I just got back from Halmstadt in Sweden yesterday night. The seminar was good. We trained 2x/day and for a resonable fee, the Eleiko Sports Center where the course was held even provided good quality food. Wonderful and I actually gained 3kg of muscle in a week (1kg was probably fat and water retention). As you can see, hard training + quality food + a lower stress environment means bigger muscles!

There was a variety of people at the course, from a Canadian Naturopath, a very fit Swedish chiropractor lady, a norwegian weightlifter, a Hungarian track and field coach and even the owner of Poliquin’s Chicago franchise.

The main areas of knowledge that I gained or refined were…

• How to select reps and sets for different sports according to an athletes needs
• How to improve my program design for rehabbing injured shoulders back to full health
• How to choose tests of performance for different events or sports
• How and when to integrate advanced training methods into a program
• When to focus on different aspects of physical preparation (when to focus on fat loss, or size, or strength)

Overall this course really clarifies the finer aspects of program design and I feel even more confident that a program I design for one of my atheltes or personal training clients will be what is best for him or her.

Here are some pictures of life and training  in Sweden.

Waiting For A Train To Halmstadt

Central Train Station At Malmo

On each day we will learn from Charles’ experiences. And the lessons are structured to teach the steps to bring a person from injured to Olympic level.

Sounds fun… oh yeah we will also be training 2 times per day… I just bought some protein powder here to help recovery. I think I will need it!

Veggies, Roast Beef, Smoked Salmon, Cheese - Trying to stay lean here!

Smoked Salmon For Dinner, No Fridge So Had To Eat It All!

The research statistics are pretty scary. During our life we have about an 80% chance of having back pain. Sure its not a Singaporean study but I see no reason to think that we are different.

After taking a look at some of the ways “real life” people I know in Singapore that have hurt their backs…it’s something that we as personal trainers and fitness professionals MUST take note of and prevent. Here are some of the ways that people I know have been hurt.

1.    Back pain after Sneezing (this one was a slipped disc that required long term medical care)
2.    Back pain after helping an old lady carry her shipping.
3.    Back pain while slipping on a moist badminton court
4.    Back pain while helping a friend shift furniture

As usual I’m a “be a part of the solution” kind of guy, and actually I study a lots of material specially so that my staff and I at the Genesis Performance Center can help our clients deal with, prevent and recover from back pain so that they are back to full speed, full strength and full health.

Back pain is frustrating because it makes us feel old and immobile and I dare say …. even helpless! It is only responsible for fitness and performance professionals to help people avoid it!

This is why our personal training programs, our sports specific programs and our group fitness bootcamps all take into account the clients current and past back pain problems.