Stronger Together Fitness Conference (2019)
We did it.
I’m still coming down from the high that was the Stronger Together Fitness Conference.
The days leading up to it were stressful and I was operating at a high level of anxiety. For the first half of that week, I was on the other side of the state for work. I felt stuck in terms of preparation since I was so far from home and my supplies/notes. So when I got home, any spare time went to completing tasks for the conference. Then I had my wonderful friends flying in for my conference. I was picking people up from the airport, preparing sleeping arrangements at my condo for them. What was originally supposed to be my friends, Kerith and Debi, staying with me turned into a giant sleepover with Kerith, Debi, Eric, Joshua, and Oscar. Let me tell you, I wouldn’t trade being shoulder to shoulder with these people for anything in the world. It was so much fun just being in the presence of one another. Everyone’s excitement was at a fever pitch. Everyone had been looking forward to this event for months. It helped turn my anxiety around to bubbly enthusiasm. Don’t get me wrong, I still was nervous because I wanted this to exceed my expectations.
But exactly how did things go? It exceeded my expectations.
Jackie Yu started things off with a unique and engaging group movement/yoga/fitness/banded workout. I seriously cannot pin just one word to describe what it is she lead us through. It was a group exercise class that combined mobility work, strength training, stretching, and meditation. It was a full body hybrid course. Jackie provided all attendees with bands and verbally took us through a journey that left me feeling energized and open. I thought it was the perfect way to open up the conference, break down walls between attendees, and mentally prepare us to learn.
Next, Eric Salazar took us through his bodybuilding prep. As most of us know, he had been using artificial weight to maintain his NEAT and muscle mass in his legs. He talked about how the artificial weight (weighted vest, ankle weights, weighted belt) allowed him to consume a higher caloric intake while losing body fat. Eric presented the data from his n=1 experiment and it was fascinating to see how quickly his bodyweight dropped while his caloric intake remained so high. Seeing him in person still so lean was shocking because he still had full mental clarity. Most bodybuilders are fatigued and experience mental slowdown, something Eric referenced as “brain fog”. If you’ve ever done bodybuilding prep, you know exactly what he’s talking about. Eric finished his presentation talking about how artificial weight can be used for other people, as well as when it’s really not feasible or helpful.
After Eric, Emily Blurton stepped up to the mic. When I first met Emily, she told me how she became the strength coach for the local WNBA team, Seattle Storm. I felt that her diverse background and knowledge had to be shared. Emily went through her college education in arts and the various certifications that lead her to kettlebell training and then brought her down from Alaska to Washington state. Because of her education, she is able to titrate warm ups, training, recovery, injury prevention, and injury rehab to professional athletes. I learned a lot about the different tactics she uses for her athletes and am excited to explore some of them more on my own.
Joshua Verduzco kicked off the next session bringing the focus on coach client relationships. He talked about how coaches can and should work with their clients when setting up programs. By giving their clients the freedom to choose their goals, coaches can better guide their clients to successful changes. While not all trainers agree with this style of coaching, I thought it was valuable to hear. I am someone who subscribes to Josh’s style. If a client doesn’t want to do cardio, I don’t make them do it. I loved that Josh preaches how part of our jobs as coaches/trainers is to do the best that we can to progress our clients to their goals in sustainable ways. His philosophies are refreshing considering all of the fad diets and quick weight loss “hacks” that are marketed to people.
To wrap up the morning half of the conference, we had Dr. Susan Kleiner up to talk about the nutritional importance of whole grains. Her presentation stretched from the various vitamins and minerals found in whole grains, to the processing of grains, to the history of grains. I was blown away by the amount of information she packed into a single hour. I don’t think I’d be the only one who thought they could have heard her talk for hours. Another important segment to Dr. Kleiner’s talk was addressing misconceptions about whole grains. With so many diets demonizing carbohydrates, it’s easy for the majority of people to fall into the pattern of avoiding grains. Also, Dr. Kleiner provided a myriad of scientific studies and meta-analyses that showed how whole grains are widely beneficial for nutrition and sports performance.
We broke for lunch after Dr. Kleiner’s talk. The Seattle Collective provided a large buffet of local and organic meats, cheeses, bread, vegetables, and what tasted like, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. It was an awesome way for people to build whatever they wanted, while keeping things locally sourced, and being conscientious of people's dietary needs. It was also super freaking delicious. I could have eaten the whole plate of cookies.
Simon Hyun walked up to the front after the lunch break to talk about pull ups, failure, and society’s expectations of women. If you take two second to look at Simon’s facebook profile, you’ll see a large collection of videos he has posted of his clients. These videos show him coaching various women (usually in their 40’s-50’s) successfully completing pull ups. Simon talked about ways to progress clients to doing pull ups as well as the interesting paradigm of gender and pull ups; men are expected to be able to do pull ups and women aren’t. We also had an engaging discussion about our experiences. “We” meaning Simon with the attendees. He encouraged people to participate and share their thoughts and experiences with failure. He acknowledged that failure can mean different things to different people depending on their race, gender, and background. It was encouraging to see the candor and respectful discourse happening in that room. My hope is to recreate that every year in some way. How else can we know what other people are experiencing and feeling if we don’t share?
The presentation after Simon was Leigh Peele. I’ve listened to way too many podcasts featuring or interviewing her. I’ve been a huge fan of her philosophies and work for years. Her ability to be one of the most successful online coaches in an industry that isn’t necessarily welcome to non-bikini competitors with a huge instagram following or a 500lb+ deadlift is inspiring. Her presentation gave insight to her methods. How the heck does she have a client waitlist dating back to 2012? How has she still not touched it? Her client retention is incredible. We all know our clients won’t stay with us forever, but she has created a system to keep them anyway. That secret? Coach them to their goals, accept their goals will change, and keep it a working relationship, not a dictatorship. She is such a captivating and motivating speaker. I feel like I take away a new nugget of information, or jump in my motivation every time I hear her talk.
Closing out the first Stronger Together fitness conference is my best friend Peter Baker. When he first told me his talk was going to be about “passion”, I was intrigued. People talk about passion, how to find it, how to harness it, how to run with it, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of someone exploring how to not get burnt out by it. I loved his references to both religion and Motley Crue. But more importantly, his emphasis on work life balance; Peter talked about the possible negative impacts passion can have on relationships, physical health, and mental/emotional well-being. While mental health and self care is on the rise, too few people are making it a priority. Peter detailed ways to keep our mental health in check including, but not limited to, professional therapists and counseling. Going to therapy has been a life changing service for me and I was happy to see Peter’s enthusiastic advocacy.
I want to give the biggest shout-outs to everyone who helped pull this thing off in no particular order:
The speakers; Jackie, Eric, Emily, Joshua, Dr. Susan Kleiner, Simon, Leigh, and Peter for taking time out of your busy schedules to come present at the conference. Thank you for preparing for this and sharing your knowledge and experience with us!
The attendees; thank you for joining us and making this first event so special. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
Katie Klimuszco, for opening up The Collective Seattle to us. The food, the atmosphere, the sound system, the space overall was perfect. I couldn’t have imagined anything else would have made the experience any better.
Stephanie Prewett, for being such an integral part of the website design, launch, and functionality, to designing and creating the agenda for the conference, for editing and helping Peter put up articles on the conference website.
Kerith Rae, for flying across the country to support and help with the conference. You of all people know how hard it can be to start something like this from scratch. So when you jumped at any chance to take care of tasks, organize attendee materials, and be a cheerleader, it meant the world to me. I will never forget the energy and effort you put forth for the conference.
Peter Baker, for writing so many great articles to highlight the conference and the wonderful city of Seattle. You are so talented and I appreciate you taking the time to do that. The meet-ups over liquor and beer to strategize promotions and logistics were also more valuable than you might know. Or maybe you do. Either way, thank you.
Jasmine Cristine, for writing all of the contracts, looking over agreements, doing all of the legal research and heavy lifting for this event. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with any of that. You are amazing.
Kelsey Elizabeth Fallstrom, for creating the conference logo and a lot of the promotional materials. Your art is fantastic and I’m so grateful for your work. You are amazing.
Tim Arndt, for all of your insight, taking every single one of my panicked questions with grace, and sharing all that you could to help with organizing something of this magnitude. Thank you for sharing the conference and helping hype it up! Your experience with running these events was incredibly helpful. (For those who don’t know Tim, he is the founder and organizer for the Inland Empire Fitness Conference that happens in Spokane, WA!)
Sally Kellaway, for lending your advertising expertise to me and helping draft so many great ideas for next year. I also appreciate your volunteering at the conference, it helped everything run so smoothly.
Kaelin Carson, for showing up early to help check people in and volunteer your time at the conference. Thank you for your help.
James Krieger, for organizing the BBQ so we could all get together the night before. I had a blast hanging out with you, Tim, and your families. It was also a fun precursor to what was going to be an exciting weekend. We should do it again next year.
Diane Cassidy, for being so flexible and for taking wonderful photos for the conference. Thank you so much.
Jordon Pipkin for taking on the beast of photographing the entire day and happy hour for the conference. You are a champ. And your photos are amazing, thank you.
Leigh Peele for being such a good friend and supporter through all this. I still can’t believe you were able to push through that sickness and deliver such a great presentation. You are fantastic.
Patrick Umphrey, for supporting the conference from afar and helping promote it. Your positive messages when I was stressed helped me a lot.
Greg Nuckols, for also supporting the conference and promoting it. It was cool to hear from a friend that they overheard trainers talking about your post about it!
Leslie Nielsen, for thinking of everything from big to small details, finding such a beautiful venue for this, setting up appointments, finding our photographers, posting countless flyers all over Seattle, all of your work promoting and advertising the conference, guiding me when I got distracted or frazzled, picking me up and moving forward when I couldn’t, and encouraging me to go for it from the very beginning. Leslie, my best friend of over a decade, my rock, my partner, my inspirer...We did it.