Webinar: The Behavior Change Blueprint: How Optimal Resistance Training Empowers Clinicians, Motivates Patients, and Elevates Fitness Programming
Learn how to use resistance training as a behavior change strategy.
This webinar addresses a critical, often overlooked problem: many patients avoid resistance training due to misinformation, fear, or poor past experiences, while many clinicians feel unprepared to confidently guide patients through meaningful exercise conversations. This gap contributes to low engagement, stalled progress, and missed opportunities to influence long-term health outcomes through behavior change.
Attendees will learn how to use resistance training not just as an intervention, but as a behavior change strategy. Periodized resistance training programming—built on decades of evidence—naturally integrates progression, autonomy, and personal wins that strengthen self-regulation and intrinsic motivation. Clinicians will leave with the tools to assess a patient’s readiness, address common perceived barriers, and guide conversations using motivational interviewing techniques grounded in exercise science.
The baton is then passed to the fitness professional. This presentation equips fitness pros with a deeper understanding of how to implement optimal resistance training programs tailored to each client’s needs. These programs are designed not only to improve strength and conditioning but also to instill long-term habit formation and internal motivation. The result is a seamless, collaborative model where the clinician initiates the conversation and referral, and the fitness professional reinforces it through best-practice implementation and behavioral consistency.
This session is designed to bridge the gap between medicine and fitness. Whether you’re a clinician or a fitness professional, you’ll leave with a stronger grasp of how optimal resistance training connects with lifelong behavior change—and how your role is central to making that happen.
Speaker: Jeff Young, EdD(c), MS, CSCS, ACSM-EIM, CEO & Co-Founder of the MRF Institute
Jeff Young holds a master’s degree in Exercise and Sport Science, is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, a doctoral candidate in Kinesiology (EdD), and has 30 years of professional experience. He co-founded and serves as the CEO of the Medicine-Rehab-Fitness Institute, an internet-based company designed to bridge the gap between medicine and rehabilitation clinicians, fitness professionals, and the public, through education and collaboration.
He is an adjunct lecturer at CUNY York College in Queens, NY, founder and director of the “New York Moves Coalition”, a state-level implementation of the national physical activity plan, former President of the American College of Sports Medicine’s Greater New York Regional Chapter, founding chair of the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Special Populations Interest Group, incoming chair for the Medical Fitness Association’s Northeast Regional committee, and serves as an advisor and subject matter expert for several medical, rehabilitation, and fitness organizations and companies.
He has worked at world-class facilities such as Duke University, UCLA, and Beth Israel Medical Centers, and as the founding fitness coordinator and faculty practice provider at Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Center for Health and Healing in NYC – the most comprehensive, urban-based, academic integrative medicine and medical fitness facility in the U.S. at the time. Jeff is a sought-after speaker, having presented at nearly 50 conferences and is a co-host of the Medical Fitness Podcast.