USA Barefoot Training Summit – Featured Presenter – Dr Cody Sipe

We are fast approaching the USA Barefoot Training Summit this May 15 – 17 at ProjectMOVE in Littleton, CO!

As we prepare for this unique 3-day event I took a few minutes to sit down and chat with one of our presenters – Dr Cody Sipe.

As Co-Founder of the Functional Aging Institute, Dr Cody Sipe (along with Dr Dan Ritchie) have been paving the way in the concept of functional longevity and re-defining the importance of movement programming as we age.

Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions Dr Cody Sipe.    For all who may not be familiar with you and your company Functional Aging Institute can you briefly describe why you started FAI and the mission of your education company?

FAI is the culmination of about 15 years of experience and the past several years of blood, sweat and tears.  We started FAI so that we can make a difference in the lives of older adults in this country and around the world.  There aren’t enough trainers that really understand how big of an opportunity this market is for them and their careers.  They also don’t understand how much these people need them to be properly trained in how to work with them safely and effectively.

For many years trainers would ask us what the best certification for training older adults was and, after carefully reviewing most of the ones out there, we determined that we couldn’t fully endorse any of them.  So we decided to create our own.  We have two missions at FAI.  The first is to help older adults “do the things they NEED to do, LIKE to do and WANT to do easier, better and with less discomfort”.  Our second mission is to help trainers build a successful, rewarding and meaningful career training mature clients.

We are excited to have you on the presenter line-up at the first-ever Barefoot Training Summit coming this May 15 – 17 in Denver, CO.    What are you going to be speaking about?

There are a lot of different approaches to training older adults that people use.  Most of them are based on false assumptions, stereotypes, myths, misconceptions and a lack of information.  On one extreme we have those that completely ignore the fact that someone is 60 or 70 years old.  They train them just like they would anyone else without recognizing their individual needs and considerations.  On the other extreme we have those that train them like they are going to break.  They treat them with kids’ gloves and baby them acting like they’ve got one foot in the grave already.  Then there is pretty much everything in between.

I am going to share effective, evidence based training strategies that are appropriate for a wide variety of older clients based on the model of training we have developed called the Functional Aging Training Model.  It is a model that is not only safe and effective but also very popular with this group.

What your belief about barefoot training for seniors or what EBFA calls “Barefoot Baby Boomers”?

Our model of training emphasizes a comprehensive approach that addresses areas that are vital to maintaining physical function.  Areas such as muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance are obviously important to address but just focusing on these two areas is insufficient.  Barefoot training is a strategy that uniquely addresses areas such as somatosensation and proprioception that are also critical to physical function in older adults and that are NOT addressed by traditional training methods.