The life of a Les Mills Program Director is certainly hectic and in the last couple of months, I’ve seen my fair share of the world!
My travels started at the Can-Fit-Pro/Goodlife Convention in August with my partner in crime, Rach, and fellow Program Directors Glen Ostergaard, Lisa Osborne, Mark Nu’u, Susan Trainor and Jackie Mills. BODYPUMP™ and BODYCOMBAT™ were super sized with over 800 instructors in attendance.
Poughkeepsie, New York, USA was the next stop. The US/Canada Trainers’ Summit was opened with the LES MILLS™ Haka and it was an honor to be the Kaiako (Leader) for the first time – it’s a great feeling bringing our LES MILLS™ culture to the world. Les Mills North East did a great job with the summit which was held at the largest Gold’s Gym in the world. We attempted to unofficially break the Guinness Book of Records for the most participants in a weight training class – 722 people rocked the house in BODYPUMP™ (see pic). It was truly a highlight of my trip teaching BODYPUMP™ and BODYCOMBAT™ to so many people!
On the last night of the summit we were hosted by the USA Trainers on board an old steam ship. There were a few formalities such as the ‘Bloody Mary’ court session which of course wound up being an unforgettable evening (literally).
With a bit of downtime we tasted good ol’ New York cuisine from the Hard Rock Café and liquid from the New York Gods – Budweiser – while girls did the “Sex in the City” thing and spent a lot of money.
While Rach and Susan Trainor went to Phoenix, Arizona; Mark N, Lisa O, the IMTs Dr Dave, Steve and Susan Renata and I went to Super Saturday in Sweden. Super Saturday is Les Mills Nordic’s largest quarterly workshop with 900attendees. A big thanks to Petter from Sweden for looking after me until 4.30am and yes, I did get in the taxi at 6.30am!
I continued on to my home country, the UK, to do Quarterly workshops – upskilling instructors and trainers – with Steve, Susan and Dr Dave. The UK team bought me a birthday cake and I spent precious time with my Mum and family. When I was in Sweden I was lucky to have them sing Happy Birthday in their native language, it was the funniest thing!
I’m now back in Auckland getting BODYCOMBAT™ 39 ready for filming on November 3.
Over and out –
Dan