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Altering
the Course—Permanently
By Sandy Todd Webster
 The
IDEA World Fitness Convention has always been an event
that stirs fitness professionals to the depths of their
hearts and inspires their passion to help others. This
year’s gathering (July 25-29 in Las Vegas) fed
and revved the estimated 5,000 attendees’ engines
with educational rocket fuel and kept that tradition
vibrant.
When Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee walked onto the
stage at the convention’s opening ceremonies to
accept the 2006 IDEA Health and Fitness Inspiration
Award from his friend and colleague Pamela Peeke, MD,
the early–morning audience of fitness professionals
from nearly 60 countries rose to its feet and cascaded
its appreciation upon him. The thunderous clapping and
whooping was not so much because of what he’s
been doing to try and halt the spiral of inactivity
and unhealthy living in his state and around the U.S.,
but because of his own pilgrimage to arrive at this
point. As he accepted the award, Mike Huckabee was no
longer a well-known political figure, but every client
a fitness professional has ever tried to help. In that
moment, his success was their success. It was a shared
moment of triumph for the governor and every personal
trainer, group exercise instructor, mind-body pro and
program director present. He was living proof that IDEA’s
continuing initiative to Inspire the World to Fitness®
can change—or even save—a life.
The Governor’s Journey
During an office visit about 3 years ago, Huckabee’s
physician showed him the business-end of a double barrel
shotgun that was loaded with type 2 diabetes, obesity
and the nasty shrapnel that comes along with it. Facing
a death sentence of 10 years or less to live, Huckabee
woke up and decided to change his life. He decided to
live, period.
He has since notched down his belt to fit a frame that
is 110 pounds smaller, but has expanded it to accommodate
new-found experience in the realms of evangelizing healthy
living, marathon running and forging policy to lead
the people of his state and throughout the U.S. on the
right track.
“If someone had told me 4 years ago that I’d
be recognized one day for a health and fitness award,
I never would have believed them,” he said. “If
someone had told me I would be training for my fourth
marathon, I would have laughed. I’m from the South
where everything is either fried, has sugar on top of
it or—if not sugar—gravy. If salad could
be fried, we’d find a way to do it,” he
joked.
Huckabee explained that he made a series of lifestyle
choices to regain his footing: “I didn’t
set a weight goal; I set a health goal. I didn’t
have the time to exercise; I had to schedule it. I had
to learn all about eating again…I discovered that
if it comes through a car window, it isn’t food!
I made the change from health care to health.”
He congratulated IDEA members for the work they do
to change the health care paradigm by emphasizing prevention
through healthy living over spending money to treat
disease. “Fitness professionals—IDEA members—you
are literally saving people’s lives. Don’t
ever forget that. My doctor recently said that I’m
coming out of the locker room ready to play the second
half better than ever before.”
Author and life coach Cheryl Richardson summed it up
eloquently in her keynote address following the awards
ceremony: “When we inspire people to become healthy
and fit, we alter the course of their lives forever.
Behind every human being is a gift. Your job is to slowly
unwrap that gift and find out what is going on inside.”
Education Sensation
 Speaking
of gifts, the educational slate at this year’s
event provided a blockbuster of choices for delegates.
More than 275 sessions (plus 10 specialty preconference
sessions) and 130 presenters from 10 countries set the
stage for a lot of note taking and mind-expanding concepts.
Ashraf Ali Al-Hefni, a lawyer turned high school PE
teacher at the American School of Kuwait, found many
reasons to want to return to next year’s IDEA
World Convention (for his 8th consecutive). “It
was great on all levels. The assistants were very helpful,
the parties were great, and the most important thing—the
educational value—was the best in 7 years,”
he assessed. [As a trainer] my personal interest is
always related to improving function and enhancing performance.
I found loads of great classes either to learn a new
thing right away that I can use, or other classes that
would open my eyes to look for some knowledge in the
right direction.”
Be sure to read the October issue of IDEA Fitness
Journal for a full wrap-up on sessions and content.
Trends to Follow
The 2006 IDEA Health and Fitness Award recipients formed
a general session panel on Wednesday, July 26, and transformed
a series of questions from IDEA executive director Kathie
Davis into a thought-provoking hour of discussion for
a standing room only audience. Food for thought included
the following trends forecast. (For a full recap of
trends, industry challenges and professional advice
from the award recipients, please tune in to the October
issue of IDEA Fitness Journal.
- 2006 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year Justin Price,
co-owner of the BioMechanics in San Diego, observed
that major advances in technology over the last 2
decades have decreased activity and increased stress.
“We’re already seeing an increase in mind-body
activities and boot camps to help remove people from
the effects of these stressors,” he said. He
also forecasts “a massive increase” in
corrective exercise, functional training and life
coaching to help with some of these real-life challenges.”
- 2006 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year, Maureen
“Mo” Hagan, vice president of operations
for GoodLife Fitness and VitaVie Clubs in London,
Ontario, Canada, said that like fashion, fitness cycles
around. Everything old is new again. To invigorate
group exercise, she suggests strong orientation programs
for new exercisers as well as for veterans who have
been lost along the way. “I encourage all instructors
to teach programs to beginners, as it nourishes you
as a teacher.” Other trends she sees emerging
include the continued growth of small group training;
creating relationships and accountability between
staff and members; the continued importance of fusion
programs like yoga and Pilates, and yoga plus strength
work; and mindful movement “across the board
to bring life balance into the class to help soothe
the spirit and soul.”
- 2006 IDEA Program Directors of the Year Alex McMillan
and Sherri McMillan, MSc, co-owners of Northwest Personal
Training in Vancouver, Washington, used the growth
they’ve seen in their own business to explain
why they think the personal training segment of the
industry will continue to be robust. Personal training
is the #1 growth profit center in many clubs, with
group personal training having generated great growth
in recent years, they observed. At Northwest Personal
Training, outdoor activities (team triathlon training
and whitewater rafting, for example) are becoming
a tremendous area for revenue and client retention
because of the relationships they forge among members
and between members and staff, said Sherri. But “our
number one program is called ‘Circle of Life,’”
explained Alex. “We foster an environment of
love among our personal trainers and revolve it all
around from our staff to our members to our cleaning
crews. We play constantly. We have fun and joke around.
We ascribe daily to ‘making that person’s
day.’ Simply put, we choose our best attitude.”
Finding your Inner IDEA®
 IDEA
hosted an industry first—the inaugural Inner IDEA
Conference—in the days just preceding IDEA World
Fitness. Held July 23-25 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las
Vegas Resort & Spa, this sold-out event delighted
500 participants with an array of body-mind-spirit content.
This unique conference was a first step to exploring
the development of a new community of wellness leadership.
Education included a vast array of wellness programming
presented by luminaries in the fields of body-mind-spirit
research trends, techniques, programs and business practices.
Specific areas of instruction were provided in yoga,
Pilates (more than 30 mat and apparatus sessions), body-mind-spirit
fusion, life coaching, meditation and mindfulness, research,
business and marketing, nutrition and weight management,
water programs and more.
A full report on this ground-breaking event will appear
in the September 20 issue of Body-Mind-Spirit Review,
a free e-newsletter from Inner IDEA. Click
here to subscribe and receive the full conference
report, as well as other mindful news and research.
The full report will also appear in the October issue
of IDEA Fitness Journal.
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