Health & Fitness Continuing Education Workshops and Certifications

Choosing the right workplace to kick off your career is critical and more difficult than ever before thanks to the countless opportunities for qualified fitness professionals. Build your confidence, reputation, and income by positioning yourself in an ever-changing market, following the right trends, and avoiding pitfalls. Nathalie will clearly lay out the steps that you need to take to secure your success in the fitness industry.

Weightlifting is often seen as an Olympic sport and therefore reserved for clients looking for ultimate performance. However, weightlifting can be extremely necessary in the physical preparation process for a variety of clients. Why should you integrate this type of training into your program and what movements in particular can help you reach your goals?

Jean-Philippe will suggest a series of key movements, putting you in a context where you can try a number of exercises such as the row, the clean and jerk, the snatch, and the push. The workshop will include the implementation of different weightlifting exercises, from the warm-up to in- and off-season training. Finally, there will be a presentation of support exercises that will help maximize performance for specific sports.

In this course, we will learn about why balance matters, what governs balance, and how we assess it. We will learn how to design efficient, fun, and encouraging environments to improve balance, improve movement, and keep the aging population safe. Topics will include neurology, psychology, and physiology.

While chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease affect 29% of Quebec adults, certain food patterns have a convincing preventive effect. In this workshop, we will discuss the following topics:
• Pathophysiology of major chronic diseases in Canada.
• Nutrients and behaviours contributing to these conditions.
• Added sugars: some statistics.
• Sodium and ultra-processed foods; the food processing continuum.
• Overweight and weight preoccupation.
• Alcohol and psychosocial influences.
• Nutrients and protective behaviours.
• Unprocessed foods in the context of inflation.
• Taking back responsibility for your meals.
• Choosing water as your primary hydration.
• How to adopt a semi-vegetarian Nordic-style diet on a daily basis?
• Nutrition to preserve muscle mass and limit the risk of age-related injuries.
• What is the recipe for healthy eating and why do we have trouble sticking to it?
• Beyond the plate and weight; self-image as a determinant of physical health. Supporting studies and concrete techniques to improve it.
• How do you find your way through all the contradictory information you can read on the web? Let us guide you! Learn how not to fall for marketing strategies and how to make healthy choices for you and your family.

This workshop will allow you to better understand energy systems (anaerobic alactic, anaerobic lactic, aerobic) associated with physical activity. This workshop aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Different topics will be covered, including:
• The relationship between energy systems and physical activity
• The metabolic pathways associated with the different energy systems
• The training methods and parameters associated with the energy systems
• The demystification of the specific notions associated with the lactic anaerobic system

THE 5 PILLARS OF MANAGING A WORKOUT STUDIO
1. Creating your business

• The entrepreneurial spirit
• Mission, core values, culture

2. Services

• Your client avatar
• Creating a unique offering

3. Operations, finance, and management

• Salaries
• Operational costs
• Software for client relationship management

4. Developing and leading a team

• Recruitment
• Internships
• Team communication
• Performance

5. Performance and sales

• Website
• Social media
• Paid advertising

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.

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.

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.