Let me just start this by saying that SWIS 2016 was absolutely the highlight of my professional career. Thats not to say that I haven’t had quite a few awesome opportunities and experiences before, but SWIS took it to a whole new level.
For those that don’t know, I was asked to be a part of the headlining panel at the SWIS symposium in October. The panel was in the nutrition stream for the conference and was called “Supplements and Steroids” (Myths, Misconceptions and the Truth).
The panel included experts in law, medicine, biochemistry, human/sport physiology, as well as the fastest man in the world, the worlds strongest man, a 6x Mr. Olympia, and some asshole with a beard.
The experts on the panel were: Dr. Eric Serrano, Rick Collins, Dr. Victor Prisk, Victoria Felkar, 6x Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates, Ben Johnson (Olympic Sprinter and fastest man on earth in the 100m) Dr. Darryn Willoughby, Dr. Scott Stevenson, Bill Kazmaier (worlds strongest man) David Sandler, Dr. Ken Kinakin, and last and most definitely least Me.
The panel was scheduled to run for an hour and a half, but we ended up going for over three hours. Although I’m pretty sure almost every stomach on the panel was growling and ready to eat, the information and education that was being dispersed to the crowd of enthusiastic attendants was well worth the extra time spent. In fact, the only reason the panel stopped was because the camera’s ran out of film/disk space.
I wish that I could recap the panel for you here, but in all honesty, the only part I remember was being seated by Dorian Yates… Funny story, I had seen Dorian in the halls the day prior and I very calmly and collectedly said “You’re Dorian Yates!!” to which he replied, “Yes, I am… Nice to see you” and then proceeded to move away from me as quickly as possible. His reaction was definitely warranted, because I lied just a little bit about the being calm and collected thing… I basically lunged at him and frantically mumbled something unintelligible while looking like some type of rabid animal… So it really was no surprise that he chose to sit next to me on the panel the following night. Obviously I had made such an awesome impression that he wanted to sit next to me so that we could get to know each other even better… either that or it was the only seat open since he arrived a bit late. Doesn’t matter, total win for me.
The rest of the symposium was absolutely amazing. Dr. Ken Kenakin does an incredible job, and the people that show up and want to contribute to his SWIS symposium are a testament to how much he is loved and how much he means and contributes to this industry that we are involved in.
I think that video for the panel I was on should be available soon here on muscle mentor, and the other videos from all the other presenters from the entire weekend should be available via swisvideo.com.
I can’t say enough good things about SWIS so, here is another great write up from Ken Whetham over at elitefts. I met Ken at SWIS and both he and his wife are not only incredibly strong, but also some of the nicest and down to earth people I’ve met.
-Brad
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