The basics of fitness

Last weekend, IU Recreational Sports played host to the largest student fitness conference in the Midwest, which drew in some of the top minds and bodies in the business. Nearly 250 fitness leaders, personal trainers and passionate fitness participants from nearly 27 colleges and universities across the Midwest came to IU to share new ideas and to learn about the latest trends in the fitness industry.\nThe fourth annual Midwest FitFest fitness and wellness conference was the first for IU to host. Various disciplines were numerous at this year's conference. There were many session topics. Sports training was one, offering some great new ideas and creative athletic angles to traditional sports training. Another focused on mind/body, which incorporated the stability ball into yoga. Core body was also represented, with one of the sessions in this discipline headed by Kris Neely, the event coordinator for the Midwest FitFest 2002. Neely's session was titled the "Do's and Taboos of an Awesome Abs Class!" She incorporated safe and effective exercises that maximize your time and your participants' effort. These three areas were just the tip of the iceberg. Almost every area of fitness and wellness was accounted for.\n"IU Division of Recreational Sports is home to one of the most comprehensive fitness and wellness programs in the nation, and hosting Midwest FitFest is one way to help other institutions learn how to improve their fitness programs and improve their participants' experiences," Neely said.\nNeely started work on this conference in September 2001, and it took her five and a half months to put everything together.\n "Professional conferences usually cost $200, and people who are presenters have five to 10 or 20 years of experience. This conference is more affordable and a great way for younger people like myself, who are aspiring fitness presenters, to get their first chance of giving a presentation, workshop or lecture," Neely said.\n Participant Lori Lammert, a junior at Ohio University, teaches step aerobics and cardiokick classes for her university. She said she came because it was a great way to learn new choreography and refresh her knowledge of fitness and muscles.\n"I hope that I will be able to use some of the things I learned here to teach my class back home," Lammert said.\nThese feelings seem to be the same among all who participated, including presenter Jessica Brown, who teaches cycling at the University of Illinois. She presented a workshop on precision cycling.\n"Some people are new to teaching, so this conference gives them ideas on how to teach a class. I wanted to present because I've got good skills. I've been teaching fitness for six years, and I wanted to offer my knowledge to people. People give me feedback as well, and this helps me as a fitness instructor. The conference also gives me a chance to talk to other program directors and share with them their success. This is a learning experience for both presenters and participants," Brown said.\nThis event also gave student presenters the ability to share something they had developed themselves. Enlightenment and inspiration prevailed at this year's Midwest FitFest largely credited to Neely along with IU Division of Recreational Sports and all of the other participants. Everyone hopes future FitFest's will provide the same results.\n"One objective of the conference, after all, is for participants and presenters to share and learn from one another," Debbie Goh, publicity assistant for IU Recreational Sports, said.