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About Functional Aging Institute
The Functional Aging Institute is dedicated to becoming the “go-to” source for training mature clients by providing fitness professionals with the most current, up-to-date and forward-thinking techniques and strategies. From certificate programs, full-blown certifications, blog posts, videos, seminars, on-site workshops and more, FAI is leading the way.
Dan Ritchie, has a broad background in the fitness industry including training and management in commercial and university/hospital-based fitness, for-profit, notfor-profit and educational facilities. His primary areas of expertise are in personal training for special populations: athletes, pregnancy, blind, stroke recovery, Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, Fibromyalgia, Alzheimers, etc.
He has worked with Division I athletes some of whom have been professionally drafted. He has also worked on state funded research on exercise for severe dementia alzheimers type. He regularly presents at national and regional conferences and has been active on committees for the American College of Sports Medicine.
Cody Sipe has an extensive background in the fitness industry with 20 years of experience as a personal trainer, fitness instructor, program director, exercise physiologist and club owner. He is currently an Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Research in the physical therapy program at Harding University.
He has spent his career researching, developing and practicing the most effective training strategies to improve function in older adults. He has completed certifications as an ACSM Exercise Specialist, ACSM Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist, FallProof Balance and Mobility Enhancement Specialist and more. His secondary area of expertise is in the prevention and management of chronic disease conditions, especially those that accompany the aging process such as arthritis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. In 2005 he was honored with the IDEA Program Director of the Year award.
History
The FAI was founded in 2013 by leading functional aging experts Dan Ritchie, PhD and Cody Sipe, PhD. For over 15 years, Dan and Cody have been at the forefront of developing innovative, effective and science-based training programs for their older clients. Over the past 8 years they have shared their unique philosophies, techniques and insights with tens of thousands of trainers around the world.
During that time they reviewed almost every "senior fitness" certification program on the market and could not find any that met their high standards. They decided then and there to create high quality certifications that would help fitness professionals to be more successful with the fastest-growing client base in the world...adults 55 and over. A team of highly-acclaimed experts is being assembled to develop content and help reach FAI’s goal of 10,000 certified fitness professionals in 5 years.
Functional Aging Institute In the Fitness Community
What Our Programs Will Teach You:
- How to properly assess the functional abilities of older clients
- The effects of the aging process and which aspects are modifiable through exercise
- Functional concepts that are critical to exercise program design
- Functional training strategies and techniques that can be applied in any type of exercise environment
- Functional exercises for a wide variety of older clients
- How to design a safe and effective functional exercise program for low, moderate and high-functioning clients
- Balance-specific assessments and training strategies to improve balance and reduce fall risk
- To better understand the priorities and goals of this population
- How to leverage the use of 1-1, small group and large group settings to improve function, client satisfaction and your bottom line
