Fitex Conference 2016

In November, I attended the Fitex 2016 conference put on by Exercise NZ and was pleasantly surprised that the content was extremely forward thinking and relevant. There was definitely an underlying theme on the topic of fascia and fascial release or self-myofascial release. Most people are familiar with this in the form of foam rolling. No longer confined to Pilates classes and yoga studios, foam rollers and other mobility tools are very much a part most gyms now. But addressing myofascial restrictions goes way beyond a superficial pass over the ITBs with a foam roller. The guys from OD on movement gave a great talk on what they call fascial mobilising, which involves active movements targeted at releasing certain fascial restrictions and fascial freeing which uses the foam roller and/or other tools to release restrictions around joints and bony landmarks. Whereas most people tend to roll in the meatiest part of the muscles, these guys advocated working around joints and bony areas, as they have the densest concentration of fascial connective tissues and therefore you can affect the most change by working there.

There was a fascinating talk given by a structural integration practitioner on developmental movement patterns and how we unlearn these movements as we age which causes pain and dysfunction. The idea is that by revisiting these movement patterns learned in the first 2 years of life, such as rolling and crawling, people can overcome certain types of pain or injuries brought on by movement dysfunction. So what are you waiting for? Get down and start rolling and crawling on the ground. Or if you want to try a more gym friendly version of this kind of training, have a look for some videos on Zuu training.

I thoroughly enjoyed the talk, Inflate Your Intensity, on training with balloons. I thought it would involve something along the lines of inflating balloons in different postures, but was pleasantly surprised that it was in fact an extremely fun and engaging presentation with plenty of games that involved balloons. Now to be sure, this is progressive stuff, and wouldn’t go down well with every client, but it certainly gives an easy and effective way to get people in the zone and having fun. It’s amazing how much following a balloon with your eyes and then returning it to someone with your hands or feet gets you into the present moment. And the best thing about it was that we were squatting, lunging, bending and twisting without being told any specific movements to perform. So for people who have a hard time committing to traditional gym training this is a great idea. There was also a great talk on sandbells, a bag filled with sand that can be used like a kettlebell but offers a different kind of resistance as it has a shifting load. The talk focused on the differences between performing movements, like swings, with dumbbells, kettlebells and sandbells and also some creative ideas for making group training fun and interactive.