What story is your company telling? Are you effectively communicating your company’s values? Do you practice the values you promote? In Expansive Marketing Practices, Kat Horzempa will explore ways to authentically communicate with the communities you serve through expansive marketing practices
Kat Horzempa (she/they) is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Operations of Body Positive Fitness a queer-led, fat-centered hybrid movement company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Kat is actively dedicated to building fat-liberated, anti-racist, gender-affirming expansive spaces for joyful movement. An administrative leader with a specialization in sales and marketing, Kat has spent over a decade in operations management in nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Their work has spanned the fitness, arts, education, manufacturing, and tertiary sectors.
Body Positive Fitness (@BodyPositiveFitness_) is a home for folks excluded from or unwelcome in mainstream fitness spaces—no matter your size, gender, disability or fitness level. Both online and in-person, Body Positive Fitness offers group classes, group training, personal training, running club, workshops and free community events, including a monthly book club hosted by Kat which highlights books from the body positive and fat liberation movements. In addition to being an ant-diet advocate, Kat is passionate about performing arts and has played many roles on and off stages in Canada and Spain.
Movement Break & Discussion Around What Toxic Fitness Is & Isn’t
with Vysh Sivakumaran, CPTN-PT
Vysh (vai-sh) (she/her) is a certified strength coach, trauma informed yoga instructor, & a fitness industry leader in the Toronto community — working to create inclusive, body neutral, and accessible fitness, through 1:1, group, and corporate services within her online fitness community, Fitness in Place (FIP). With her powerlifting background and quick adaptation at the start of the pandemic, she was awarded Canfitpro’s Fitness Professional of the Year Award. She advocates passionately for representation in the industry for South Asian women, but more broadly, aims to be a voice for all people who may face barriers in the wellness. (Follow Vysh at @vy_she_lifts , @Fitness_In_Place, or on Linked in: https://issuu.com/canfitpro/docs/digital-jan-feb-22_layout/24)
Landmines, manmakers, skull crushers, butt blasters, battle rope, boot camp, etc… Many fitness terms sound violent and intimidating. Taking the time to notice what terms in our own practices invoke unnecessary violence is an opportunity to develop language that more accurately describes the actual exercises. Better descriptions = more clarity. Increasing clarity reduces intimidation and clients that are less intimidated are more likely to stick around. Yay retention!
Have you switched up any terms in your practice? What was that experience like?
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Are you a FitPro working to make the industry more accessible for all people? Join BPFA Inclusive FitPros! Our Learning Community exists to make meaningful connections between likeminded fitness professionals. Make friends, ask questions, and participate in continuing education. We’re here to be your fitness family that celebrates all bodies!
with Samantha Montpetit-Huynh, CPTN-PT, PFS, NWS, Pfilates
Menopause has a LOT of stigma attached to it and many women feel like life is over. However, this is the perfect opportunity to start working WITH your body and stop fighting against it. Find out how menopause changes the playing field and how, as a professional, you must change the game.
Samantha (she/her) is the founder of SamCoreTrainer where she coaches women 40+ with the most comprehensive online health management program for women during menopause and midlife. Samantha is a serial entrepreneur, media expert, speaker, teacher, mentor, course creator and author. You can catch her fitness segments on The Marilyn Denis Show and most recently on CBC’s Then National.
Samantha has been a recognized expert in her field for 2 decades and was awarded The Abundance 2019 Personal Trainer of the Year and CanfitPro’s 2021, Specialty Presenter of the Year.
Creativity Moves You: Unlocking the creativity that Movement Brings
with Dr. Kate Herald Browne
Kate (she/her) explores the connection between physical movement and creativity as a full health practice in this workshop. We’ll play with ways to bring intentional moments of creativity to your movement space. No prior experience with arts and crafts required! Kate is a writer and educator who specializes in connecting personal storytelling to wellness practices and she’s excited to share new ideas with the BPFA community. She is a member of the BPFA Board.
The 2nd Annual BPFA 0.5K!
Walk, run, dance, or cheer folks on, this 0.5K is a celebration of joyful movement and embracing that all movement is valid, even when it’s bite-sized.
More Speakers to Be Announced Next Week! Stay Tuned… 😀
#TrainerTip – Revisit your space periodically with fresh eyes. Is it physically safe for all bodies? Are there any places where people might trip or get caught on a piece of equipment? Is it tidy with the equipment all put away regularly? Is there enough space between racks so folks in larger bodies can pass through with ease? Do you have any heavy equipment is a tight spot that might encourage clients to pick it up with poor form? And so on…
When clients come into our spaces, they are spending a lot of their mental awareness on getting used to a new place and they don’t have much left to notice a tripping hazard etc. It’s our job as trainers and gym owners to make it hard for them to get hurt just walking around. It’s also our responsibility to set up clear expectations for how to use the equipment and navigate the space safely from their first day.
What actions have you taken or protocols have you put in place to make your space safer for all bodies? Need suggestions? Ask your clients if they have ideas or send us a message. We’re happy to help brainstorm! info@bodypositivefitness.org
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Friday is the LAST DAY to SAVE $50 with the EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT when you register for the BPFA Inclusive FitPro Summit! We’re bringing together fitness professionals of any movement discipline who are transforming the health and fitness industry into a space that is welcoming and inclusive for all bodies. At Summit you can expect business skills workshops led by industry trailblazers, inclusively minded fitness demos, and social time to network. May 19-21st in Toronto, Ontario and online.
The traditional fitness industry is saturated with businesses fighting over the same small percentage of people who fit the mold of what fitness “should look like”. As more and more participants and pros realize that fitness can and should be accessible to all people, we’re finding a dramatic increase in the potential market. Clients who see themselves thoughtfully considered become loyal customers. By sponsoring the BPFA Inclusive FitPro Summit, your brand will be in front of an amazing group of FitPros in the US and Canada that are already connected to this burgeoning market of loyal shoppers/clients.
We’d love to work with you to create a mutually beneficial partnership. In exchange, we are providing various levels of exposure and access to a large and committed audience in the inclusive fitness community. Additionally, BPFA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, so financial contributions from US entities are tax deductible. Please see the attached sponsorship package for details.
We rely on sponsorships like yours to make this event possible. To lock in your sponsorship package, just send an email to info@bodypositivefitness.org
Our annual summit returns to York University in Tonronto, Ontario! May 19th – 21st, 2023, In-person and Online.
BPFA Inclusive FitPro Community Members are invited for a weekend of networking, education, fellowship, and fun in Toronto!
As in years past, we are filling the weekend with engaging workshops led by BPFA Professionals. We’re also planning to spend some time with our Canadian fitness friends for some hands-on inclusive fitness sessions, putting our inclusive coaching skills into practice.
There will be smaller breakout sessions with members of the BPFA fam on various topics throughout the weekend, as well as numerous opportunities to move and play.
We’re pumped to make 2023 our best Summit yet, and we can’t wait to see you there!
More details will be announced in the coming weeks, such as hotel room blocks and Summit pricing. (For reference, we’ll be in the same pricing ballpark as prior years.) A more detailed schedule of events for the weekend will hit this page in the coming months. But it’s safe to go ahead and save this date on your calendar, and plan to fly into Toronto Pearson Airport (Code YYZ) if you’re excited to hang with the BPFA crew!
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