So this past weekend I was in Toronto checking out and speaking at the national canfitpro conference, and I have to say it’s always a cool place to go as a fitness professional. I mean, they rent out the entire Metro Convention Centre for the better part of the week, get about 5000-7000 trainer, yoga instructors, group fitness instructors, and even fitness enthusiasts to attend. Richard freakin Simmons was even there!! While I didn’t get a picture with him or throw down what could have been the most awkward Predator Handshake in the history of mankind, I’m sure he was knocking the place dead.

One of the most fun/annoying things to do at a conference like this is check out the trade fair, where you can get a sneak peek at the newest and shiniest pieces of exercise equipment available. A big trend in fitness right now seems to be taking implements such as ropes, tires, hammers, chains, and other manual labor implements, packaging them as fitness equipment and charging a ridiculous mark-up to dumb-ass trainers willing to pay the price for them instead of going to Home Depot and making their own in the span of an hour for 10 percent of the cost. Consumerism loves idiots, I guess.

Beyond this, one of the main reasons I wanted to attend this conference is because it’s one of the few times Charles Poliquin has given seminars at a conference other than his own hosted events, and I have always admired his work from afar, so I wanted to hear what he had to say. If you don’t know who this guy is, you’ve probably seen his work. He’s one of the reason gold is so expensive in the world, because his athletes are winning more gold medals and world records than any other strength coach in history. He’s been active in strength and conditioning since I was born, and he’s been the single influencing force for a lot of the characteristics and techniques we see in commercial facilities, training centres, and clinical rehab, so you can understand why I was getting a geek-on wanting to hear him.

He didn’t disappoint. In the four sessions I took with him, here are some of my big takeaways:

Your financial goals should be based on what you’re willing to give away

Crossfit is dying, and will be out of the industry within 5 years (!!!!!!)

Conventional marketing is dead, including on-line marketing

Knowledge not applied is worthless

Don’t spread yourself thin, work only on three goals at a time, no new one until all three are completed

Within 3 years of critical mass, 80% of money will be controlled by 3 businesses, regardless of industry

If you’re training more than an hour it’s useless

Long rest periods produce anabolic affects, whereas short rest periods produce anti-catabolic affects

Women need a higher number of reps at a given % 1RM intensity than males

The nervous system is the true limiting factor to recovery

You can’t do enough scapular retraction work

Always pair upper back work with shoulder external rotation exercises to reduce injury risk

The 5 big stumbling blocks to fat loss are sleep deprivation, dehydration, methylation, vitamin D3 levels, and high concentrations of environmental estrogens

Obviously this was a varied group of courses, but he did a great job of delivering just enough information to get the room salivating for more, plus throwing down some great swears and punch-lines at the expense of some big names that he could totally street fight and stomp if he wanted to, so whatever. It’s always fun to hear a French Canadian say “Hey fuck off,” “Hey Asshole,” and other ones that I can’t publish here. I knew a lot of what he was talking about, but he had some new stuff I’d never heard of before, like the methylation relating to fat loss, strength responses between males and females, and a few other tidbits. He’s the kind of guy I would love to have a sit-down meal with (although he would probably rip apart everything I ate and call me a twerp because my arms aren’t big enough) and just pick his brain for a few hours.

I also presented a seminar with my bosses bosses boss on Developing Medical Referral Networks which seemed to go over fairly well, even though I kind of called out everyone for taking the escalators at a fitness conference instead of the stairs.

The feedback we received from some of the attendees was great, and they seemed to get a lot out of it. I met up with some old friends, and even some new ones. I got to hang out with Brad Shoenfeld (NOTE: he’s way shorter in real life than you would ever believe and kinda talks like Woody Allen, but a solid stand-up kind of guy I’m happy to call a friend), Jon Goodman, the creator of the Personal Trainer Development Center which I’ve written for a few times, and a few other cool people along the way. I love going to these kinds of things because I wind up talking shop with some of the smartest people in fitness, and get to run ideas off them and vice versa.

The downside to the entire weekend was when some douche-wipe decided it would be a great idea to pull the fire alarm in our hotel at 3am. So everyone in the building had to trundle down the fire escape, wait outside for 10 minutes, and then walk back up to their rooms. Luckily I was only on the 14th floor, so it was essentially a warmup, but combine that with the fact that still somewhere between Inez Sainz and Jessica Biel level of hot, plus being in a fire escape, made going back to sleep a less than ideal situation. Suffice it to say I slept right the hell through my 7:30 session yesterday.

As mentioned earlier, knowledge not applied is useless, so I have a few components that I’ll be working into my clients programming beginning this week, so hopefully they have a nice shiny bucket available for the next few weeks. You know, just in case. It also gave me a good kick in the ass to get working on a few projects I’ve had in the works but have been dragging my heels on. If I want to take anything else on, I have to get those ones cleared off my plate, so that’s what I’m going to have to devote time to. I’m also going to change up my workouts a bit to see what kinds of changes I can get from things like varied grip training, some different scapular mobilizers, some dietary modifications and a few ideas I started kicking around of my own invention. Plus, I have a seminar in Calgary in October, and I guess I should have something to speak about when I get there, right? Good thing I managed to bang out about 85.3% of it on the plane ride home.

So with that said, it’s time to fire up the engine again and get some productivity going. Pitter Patter, let’s get at ‘er!!