Health & Fitness Continuing Education Workshops and Certifications

Your client is injured and loves to run but isn’t quite sure how to get back to running? Every time your client tries running again, they get hurt? They finished their physiotherapy treatments but aren’t quite ready to run a 5K without experiencing discomfort or pain? Join us for this informative workshop on bridging the gap from injury to a return to running. Learn movement screens that help identify potential barriers to running and learn to overcome them with restorative exercise. We’ll also cover running strategies and alignment tips to help reduce potential discomforts.

Suspension training straps, such as TRX®, have been part of the trainer’s toolkit for about 20 years now. However, these seem to have made their way mainly into the training programs of sports athletes (in sports such as football, golf, and swimming) and into those of certain stars such as Lady Gaga. But what about their use in our clients’ programs? Do we know how to use them to their full potential to get the most out of them for interesting results? In this workshop, you will be able to see (or review) the basics on strap use and the different methods to modify the difficulty and intensity of various exercises (angles, proper positioning, etc.). To do this, we will start from exercises associated with certain main motor patterns (squatting, pulling, pushing, rotating, etc.) and validate their progressions but also their regressions. The final objective is to learn to define which exercises are particularly relevant to use in combination with the suspension straps and how to integrate these into a suitable and effective physical conditioning program.

Join anti-diet dietician Robin Glance for a discussion on how pursuing weight loss not only fails to work in the long run, but also greatly harms our relationship with food and our bodies. Discover how rejecting diet rules and diet culture could be the best thing, both physically and mentally, for the health of our clients.

Topics will include:
- Why purposeful weight loss fails
- Dieting dangers
- Why we pursue weight loss
- Body image and influences
- Recognizing disordered food behaviours
- Defining health
- Impacts of weight stigma
- Introduction to intuitive eating

We refer to the shoulder joint as one joint, however, the functional unit of the shoulder is a lot more complex, consisting of four primary shoulder joints and two secondary shoulder joints. There are over 20 muscle groups directly or indirectly impacting its mobility and stability, thereby also impacting the arm. The shoulder is an integral part of nearly all exercises and sports performance. As a result, it is at risk for injuries through overload, muscular imbalance and improper mechanics.  The more we understand the shoulder and its complex anatomy, the better equipped we are to modify and gradually progress exercises to help reduce the risk of injury or re-injury and to maximize performance.
In this workshop, we will dive into the complete anatomy of the shoulder and analyze why different exercises pose a risk to the shoulder. We will also cover common shoulder problems and discuss who may be at greater risk and why. 
The goal of this workshop is to help you understand the shoulder and be able to design, implement and lead exercises that will help your clients/participants achieve their goals safely, effectively and efficiently whether or not they have had a shoulder injury.

Warming up and cooling down are essential components in any exercise activity. Yet these crucial elements are often overlooked or neglected in the planning of workouts and classes. Are you stuck when planning the warm-up and/or cool-down of your client’s workout or your class?  
This workshop will provide you with:

• A “connect the dots” approach when planning warm-ups and cool-downs
• Specific steps in creating new and interesting warm-ups and cool-downs
• The workshop also includes a practical portion where a variety of appropriate and effective exercises will be introduced.

Do you want to spice up your aquafit courses? Why not add some boxing and kickboxing moves? You do not need to be a professional boxer, just add in a few minutes of kickboxing and your participants will be hooked! It improves coordination and provides a full-body workout. After this workshop, you will be able to adjust the duration and types of exercises according to your group’s level. Come learn a bunch of new moves and have fun in the water.

No compromise!

• No compromise between power and endurance.
• Nor between strength and flexibility.
• Not even between an athlete's nature and appearance.

Introducing the Kettlebell! It's the only training tool capable of delivering all aspects of extreme physical fitness without any compromises.
Join the Kettlebell 101 workshop. Here are some key elements:

• Kettlebell exercises that bring significant gains without being time-consuming to learn.
• Build a rock-solid back, sprinter's glutes, fighter-level fitness, and the grip of a manual labourer with the swing.
• Give your shoulders the resilience of an android and transform your abs into an impenetrable shield with the Turkish get-up.
• Create a formidable combination of strength and flexibility with the goblet squat.
• Safety rules and other tedious tips revered by professionals but ignored at the expense of amateurs.
• Insider strategies for productive long-term training to reach your goals.

By the end of the training, you will be able to embark on your journey towards your most ambitious objectives.

The prerequisites:
To participate in this training, you must be familiar with the hard-style techniques of swings, goblet squats, and Turkish get-ups. To learn these techniques, join our Kettlebell 101 training.

You will learn the snatch, the tsar of KB exercises. The hard-style swing is our core exercise, but thanks to increased muscle engagement and twice the distance covered by the KB, the snatch takes it a step further. Gain explosive power, unbeatable conditioning, and a grip like a vice. Burn fat like never before, all with a lighter KB that takes up less space in your living room, car trunk, or gear.

When it comes to building strength and shoulder hypertrophy, the clean and press with a KB can compete with any other pressing exercise. But it becomes unparalleled when it comes to shoulder health, thanks to its ergonomic perfection.

With these two exercises, you will continue to make progress for a long time. The Kettlebell 201 training sets ambitious goals, but it provides you with the skills and a roadmap to achieve them. Do you have the audacity to take on the challenge?

We cover basic anatomy in personal training and group fitness certifications but in our day-to-day work, a greater understanding of anatomy is required to assess function/dysfunction, movement patterns, compensatory strategies, weaknesses, and more. Take your anatomy knowledge to the next level. We will cover common muscles and learn their detailed attachments, roles, and palpation techniques and help you become a critical thinker when it comes to program design, optimizing movement, and perfecting movement patterns.

It is important to know the population you are working with and its limitations.
In this workshop, you will learn the most common injuries, how to deal with them, and the exercises your clients can do to stay in shape, safely.

The human “microbiome,” as it is currently referred to, is the collection of microbes that live on and within the human body, including the skin, oral cavity, respiratory and urogenital systems, and gastrointestinal tract. Of these body parts, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is, by far, the most
densely colonized organ and plays a role in various intestinal, metabolic, nutritional, physiological, and immunological functions within the human body.
In this workshop, we will explore the human gut microbiome: its development following birth, along with an overview of the diversity of its members and its key functions.
Increasing evidence suggests that the gut microbiome plays an important role in the health status of individuals. We will learn about what probiotics and prebiotics are, along with their common health and clinical applications. 
A brief portrait on the current knowledge of the interaction between the gut microbiome and physical activity will also be presented.

The workshop presents the snatch and clean-and-jerk movements in a step-by-step manner. It will thus enable trainers to properly understand the biomechanics behind specific weightlifting movements and properly use variations according to the training goals of their clients.

Join us for a fun-filled workshop designed to give you ideas to incorporate into your own classes. This workshop is designed to give you some boxing routines that can be used in every type of class. We will also reintroduce you to the joys of step! From beginner to advanced, learn some fun step choreography that will make you want to teach step again or try it for the first time. What to expect: full boxing combinations—and how to teach them—that can be used for all types of classes as well as building-block step choreography that will get you excited for step.

Accessible to all abilities! Using the chair as our primary piece of equipment, learn how to adapt seated, standing, and floor poses to build endurance, balance, stability, and mobility. Take your yoga practice and classes and reach new people in studios, workplace wellness programs, community centres, and more thanks to this gentle practice.

Theory is nice, but like a true artist you need to know how to put your knowledge into practice. Through different guided simulation exercises, you will develop a solid foundation and the confidence to create aerobic training plans (running, cycling, swimming, cross-country skiing, etc.). By relying on well-known theoretical basics such as overloads, adaptation, variety, specificity, tapering, cross-training, or even interval, continuous, or Fartlek training, you will be able to develop training plans, putting all the pieces of puzzle together smoothly.

This talk will introduce the participants to some common cancer types and what trainers should keep in mind/look for when exercising an individual with cancer. Focus will be placed on basic cancer physiology, signs and symptoms, treatments and side effects, as well as exercise prescription guidelines for this population. The objectives of this talk will be to allow trainers to become more familiar with what happens to individuals after a cancer diagnosis and what must be considered when prescribing and performing exercise and physical activity.

What we eat and how we exercise is a big factor in adding life to our years. This workshop offers a detailed look into the research-based evidence that can help promote wellness for you and your clients.

This six-hour gap course for trainers with existing YMCA Canada Individual Conditioning Certification to upgrade/update their certification to YMCA Canada Personal Trainer has been developed. This course can also be taken to obtain continuing education credits for all the FIT certifications.