“SWIS” is the acronym for the Society of Weight-Training Injury Specialists and is the brainchild of founder Dr. Ken Kinakin.
The SWIS symposium is the ultimate platform to learn and network with the best minds in the weight training, nutrition, rehabilitation and treatment professions. The SWIS is like the NASA Mission Control Centre for the fitness industry. If you’re a trainer or involved in the fitness or wellness industry, the SWIS symposium is the Mecca of knowledge and education.
I had the opportunity of attending the SWIS symposium, recently held in Mississauga, Ontario Canada on November 13 and 14, 2015.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting or working with “Dr. Ken” you will immediately see how sincere and passionate he is about educating people in the fitness industry through educating delegates by providing a platform for the top minds in the industry to congregate and network. The opportunity to attend SWIS presentations from any of the presenters who are in the top of their field is an experience that you soon won’t forget. The top powerlifters, bodybuilders, doctors, therapists, trainers, strength coaches, and nutritionists all present their best cutting edge information in the same venue over one weekend.
Photo via Janice Lichti
In Dr. Kinakin's own words:
“This is an organization that I created that focused on putting on large symposiums from 1999–2005 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The original focus of SWIS was to create an organization where doctors and therapists could refer and work with personal trainers and the general public for the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of weight-training injuries. I did this by bringing in the best bodybuilders, powerlifters, Olympic lifters, medical doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists, osteopaths, nutritionists, naturopaths, kinesiologists, PhD’s, personal trainers, and strength and conditioning coaches to present to 500-1000 delegates that would show up each year to learn new cutting edge treatments, training techniques, and strategies.
Reflecting back now, I see this in three different phases. We are now in the third phase. The first phase for SWIS happened from 1999-2005, six years where the focus was education collection. This is where I brought in all the best to present at my symposiums so I could learn from them and allow other people to learn from them. The second phase was from 2006-2014, eight years where the focus has been education synthesis where myself and other people that attended the symposiums synthesized and processed the information into strategies. This is where I took the information from the first phase and made it easier to determine when to use it and how to use it for weight-training assessments, treatments and rehab. In this second phase I created Exercise Muscle Testing, Energetic Rehabilitation, Static and Dynamic Repetition Muscle Testing, Weight-Training Injury Treatment Protocols and many others. I taught these in seminars throughout Canada and United States to doctors, therapists, and personal trainers.
RECENT: The Ultimate Support System
2015 and on is the third phase where I created an organization that I tried doing in the first phase by utilizing the web by creating an online community who are interested in learning, using and teaching the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of weight-training injuries. I personally will be teaching on a larger scale through online teaching and continue teaching in seminars. I have also spent the last four years learning about the Internet and how to put all 153 SWIS symposium presentations that I videotaped online. The new web site is www.swisvideo.com. This has been created to allow easy access to all the great information that was presented. So this has been a 13-year organization in the making and 2015 will be when you will be seeing the new SWIS organization come alive”.
The 2015 SWIS symposium opening ceremony featured my elitefts teammate, Shane Church squatting 1000 pounds. It was a very memorable moment for most delegates who have never witnessed a professional powerlifter lift such an impressive amount of weight. However, even more impressive: David Sandler attached several EMG electrodes on Shane’s quad, hamstring and glute to measure in real time the amount of exerted force that was used to squat 1000 pounds. This type of experiment has never been done before and David Sandler measured over 2000 pounds of “force production” exerted by Shane during his demonstration.
There were over 40 presenters available for delegates to see over the weekend that were presented in four streams: Treatment, Rehabilitation, Nutrition and Training. Videos of each presentation were recorded and will be made available to delegates (approximately 60 hours of cutting edge information).
This will give you an idea of the powerful lineup of presentations at the symposium:
TRAINING
- Matt Nichol: The Art of Coaching
- JL Holdsworth: Strength Correctives: Building Armor for Your Athletes
- Dr. Fred Hatfield: Super Power Seminar
- Bill Kazmaier & Brad Gillingham: Legendary Strength Training Techniques
- Mindi O’Brien: How to Prepare for Bikini, Figure, and Physique
- Dave Tate: The “No Secrets” Business Plan to Starting a Growing Business
- John Meadows: Advanced Hypertrophy Training
- Julia Ladewski: Building a New Woman: How Performance Matters
- Joe DeFranco: The “slow” Approach to Developing Blazing Speed
- Lorne Goldenberg: The Truth About Variables and Coaching Cues You Need
NUTRITION
- Dr. Jordan Moon: Advanced Muscle & Fat Physiology, Biochemistry and Measurement
- Dr. Eric Serrano: Fats: What Works and Why
- Rick Collins: Legal Implications of Dietary Supplements and Performance Enhancing Substances & Drugs
- David Sandler: The Good/Bad/Ugly of the Supplement Industry
- Dr. John Berardi: Nutrition for Injury Recovery
- Dr. Tom Bilella: Adding an additional Profit Centre Through Nutrition Coaching and Body Comp Assessment
- Dr. Rob Rakowski: Performance Nutrition Made Easy
- Eoin Lacey: Functional Nutrition for Fat Loss
- Dr. Darryn Willoughby: Advanced Nutritional Applications for Muscle Hypertrophy and Fat Loss
- Charles Poliquin: Individualization of Strength Training through Neurotransmitter Dominance Profile
Photo via Janice Lichti
REHABILITATION
- Kevin Darby: Facial Stretch Therapy Techniques for the Shoulder
- Donnie Thompson: Advanced Mobility and Adhesion Techniques
- Paul Chek: Athlete Management Part I
- Paul Gagne: Test it- Fix it
- Dr. Dale Buchberger: Advanced Rotator Cuff Rehab Protocols
- Ian King: Injury Prevention in Strength Training
- Dr. John Berardi: The Complete Fitness Pro: Use your passion for fitness to create a wildly successful career
- Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon: The Consistency Secret: How to get your clients to buy in, stay on track, and make the changes to recover from their injury
TREATMENT
- Kelly Armstrong: How to Treat Scars that Turn of Muscles Using the Neurostim
- Dr. Luke Bucci: Glucosamine & Chondroitin-When, Where, How & Why
- Dr. Karim Dhanani: Healthy Muscle Cell Protocols Using German Biological Medicine
- Dr. Mark Scappaticci: Acupuncture Protocols For Weight Training Shoulder Injuries
- Dr. Ken Kinakin/John Foulkes: SWIS Chiro/Personal Trainer Referral Systems
- Dr. David Leaf: Muscle Testing - Weight & Shoulder Injuries
- Dr. Jerome Rerucha: Treatment Modalities-Laser, Percussor, Adjuster for Weight Training Injuries
- Dr. Peter Jaillet: Assess and Treat The Brain for Weight Training Injuries
- Dr. Douglas Stoddard: Stem Cell And PRP Injections For Weight Training Injuries
What was evident after seeing many presentations was that most of the people presenting had a history of developing networks at previous SWIS summits that developed into business and professional relationships that were instrumental in developing their current businesses and professions that are still currently in existence. Having the opportunity to network with the top people in your profession could be the most important opportunity of your current or future business.
“Knowledge is Power”
There aren’t very many opportunities where you can attend a weekend and see as many as 40 professionals offering the most up to date information regarding business, strength training, rehabilitation, and nutrition in one venue. To walk down the hallway and have the experience of meeting and talking to legends in the industry like Dave Tate, Bill Kazmaier, Dr. Eric Serrano and “Dr. Squat” Dr. Fred Hatfield is a unique experience. If you ever get the opportunity to attend a SWIS symposium, it’ll be one of the best experiences you'll ever have.
