The Foundation of a Fulfilling Future

Las Vegas has a reputation for secrets. As they say, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." This July, more than 10,000 professionals will break that cardinal rule because what happens at the 2017 IDEA World Convention will be shared with millions of people worldwide. With more than 335 workshops, lectures and workouts, plus tons of special events planned to celebrate IDEA's 35th anniversary, it will be impossible to keep quiet about the career-changing experiences and top-level knowledge offered at this year's event.

Comprehensive Education for Everyone

Whether you are a recently certified personal trainer, a veteran group exercise instructor, the owner or manager of a successful club or studio, or a wellness professional who helps clients adopt healthy behaviors, the sessions available at IDEA World are so numerous and diverse they are sure to satisfy your educational and career needs. Check out some of the novel and thought-provoking topics:

Smart training programs are key to helping clients realize their maximum potential both in and out of the gym. Doug Katona, MA, director of global training and education for World Gym®, believes that one way to help clients become strong and capable is to train them like tactical athletes.

"A tactical athlete needs to be prepared to lift heavy and run fast while moving efficiently," he says. "It's what I call being athletic ready and is really an ideal way to assess anyone you work with."

Katona will share his unique training approach in the workshop "Tactical Is Practical—Get Ahead of the Curve." He says, "Attendees should come to this session to learn the principles, mechanics and programming keys for tactical training."

Here are some other sessions that will help you beef up your personal training techniques and program design potential:

• Complete Strength Development
• Coaching Versus Training—How to Design and Coach Athletic-Based Circuits for All Clients
• Design Client Programs With Skill and Confidence
• Create Success for Every Client in Your Small-Group Sessions

As clients' needs become more varied, professionals with a knack for working with specialty populations will remain in high demand. Pilates teacher and author Jillian Hessel knows about the need for specialization. That's why she's built programs to help older adults improve functional capacity.

"Older adults take longer to recover from orthopedic injuries, and maintaining muscular strength, mobility and balance is vital to preserve an independent and functional lifestyle as we age," Hessel says. "Regular Pilates workouts can definitely help with all of these exercise goals."

Do you want to boost your specialty know-how? Check out the following sessions:

• Complete Program Design for the Obese/Overweight Client
• Functional Balance for the Active Aging Adult
• Challenges and Training Solutions for Gen-X Clients
• Smarter Exercise for Smarter, Fitter Kids!
• Fat–Loss Programming for Your Female Clients

Exercise recovery and mobility improvement techniques are hot and getting hotter as clients learn more about how these methods can improve performance, lessen pain and reduce injury risk.

"If joints can't move correctly, then the muscles around those joints can't function optimally," explains Kyle Stull, DHSc, MS, education content manager for Implus® LLC. "This will reduce peak performance and increase the chance of common injuries such as ankle sprains, ACL tears and lower-back pain."

He says it's vitally important for all fitness professionals to understand basic elements of recovery and mobility in order to help clients improve their quality of life. Along with several other presenters, Stull will lead sessions on these sought–after subjects. Here's a small selection of the many research-based recovery and mobility sessions available at IDEA World:

• Restorative Poses for Recovery
• TriggerPoint™: Corrective Exercises for the Problem Shoulder
• Global Assessment Versus Local Assessments, by the Gray Institute®
• Upper Cross Syndrome—Strategies to Reduce Pain
• Beyond the Core: The Hidden Capacity of the Spine

There's a reason group exercise remains a staple in the fitness industry.

"I believe that group exercise remains a powerful force in fitness, as there is comfort in being in a group, or being part of a group," says longtime IDEA World presenter Fred Hoffman, MEd. "As we know, many people don't like to exercise and especially don't like to exercise alone, so it makes it easier for them to exercise when they feel that they are part of something and [won't] necessarily stand out or feel uncomfortable [as they might when] working out by themselves in the gym."

Hoffman and dozens of other high-level presenters will share the latest in group exercise programming to help you keep your classes at maximum capacity.

Here are just a few of the innovative sessions you can choose from:

• Tabata Bootcamp™
• Step Mixology
• Keiser® Cycling: Music, Games and Drills That Thrill
• Aquatic Innovations—Class Design Done Right!
• HIGH Fitness: Choreographed Interval Training

Innovation has led to the development of a wide variety of technology tools—for everything from assessment and performance enhancement to marketing and gym management—and all fitness professionals can use these tools to enhance their careers and affect positive change among the people they serve. It is for these reasons that IDEA World Convention continues to feature a growing and robust selection of education and offerings from the biggest brands in tech. Don't miss this year's innovative tech-based sessions:

• Momentech Fitness Introduces VisionBody and deceBel Next Generation Workouts
• Marketing Tools to Dominate in a Crowded Marketplace, by MBO
• Total–Body Workout With Polar® Club—Heart Rate–Based Training
• Can Technology Be Harnessed to Inspire Lasting Behavior Change?
• Retain and Motivate Members With Polar® Club—Heart Rate–Based Training

Other topic areas to be explored this year include

• small- and large-group training;
• yoga, Pilates and mind-body;
• financial health;
• fitness facility management;
• nutrition;
• and much more!

Create a Career That Thrives: Attend the IDEA Success Academy

Achieving career greatness requires making things happen instead of reacting to the things that happen, says Kimberly Spreen-Glick, group fitness and yoga director at Life Time® Fitness. Spreen–Glick will share her insights on how to effectively address life's challenges in her IDEA Success Academy session, "Breaking Your Barriers to Success."

"This session will hone in on the five ways we often unknowingly place obstacles on our own path to success and how creating awareness around these 'traps' alone can help ensure we stop the madness," she says.

This is just one of seven IDEA Success Academy sessions that will help to change your thinking and your future. Led by some of the most inventive minds in the business, you'll walk away from the Success Academy with a freshly filled toolbox of best practices, foolproof systems and lasting inspiration to help you get ahead in your career—and your life.

• Create WOW in Your Business and Life, with Todd Durkin, MA
• The Productivity Strategies of Superachievers, with Darren Hardy
• Get Out of Your Own Way, with Shannon Fable
• Expand Your Brand Beyond Expectations, with Randy Hetrick, MBA, and Fraser Quelch
• Game-Changing Ideas From a Serial Entrepreneur, with Sol Orwell
• Road to Resilience: Turn Stress Into Strength, with SGT. KEN®

Expanded for 2017: IDEA World Nutrition & Behavior Change Summit

The IDEA World Nutrition & Behavior Change Summit is back for a second year—and it has grown! We've added a second day for a double dose of the latest in evidence-based nutrition and behavioral change science. Top nutrition researchers, behavioral experts and chefs will reveal the skillpower you need to catalyze effective and sustainable lifestyle change in your clients. All summit sessions are included in your full IDEA World registration or can be purchased as a separate 2-day ticket.

Read on to learn about some of the life-changing offerings at this year's IDEA World Nutrition & Behavior Change Summit.

Understanding nutrition research. Michael Greger, MD, FACLM, founder and research director at NutritionFacts.org, is a featured speaker at this year's event. Greger plans to help attendees gain a clearer perspective on how to navigate the noise and contradictions of nutrition research and uncover the real truths about healthy living.
"It's a classic tobacco industry tactic: sowing confusion, muddying the waters, in hopes that people will just throw up their hands and eat whatever's put in front of them, but the reality is that there is remarkable consistency in the nutrition science literature that I will share with attendees at the IDEA summit."

Enhancing culinary know-how. How a person navigates the kitchen is paramount to the healthy living process, says Chad Sarno, one of two health-minded chefs doing extended demos on the summit program. Many people don't possess the fundamental skills to cook quality meals and will use that deficit as an excuse to make poor food choices.

"Real change begins to happen once you step into your kitchen and are empowered with foundational technique," Sarno explains. "This way you can navigate through recipes with ease when needed and enjoy scratch cooking."

Sarno will teach some of those fundamentals during his exciting live cooking demo, "Unleashing Plant Power in the Home Kitchen."

Maximizing behavior change with fitness tech. For some clients, all the knowledge in the world won't incite behavior change unless there are tools to ease the process. That's where fitness technology comes in, says summit presenter Mark Berman, MD, FACLM, head of health at FareWell.

"Digital health technologies offer fitness professionals a glimpse into what their clients are doing in between sessions/visits," he says. "Briefly reviewing a client's data together [with the client] enables you to reinforce your lifestyle advice, helps the client better contextualize the data, and offers a golden opportunity for motivational counseling."

Berman will discuss this and more in the session "Can Technology Be Harnessed to Inspire Lasting Change?"

There's plenty more learning to be done at the IDEA World Nutrition & Behavior Summit:

• Today's Food Conversation, with Amy Myrdal Miller, MS, RDN, FAND
• Caving to the Craving: The New Science of Food Addiction and Recovery . . . With a Twist, with Pam Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP, FACSM
• Goodbye Infobesity, Hello Action Plan!, with Ashley Koff, RD
• Motivational Interviewing = Targeted Results, with Christopher McGrath, MS
• Guiding Others to Create Their Healthiest, Most Delicious Life, with P.K. Newby, ScD, MPH, MS
• Global Health and Wellness Lessons From a Traveling Chef, with Chef Steven Petusevsky

Build a Club or Studio That Booms

Another event that's back by popular demand is the IDEA World Club & Studio Summit, which is an absolute must for owners, managers and directors who want to develop a business that stands out from the competition.

"You'll get actionable takeaways on everything from generating more leads, to building your team, to creating more impact with your culture," says summit presenter Mark Fisher, co–owner of Mark Fisher Fitness in New York.

Fisher explains that one of the drivers behind his own significant business success is a thirst for learning. "Simply put, there's no way to continue to grow (or even maintain!) if you're not taking the time to 'sharpen the saw.' Top performers in any field are always the ones constantly working to improve themselves with continuing education," Fisher says. "At the Club & Studio Summit, you'll get to see some of the best of the best fitness business minds sharing tactics and strategies to take your business to the next level."

For a more detailed account of what to expect from the IDEA World Club & Studio Summit, read "INSPIRED35: Celebrating 35 Years of Inspiring the World to Fitness," in the March 2017 issue of IDEA Fitness Journal.

Exclusive Experiences

IDEA World isn't just about top-level education. It's also loaded with plenty of heart–pumping, invigorating and memorable IDEA-exclusive experiences.

IDEA World Mega Circuit
This is your chance to test out some of the latest, most innovative equipment and fit in a high-quality training session.

Nutrition Pavilion
Visit the epicenter of everything food and nutrition. You'll get to sample healthy foods, snacks and supplements, participate in live cooking demonstrations, and talk with experts about the latest advancements in nutrition research.

IDEA World Showcase Sessions
The energy will be going through the roof as your favorite fitness celebrities push you to your limit with their signature workouts:

• TD's WOW Workout! sponsored by PerformBetter®, with Todd Durkin, MA
• The Best of Tony Horton, with Tony Horton
• Introducing Core De Force LIVE From Beachbody®, with Joel Freeman and Jericho McMatthews
• POP Pilates® Party LIVE, with Cassey Ho

Inspiration Medals
Throughout the event, you will have the opportunity to put your physical and mental prowess to the test and win a coveted Inspiration Medal.

For more information, see www.ideafit.com/world.