Hello from San Francisco where I am attending the American Journal of Health Promotion Conference and IHRSA.

The first day was very interesting starting with Joel Robertson's presentation on "The Impact of Brain Chemistry on Health Behavior". Dr Robertson is a pioneer in this area and really inspired me to re-think how we teach fitness programming to future professionals. Additionally, he supplied me with information that I am going to use as part of my presentation on Worktopia at the American College of Sports Medicine Health and Fitness Summit next week.

Brain chemistry is the main determinant of behaviour. Dr Robertson shared three concepts relating to brain chemistry and performance. By understanding your brain, you can influence its responses. By influencing its responses, you can achieve personal goals. Lastly, you are already influencing your brain responses whether you realise it or not.

Did you ever have a perception and it was 'wrong'? Though the perception may have been wrong, it probably was very powerful. Perceptions are based on brain chemicals and how in balance they are. When your brain is out of balance, what feels good to you may be what is keeping you out of balance.

Dr Robertson shared some practical reasons why it is important to understand the physiology of performance and the enhancement process, with relation to brain chemistry. Each of you are a unique biochemical body. Your brain chemistry will determine how stress affects YOUR brain, what exercises YOU should do; what diet YOU should have; what nutritional supplements YOU should have (if any); and what will enhance YOUR performance. For those people who are personal trainers and/or employers, it is important to understand the impact of your client's / employee's reward centre, natural tendencies, and neurotransmitter issues as well as the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin.

There was so much information in this 75-minute session to comprehend. It was a great way to start the conference. If you want to read more information on Dr Robertson's research, go to http://www.robertsoninstitute.org.

The Keynote speaker was Dr Kenneth Pelletier who spoke on the Clinical and Cost Outcomes of Worksite Interventions. Though it may seem dry, he spoke on medical economics on integrated medicine. In today's economic times, companies are seeing their revenues decrease and their medical expenses increase (which is one of many reasons for bankruptcy). In research conducted in 2005, CEOs stated their greatest threat to the company was medical costs (43%) and litigation (20%). CEOs are always interested in the return-on-investment (ROI) though, realistically, corporate health programs do not see a ROI for 3.25 years. The ROI ratio is usually 1:1 (break even) - 2:1. Evidence-based ROI ranges from 3.5:1 - 4.90:1.

Dr Pelletier highlighted the best alternative medicines that 'work' in the corporate setting, including acupuncture and mind-body medicine. Mind-Body medicine has the most extensive body of scientific evidence for a positive impact on the largest number of conditions for the greatest number of people.

The last regular session I attended was Dr James Prochaska's talk on "Best Paradigms for High Impact Health Promotion Programs". There are five intervention issues when implementing corporate health programs: (1) Recruitment or Engagement, (2) Retention, (3) Process, (4) Progress, and (5) Outcomes. Getting employees to engage or take up a program is one of the biggest challenges. The goals is to help employees become more proactive about their health and health care. How do you motivate them to sign-up for a program? Engagement involves behaviour change through a series of interventions: do they sign up; do they show up? Some employees may sign up for a program but then don't show up! Dr Prochaska finished his presentation summarising how, when designing and deploying workplace programs, professionals need to take more of a population health paradigm than an individual health paradigm.

The general session showcased NFL legend, four-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Montana. He shared many personal stories not only about his professional football career but also his father's influence on his performance while growing up. Montana contributes his success to three key things: Preparation, Work Ethic, and Trust. Preparation starts with the self; always remember the fundamentals, especially when things get challenging. He shared the story of how his father always focused on the fundamental skills needed when playing football and also basketball (a sport which Montana wanted to play professionally but then he got a scholarship to University of Notre Dame for football). Having a good work ethic is contagious. You can't be the best without putting out a lot of hard work and effort. The last key aspect for success is trust. Trust takes a team beyond one's own capabilities. In a successful team setting, when a mistake is made, each team member trusts that someone will be there to cover their back. In Montana's case, every time he through a pass, he trusted the receiver was going to be there.

It was a full on day of learning and well worth the time and money invested!