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Last week, I taught CHEK Exercise Coach at The CHEK Europe Headquarters in Mawdesley, Lancashire.
I was very fortunate that I had a great group of students who were all highly self-motivated and worked really hard during the week.
I always like to teach in a very relaxed atmosphere and the students managed to survive the week of my banter and jokes. That being said, I always work my students hard.
It is important that my students learn as much as possible about writing exercise programs and I give them all the opportunites possible to improve over the week. This means each night the students work on case studies and receive detailed feedback the next morning.
Each and every student on the course improved greatly over the week.
Each day the students also get the opportunity to practise the techniques taught on postural assessment, measuring spinal angles, mobilizations and stretches, core exercises and conditioning exercises.
The course also teaches how to gauge a client's physical, mental and emotional stressors and how they greatly affect exercise. These are factors not understood by most exercise professionals.
Ultimately, a great time was had by all and all the students now have much more knowledge with which to help their clients.
On the final day of the conference, I managed to see Chris Maund discussing Distance Running for Beginners, Jon Bowskill and Dan Plev discussing the past, present and future of Spinal rehabilitation, Dan Hellman discussing Respiration, Dr William Previte discussing surgical interventions and techniques and finally, Paul Chek’s presentation on “50 Fit and Free!”
I think that everyone who attended the conference would agree that it was an amazing experience in so many ways.
I also met many new amazing people. Too many to mention in fact.
The day after the conference, I moved back to Encinitas for some well-earned R & R.
In the four days after the conference, I managed a further workout at The Institute, an amazing massage from Frankie at Encinitas Acupuncture and Massage, a visit to the Yogananda Meditation Gardens, a few hours on the beach, many hours of good sleep and even experienced a state wide black-out on my last night which was interesting.
I finally arrived home on Saturday having been able to sleep most of the way back which I have never done before. All in all, a great trip and I can’t wait for the next CHEK Conference.
The following morning after two late nights in a row, I was starting to feel a little jaded and I still had a to give another presentation that day.
The day started with Jade Johnson and Warren Williams showing us how Warren had helped to condition Jade from her injuries by focussing on the ‘stabilizer’ muscles of the body and then integrating them with the ‘power’ muscles of the body. There were some great videos of Jade’s training sessions and when they showed a clip of Jade jumping in competition there was a big ‘gasp’ heard around the room.
We all wish Jade well for the Olympics next year and I think all CHEK Practitioners will be willing on Jade no matter which country they are from.
I then attended great presentations by Paul Chek and then by the hilarious JP Sears (your hair was great JP).
I went for lunch with my old buddy and local lad Reed Davis, the Founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition who was also speaking at the conference.
After lunch I delivered my presentation, “How to Set and Raise Your Prices”. A much needed presentation for most health and fitness professionals. I knew studying Business Management at University would come in handy one day!
The rest of the day I saw Dr David Blyweiss present on ‘Food Intolerances and Chronic Degenerative Disease’ and Mark Buckley on ‘How to Qualify a Client for the Squat, Deadlift and Bench Press’. Mark gave us an insight into his FMA Strength Training Program, which based on his presentation, I would highly recommend.
Mark also did amazingly well as many of his videos didn’t work properly and as much as you could tell he wanted to kill the AV guys, he managed to deliver all his information without causing any actual bodily harm.
That evening was the Gala Dinner to celebrate Paul Chek’s 50th birthday. It was a fantastic event. Great food, great people (including Paul Chek’s sister and son, Paul Jr). After the meal there were some serious shapes being thrown on the dance floor. As for the DJ, well you can’t have everything!
On awakening the next morning, I didn’t feel too tired and was fired up for the conference to start.
Paul Chek opened up proceedings with an emotional presentation entitled “Living the CHEK Lifestyle”. As per usual, Paul entertainingly didn’t start the actual presentation until about 40 minutes in and as usual didn’t manage to stick to the time frame.
Later that morning Paul delivered a workshop entitled “Roll, Wiggle, Crawl and to Walk, Run and Jump Pain Free”. Paul showed how Infant Development exercise can effectively help overcome injuries and general movement dysfunctions.
After lunch I delivered my presentation entitled, “Why Clients Sabotage Their Success and What to Do About It”. Considering my lack of sleep, I was pretty pleased with how it went.
I finished the afternoon watching Dr. Kenny Sheppard about the NUCCA System of Chiropractic. I have been referring clients for NUCCA Chiropractic for many years, but it was still great to hear one of the best in the business.
That evening I went out to dinner with Duncan Reeve to celebrate his birthday (yes, he is older than me!) along with Brent Meier, Kiwi CHEK Practitioner who lives in L.A. and Brent Martin, CHEK Practitioner and founder of ‘Metabolic Me’.
We played a favourite game of mine when in the USA. I ask the waitress to guess where each of us are from. Most Americans find it very difficult to place accents outside of North America. I find it very amusing, I don’t know why. Suffice to say, four of them didn’t have a clue, but one waitress was very sharp and got it spot on very quickly.
This month, I have to tell you about an amazing experience I had at The CHEK Conference in San Diego, California.
I had such a great time, both professionally and personally. In fact, right now the jet-lag is just about wearing off, but the feel-good factor of the conference has kept me going since I’ve been back.
The trip started on 30th August with an 11-hour flight from Heathrow to San Diego. Shortly after arriving and driving to The Moonlight Beach Motel in Encinitas, I thought I’d walk down to the local shops to stock up on water and see what I could find for dinner.
This picture was the view from my balcony. A stunning view of Moonlight Beach and The Pacific Ocean.
To my surpise, I bumped into and joined, my CHEK Faculty colleagues, Jon Bowskill, Dan Hellman, Ashley Mubarek and CHEK Europe owners Gavin and Gabi Jennings. We had a lovely Peruvian meal at ‘Qero’. I have been to this restaurant every time I’ve been to Southern California. It never fails to impress.
The next day, I bumped into another CHEK Faculty instructor, Matt Wallden on my way to breakfast at ‘Honeyz’ and then Emma Lane as she had just finished her breakfast.
After breakfast, I went to the CHEK Institute, had a workout, said hello to the team and after lunch managed to get on the tennis court with Jon Bowskill, who I must say is not too shabby with a tennis racket. It’s great to hit with people who can play a bit.
The next day I was off to The CHEK Institute for a Faculty meeting and Open Day. It is very rare that the Faculty meet in person as we are spread all over the world. The meeting was extremely open, honest and productive (and sometimes hilarious, especially when JP Sears decided to speak) and we finished the meeting with some clear objectives and goals to move forwards.
It was also great to catch up with the other Faculty members who I have taken courses with and have taught with like Janet Alexander, Mark Buckley, Donal Carr, Josh Rubin and Robert Yang.
The Open Day was set up to allow the public to attend the CHEK Institute and workout with Paul Chek and some of The CHEK Faculty and other senior CHEK Practitioners.
For me, the Open Day was a chance to meet up with old friends and some new ones too. Catching up with my old buddy, Warren Williams was great and the lovely Jade Johnson who Warren is helping to condition for the long jump in next year’s Olympics.
It was quite surreal to find out that Jade and I know a number of the same people going back around 20 years. That freaked us both out!!! After just a few minutes, it seemed Jade and I had known each other for years.
It was also great to catch up with Rory Mullin, The Athletic Trainer for The Toronto Rapters. I also caught up with Ximena ‘The Walk’ Gonzalez, CHEK Practitioner and one of my friends from Miami and her dog Rocky.
I also managed to catch up with my old buddy (he is older than me, so I can call him old), Duncan Reeve. Duncan and I have attended many courses together and assisted Paul Chek many times together in the UK.
I also got to catch up with and spend some down-time with Paul Chek in his amazing office along with Warren and Jade, Rory, Ximena and Donal.
That evening I moved down to San Diego to stay at The Marriot Mission Valley Hotel where the CHEK Conference was taking place.
I managed to go downtown for some dinner with Ximena and our new buddy Michael Christy from British Columbia. Unfortunately, not knowing downtown San Diego and Ximena having to feed and take Rocky for a walk we didn’t get to dinner until midnight.
Stay tuned for the low down on the conference itself.
