Dan Ritchie
About Dan Ritchie
Dr. Dan Ritchie started his fitness career at Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor’s degree in Fitness and Sports Medicine and then spent a year as a graduate assistant coaching Division 1 athletes. He completed his master’s degree in Health & Physical Education at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, where he won the 2002 Thesis of the Year. Then Dan continued as a Lynn Fellow at Purdue University, completing his PhD in Kinesiology with a minor in Gerontology.
Since 2007 Dan has owned and operated Miracles Fitness in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he and his staff have trained over 2000 clients. With over 20 years of experience, he has extensive knowledge on training the mature adult market and has equipped people in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond to achieve their goals and enhance their functional longevity. Dan was the 2014 PFP Trainer of the Year, and then shortly after he and Dr. Cody Sipe co-founded the Functional Aging Institute.
Dan is a sought-after expert and speaker at national and international events on topics like balance for older adults, personal training business development, the global aging phenomenon, and functional aging training models. He’s routinely interviewed for podcasts, webinars, and on-online education summits. Dan lives in West Lafayette with his wife and five kids.
Balance and Brain Games: How to add 3-5 minute dual task circuits to your workouts for balance and brain training.
We will explore the science of balance and cognitive training and then have fun trying several different dual-task exercises together.
Objectives:
1 - Learn how to add 2, 3, and 5 minute balance circuits to your training sessions at multiple functional levels.
2 - Discuss how to train balance and incorporate dual task exercise to add a cognitive challenge.
3 - Learn why dual tasking and gamification is important for cognitive stimulus and how to make it fun and engaging.
4 - Discuss varying levels of functional ability from frail and high fall risk up to highly fit and high impact athletes.
