Lifemoves Attends Gathering of the Minds

On Friday September 3rd Alfred attended a think tank meeting hosted by Carmen Bott of Human Motion, who is now the provincial director for the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Most of the twenty five plus professionals hold one of the NSCA’s conditioning designations, Personal Training (PT) or Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS). Alfred has held the CSCS certification since 2000.

It was phenomenal to see such a fantastic turnout on the a long-weekend Friday to discuss the state of the industry and how we could design a conference to elevate our profession.

There were several good points made by several people about how do we ensure that the public is receiving a high standard of care from such a young profession with a low barrier to entry. Many credentials including the BC Recreation and Parks Associations Personal Training levels need only several weekends to complete before you are able to work as a Personal Trainer. Some are lured by being able to charge $65 and use this is as interim job – before “a real job.”

To those at this meeting, including Lifemoves’ Kinesiologists this is our profession, not a job. We are here to serve the public in the best way and safest way possible. Every year we seek continuing education that we bring back to our clients so that we are cutting edge and evidence-based. Kinesiologist have been fighting for years to gain a College status in order to protect the public. Ontario has received approval and last I heard was very close to completing their college.

How many clients check out the credentials or experience of the fitness/health professional they work with? Does the professional complete any type of assessment prior to commencing a program? Any trainer can make some work until they so tired they give up or puke, but are you being given a progressive program and are you being coached (eg – exercise technique corrections, etc) during your sessions? Is this their profession or their side job while they wait for something else?

At this think tank, we all agreed that we need to find ways to create a collaborative culture where we are able to confidently share ideas and coach the coaches without bruising the egos of others. A culture where we are able to discuss the care of client who is seeing multiple practitioners. We want to create a conference that will attract veterans as well as newer fitness professionals eager to become better coaches.

Clients put a lot of trust in us to provide a safe level of care and do our due diligence. This is why it is important for Lifemoves to communicate with your other health care professionals. The BC Association of Kinesiologists has released several documents about standard of care and ethics, which will be discussed in later posts.

At the end of the evening we concluded that it would be nice to have quarterly meetings where this group of Strength Coaches, Physiotherapists, Kinesiologists, Yoga Instructors, Fascial Stretch Therapists and Personal Trainers meet to coach each other to elevate our profession. We also agreed that we have a lot of very knowledgeable professionals in Vancouver.

More on the NSCA – click here

More on the BCAK – click here

How to Check the Credentials of a Personal Trainer – watch now