Hello! I am currently sitting in bed in my PJs in my hotel room. I am 2 days into Idea World Fitness! It has been SUCH an awesome experience so far! Definitely tiring though! I think I’m finally getting the energy back that I could have really used this morning! I want to recap the first couple of days of the conference while it’s still fresh in my mind!
Thursday
My first session of the day was a Schwinn cycling class! They broke our their new computer consoles for the first time ever, and they were very intuitive! Although I’m more familiar with Spinning bikes, the Schwinn bikes are nice as well. The class was tough. We got to see our stats on the front screen for certain difficult portions of class, and when you’re in a class with 50 other spin instructors, you push pretty hard!
With jello legs, I walked straight over to my next session, RealRyder indoor cycling.
RealRyder bikes move side to side and mimic the feel of a real bike on the road. I hadn’t tried these before, and when I heard about them I was expecting them to be turning at a 45 degree angle sideways, which is not the case!
It’s more subtle, and it’s mostly the front of the bike/handlebars that move. This bike is considered a big advancement in indoor cycling because it allows cyclists to more accurately practice their sport. Additionally, it adds in an added core effort. Possibly one of its biggest selling points though is that it is much easier on the body than a regular spin bike, which can be beneficial to people rehabbing from back or knee injuries. This is because on a more traditional stationary bike, the frame of the bike and the rider’s joints absorb sideways movement, and these bikes allow movement so they aren’t so jarring.
This was a tough ride. When I stood on the bike, it immediately felt like standing on a road bike. I’m only now able to stand on my bike outside through lots of practice/added strength. Side story-when I came to college I hadn’t ridden a bike in years and riding for me was not pretty. At all. After taking this class, I think one of the reasons I had so much trouble outdoors was because I was so used to normal spin bikes, which don’t allow for movement at all!
Anyways, when I stood on this bike, it was not too pretty either. There is definitely a learning curve, and you can’t cheat. You have to keep your weight back towards the saddle and absorb everything with the quads. Otherwise, the handlebars will move side to side like crazy. I actually got an IDEA Inspiration medal for being the most improved in the class! This was a pretty small class, probably because it was the first morning, so the intimate setting made the experience even better because we could all ask questions. Additionally, I met a friend in the class who I was able to tag along to Opening Ceremonies with, immediately after (and I had no clue how to get there so this was lucky!).
Opening ceremonies were pretty cool. They gave out some fitness/trainer awards, and brought in a couple of motivational speakers, one of them being a wrestler who was born without a leg, and worked incredibly hard to win D1 NCAAs.
After that, we both walked over to the Expo. It was pretty intimidating. I was also starving, and the free samples were a welcome lunch. Kellogg’s had breakfast sandwiches which were heaven. I think I also had an absurd amount of granola bars yesterday, but what are you gonna do? It was nice having someone to navigate the Expo with who although it was also her first time, was much more savvy than I am.
My first after lunch session was Small Group Sports Conditioning, which was a lot of fun. We learned about training clients in a small group setting, and incorporating agility, power, and strength drills into the workouts. I really enjoyed this session because I’ve been on the other side of Small Group Sports Conditioning (as a participant) quite a bit in my softball-playing past. We did all kinds of cone and ladder drills, and it was a fun team setting. I hope to incorporate more of these things to my future workouts-even though I’m not an “athlete” anymore, I think agility is key to being fit for life and also for injury prevention. A couple of tidbits: For agility training, the work to rest ratio should be about 1:1. For Speedwork, the work to rest ratio should be about 1:3-4. Also interesting-for adult athletes with novice experience, the training volume per session should only be about 80-100 footsteps before you run into the potential for injury.
My final session was Women, Hormones, and Training. Honestly, I was pretty disappointed with this one.
I feel like it was mostly stating things that are fairly common knowledge, although maybe it’s because I have a pretty strong science background. The takeaway is that to change the shape of your body, you really need to strength train. You can use cardio to lose weight, but it won’t change your shape very much.
I walked out of the lecture starving and headed to the Expo to try a few samples I hadn’t hit up earlier, including Arctic Zero. I honestly don’t know what to think of it. It’s definitely not ice cream, and seemed pretty watery to me, but I might consider it as a lighter alternative on a hot day.
I then hightailed it back to my hotel to shove food in my mouth and clean up after a long day of workouts. Thursday night was the Idea party.
My new friend and I met up for drinks before heading over, and it was great to get to know new people! In addition, there was some pretty good food at the party! Healthy, of course. There was a really nice salad bar, a carving station, amazing cornbread, and pasta.
I had to #leavemymark. #GoStanford. There was supposed to be a place for the students in the college program to meet up at the party, but I never found it.
We ended up not spending too much time at the party and instead went down to the lobby of the hotel where the event was being held and met more new people. I ended up staying out far too late given I had an 8am session the next morning, but it was a great first day! More recaps to come 🙂
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