Health & Fitness Continuing Education Workshops and Certifications

With the abundance of often confusing and often contradictory information regarding healthy eating that bombards our feeds on a daily basis, it can be difficult to know how to guide our clients and ourselves towards what it means to “eat healthy.” This confusion can often lead to erratic eating habits, let alone stress and guilt surrounding food choices. While it is well understood that a balanced diet is essential to good health, the relationship between diet and mental well-being is often overlooked. In this three-hour workshop, anti-diet dietitian Robin Glance will discuss how what we eat as well as our relationship with food can impact our physical and mental well-being. Topics will include: Nutrition basics: meal timing and balance; Exercise nutrition: What the body requires before, during and after movement; Warning signs: recognizing unhealthy food behaviours and when to refer to a dietitian.

With international access to social media, and many brave marginalized people using their voices, experiences of discrimination and hate are becoming increasingly visible. Many of these experiences having been subtly normalized within our society and communities. With visibility of these experiences, comes accountability towards organizations, businesses, practitioners, and individuals to clearly demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusiveness. During this session, Ben will support you in exploring and navigating various topics related to diversity and inclusion in sports and physical activity. Topics will include: a brief history of accessibility and discrimination, an introduction to barriers, solutions and strategies which the YMCA has identified and implemented, exploring your own path and reflections towards creating diverse, inclusive, and accessible spaces in sports and physical activity. Ben will help you begin reflecting on questions like: What are my own personal biases, and what stereotypes do I project or believe? What does accessibility look like, and who does it affect? How can I be sure that my service/organization is inclusive to people of different genders, skin colours, cultural backgrounds, and other diverse experiences?

Developing our clients’ physical literacy means giving them the means to stay active for life. As with every essential skill, physical literacy is a journey that lasts a lifetime, from childhood to the golden years: it’s an essential component to living an active lifestyle. This presentation will allow you to apply the components of physical literacy to personal training. In this time of change and reinvention, physical literacy will help you reflect on ways to take training outside of the conditioning room. At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to: Stay motivating by applying the theory of self-determination, Identify basic motor skills, Develop physical skills to expand their movement vocabulary, Use long-term player development guidelines to support athletes, Develop knowledge and understanding, Promote a physically active lifestyle

Weightlifting has become more and more popular in conditioning rooms. This workshop will allow you to learn the different weightlifting exercises to better answer your clientele’s questions. You will learn how to execute them in a safe manner and propose effective corrections. 
The workshop is divided as follows: 1 hour: Everything on the clean | Power, Squat, Hang, High Hang; 1 hour: Everything of the Snatch | Power, Squat, Hang, High Hang ; 1 hour: Everything on the Jerk | Strict, Push, Jerk, Split Jerk
***Practical workshop: make sure to wear workout gear***

One of the most frustrating yet important aspects of training is core conditioning. Many participants and trainers alike are unsure of what to do, or which core exercises are best. This workshop will review common misconceptions, and introduce new and exciting developments in core conditioning, and how to integrate core work in any situation. You will be provided with numerous exercises, along with suitable and safe alternatives for all levels of client/participant.

Composed of 10 principles, Intuitive Eating is a self-care eating framework, which helps us and our clients tune in to our internal cues such as hunger, fullness, and satisfaction. Healthy eating isn't so much WHAT you eat, but HOW and WHY you eat. As a health and fitness professional, you will likely work with clients following these principles as it has gained popularity in the past few years and it is important for you to understand it better so you can guide them through their journey. In this course, you will understand the complexity of weight loss and its relation to food, movement, hormones, genetics, and other factors.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a training method that has taken the fitness world by storm. HIIT has numerous pros including session duration and versatility, but it also impacts health and physical ability. Nowadays, many courses with similar names are being offered in physical fitness rooms, but they do not fully adhere to the HIIT definition. As such, we will first analyze what a HIIT course entails and its advantages/benefits and disadvantages. We will then study the tools required to prepare a HIIT course and adapt it to various fitness levels.

Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned instructor, adding variety to your Aquafit classes is always a challenge. Finding the right music, exercises, movement sequence and BPMs can be difficult. How should you plan and organize your classes? What choices can you make so you don’t fall into the same old routine? This workshop will give you tools to deal with these issues. First, we’ll think about how to plan a class for a session. Then, we’ll look at strategic choices you can make ahead of time so that you can be ready to teach (choosing music, movements, exercise combinations…). Finally, we’ll give you a variety tools to help you make your class more exciting (how to encourage participants, how to bring the class to life) while keeping participants safe. There will be a theory section followed by a practice section where you will apply what you have learned. Remember to bring your personal belongings (swim cap, bathing suit and padlock).

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.