Be Fit With Biray

“With so many Americans lacking a healthy diet and proper bouts of physical activity, I often wonder where the disconnect between ‘wanting to live well’ and actually ‘living well’ comes from. We exist in an environment that enables poor eating habits and sedentarism. Media-based screen-time activities, like video games and playing on the Internet, have made significant impacts on both our healthy and unhealthy behaviors.

My professional objective is to discover the advantages and limitations of interactive technologies and web-based media. I want to teach health, fitness and wellness professionals how to effectively integrate these tools to enhance their efforts in combating illnesses and diseases.” — Biray Alsac

Biray is an international fitness and wellness speaker. She presents on topics that look at current interactive technologies and their possible fitness applications. She presents at FitnessFest, National Wellness Conference, IDEA Health & Fitness World Convention, ACSM Health & Fitness Summit, and IHRSA. This year she will be keynoting the Major Moves conference in Birmingham, UK. She travels all over the world as a freelance writer for health & fitness magazines. She actually gets paid to author a regular column on all-things ‘tech and fitness’!

Biray serves as an adjunct faculty in the Exercise Science & Physical Education department of Mesa Community College in Arizona. Her teaching load is 100% online. And she’s currently developing curriculum to make activity-based classes (like walking, jogging, cycling and exergaming) completely web-based. She is also a member of the Faculty Professional Learning Communities (FPLC) for New Media Technology, a group of faculty/staff who gather regularly to discuss ways teachers can integrate new technologies into their classrooms to improve student learning.

Biray is heavily involved in the exergaming community - following the current applications of consoles like Nintendo’s Wii and games like Dance Dance Revolution. She received her Master’s degree in Exercise & Wellness from ASU where she studied the benefits of exergaming (EyeToy: Kinetic) on cardiovascular health.

In addition, Biray is the Owner/CIO of FITTmaxx Institute, an institute dedicated to teaching health, fitness and wellness professionals on how to effectively integrate fitness and interactive technologies together.

Biray has been in the health and fitness industry for over 12 years. She is an ACE and AFAA Certified Instructor & Personal Trainer, as well as, a Master Presenter for BOSU. She loves teaching all formats of group exercise, from kickboxing and muscular conditioning classes to yoga. If she *had* to pick her favorite format to teach, it would definitely be cycling.

In her spare time, Biray enjoys running with her Nike Sport iPod (preferably outdoors, but the Arizona heat can be challenging during the summers) and practicing tai chi. She’d be lying if she didn’t include her love of playing video games (of course) - currently she’s considering the purchase of a PS3 purely due to her obsession with the Ratchet & Clank series. (And yes, she does have a Wii.)