it again in Spring 2011.

ECA World Fitness

SCW Fitness/Sarah City Workout

They have so many, I can’t even post them all!!! Visit their conventions page for dates and details for available cities. I really enjoyed this convention in 2008 and recommend it to anyone who doesn’t need STAR points…. Visit the list of SCW Fitness MANIAs The cities include: Philadelphia PA, Burlingame CA, Orlando FL, Atlanta GA, Rosemont IL, Boston MA

DCAC Fitness

Can Fit Pro

Can Fit Pro has many conferences all over Canada. Rather than list them all, I’m going to send you to their conferences page. Their cities include: Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, St. John’s, Saskatoon, Moncton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg.

IHRSA

IHRSA – 29th Annual International Convention & Trade Show in San Francisco, CA March 16-19, 2011

National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA)

61st NATA Annual Meeting & Trade Show, June 23-25, 2010 in Philadelphia, PA

IDEA Certificate Programs

kristaleopold — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:14:35 +0000

I just wanted to share a resource that I discovered in my inbox this afternoon. It seems that IDEA Health and Fitness Association is offering what they call IDEA Certificate Programs. It’s a new program that provides access to workshops with some of their elite presenters via the internet. After progressing through this material (8 hours worth!) there is a test and you receive a certificate of completion from IDEA. I find this idea attractive for a variety of reasons:

Attending major conferences is a big pain for me, not just because of the cost and taking the time off work, but I am a terrible traveler. If I have to get on a plane, count me out. This type of offering gives me access to the presenters I’m missing by not heading out to these events.
The cost ($129 for non-members) is a pretty good deal for the number of CECs/CEUs that can be earned by completing the course. Who doesn’t want to save on CEUs?
I can absorb these workshops on my schedule and take time to work through the concepts, rewind to catch the things I might miss. This is a great benefit! When you attend a conference, you tend to get mental overload from all of the sessions and information presented. This way, I can learn it instead of just get glazed over by it.

There is a downside. I notice that AFAA is not among the listed CEUs available for this course. I have no doubt that I could petition for them, but that would be an extra $30 or so. If you are certified with AFAA, as I am or through another not-listed program, you will also have this headache.

Check it out and let me know what you think of the concept. I plan to register and give it whirl. I’ll let you know how it goes when I am done!

Steps to Becoming a Certified Spinning® Instructor

kristaleopold — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:02:04 +0000

So you love your Spinning® class and want to become a teacher. Good for you! Now, how do you do that? The process is surprisingly simple.

My friend Laura Brady wrote a great article on the process called How to become a Spinning Instructor. She gives great details about the process.

Basically, certification involves these five steps:

Register for a Certification Workshop on spinning.com (Cost is $325 — $295 for workshop and $30 for manual.)
Read the manual
Attend the 9-hour workshop
Study and ride the Phase II and III rides
Take the online exam.

Keep in mind that certification workshops are scheduled by demand. Clubs in your area will host a workshop when they need or want to host one. If your area has a low concentration of gyms or programs, you might have to wait for several months before a certification comes to your area. You might check with your own club and request that they host an orientation.

Other things to be aware of:

6-7 of the 9 hour workshop are lecture. Bring pencil, paper and anything else you need to be comfy during the discussion. Worry not — it goes quickly and is full of great information, including how to develop your own Spinning rides and profiles.
You will ride the bike twice, each time for approximately an hour.
The first ride, the “Form Ride” is a review of each of the Spinning core movements and hand positions. You will sweat during this ride, so don’t forget to bring water,a towel and a change of clothes!
The second ride, the “Energy Zone Ride” is a review of each of the Spinning energy zones, so bring your heart rate monitor!
When you leave the workshop, you recieve a certificate saying you completed the Spinning Orientation. But at this point you are not a Certified Spinning Instructor. You are a person who has completed the orientation! After you explore the rides in Phase II and III and study the manul, you will take the assessment. You have one year to do this. Once you pass the test (it’s open book and in the comfort of your home, so yes, you will pass!) you are a certified instructor! Voila!

There really isn’t much to it, but I’ll be happy to answer any questions you leave in the comments section.

To the folks who were in my Spinning Certification Workshop this past Sunday….

kristaleopold — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:46:27 +0000

If you arrived here because you got my website from the Spinning workshop in Mount Pleasant this week, then you might want to know that I wrote one of the useful websites on the wall incorrectly. It should be: IndoorCycleInstructor.com…..

If you weren’t in my class this Sunday, you can still benefit from the incredible wealth of information at IndoorCycleInstructor.com. Great podcasts, incredible knowledge and all around useful stuff, so take a look!

AFAA APEX coming in February 2010

kristaleopold — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:28:06 +0000

AFAA APEX is coming up! Dates are February 12, 13, 14 2010. Here are the cities:

Atlanta, GA
Boston, MA
Charleston, SC
Chicago, IL
Columbia, SC
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Ft. Lauderdale / South FL
Kansas City, KS
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Nashville, TN
New York, NY
Orlando, FL
Phoenix, AZ
Raleigh, NC / Chapel Hill
Richmond, VA
Sacramento, CA
San Antonio, TX
San Jose, CA / Bay Area
Washington, D.C. Maryland

They have a couple of early-bird specials posted on the site — if you register before December 31, 2009, you can get discounts on training materials and some of their other courses. See you in Charleston!

AFAA APEX

Krankcycling is coming…

kristaleopold — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:06:35 +0000

When I first heard of Johnny G’s new creation, the Krankcycle, I had what I’ve learned is the typical response: “Spinning with your arms? Who’s going to do that?” That was a year ago. I should have known that with a man like Johnny G attached to it, the Krankcycle would once again revolutionize the fitness industry, just as Spinning changed the way we think about fitness nearly 15 years ago.

Independent Crank Arms of a Krankcycle, image from krankcycle.com

I have the awesome privilege to be on the sub list at EcoFitness, which was selected to be a beta site for Johnny’s krankcycles in 2007. Even seeing the first Krankcycle models in action didn’t have me completely sold, because of all of the preconceived notions I had. It is gorgeous and sexy compared to those horrible UBE machines that used to sit in the corner of my mom’s old gym, but I still assumed they were equivalents. I was fully invested in the notion that you must use your legs in order to acheive any type of cardio benefit. And I was a little afraid of change…

But then I was invited to participate in the certification workshop for teaching Krankcycling and in one day Jim Karanas, the CEO and Head of Education and Training for the Krankcycling College of Knowledge not only taught me something new and amazing about the potential of my body, he opened my eyes to a much needed and impeding change to the industry — Inclusive Fitness. To say that what is coming is transformative and incredible is, in my mind, putting it lightly. There are some other aspects of the training that I probably would not have been so receptive to had I not already found the deeper, philosophical side of Spinning; however, it is a shift in thinking that I believe is needed in our industry overall. I’m interested to see if Kranking can bring the mind-body connection to the forefront of group fitness.

The Johnny G Krankcycle by Matrix. Image from krankcycle.com.

To attempt to share with you all that I learned yesterday would be impossible, but I encourage you to start looking at Kranking. Take a look at their website and explore the College of Knowledge. And check back here from time to time. Not only did I learn some incredible stuff yesterday, I felt the flame of passion about fitness reignited! I cannot wait to share more with you as I learn more about Kranking (through 150-hours of practice!), so stay tuned…