Strength and performance
Programming, adaptation, recovery, power, and the coaching decisions that turn principles into results.
The flagship gathering of the College
Washington, D.C. · October 18–22, 2027
The profession
in one room.
Five days of scholarship, live training, serious conversation, and the professional community fitness has been missing.
Join the priority listThe Annual Congress
Not another fitness convention. A gathering worthy of the profession.
The ACFP Annual Congress brings accomplished coaches, emerging professionals, scholars, clinicians, educators, and institutional leaders together without collapsing them into separate worlds. The research belongs beside the training floor. The experienced faculty belongs in conversation with the next generation.
Mornings establish ideas. Afternoons put them under load. Evenings create the relationships through which a profession develops its identity. The result is neither an academic conference nor a commercial expo, but something deliberately more complete.
The training floor
Knowledge should survive contact with a real body.
Congress laboratories are active, coached, and built around professional decisions. Participants assess movement, teach lifts, adjust programs, examine technique, and defend their choices alongside faculty and peers.
Come prepared to think, move, coach, question, and be questioned.
Six connected tracks
A broader field of view.
Movement and assessment
Live laboratories in observation, testing, exercise selection, technique, and responsible interpretation.
Health and longevity
Working intelligently across the lifespan, from resilient young athletes to adults pursuing decades of capability.
Coaching and behavior
Communication, adherence, motivation, identity, and the human craft behind lasting change.
Scholarship and standards
The research, ethical questions, and professional standards shaping the next era of fitness practice.
Leadership and enterprise
Building an exceptional practice, directing teams, mentoring talent, and earning durable professional trust.
Five days in Washington
Each day has a purpose.
The Congress progresses from common purpose to evidence, practice, judgment, and the future of the field.
Monday
The profession
Opening convocation, state of the field, and the questions the profession must answer next.
Tuesday
The evidence
Research briefings, critical appraisal, and direct exchanges between scholars and practitioners.
Wednesday
The practice
A full day of coached laboratories, movement sessions, demonstrations, and applied problem solving.
Thursday
The judgment
Case conferences, contested ideas, ethics, leadership, and decisions where no protocol is enough.
Friday
The future
Recognition, commitments, closing addresses, and the work that continues after the room empties.
Faculty and contributors
Chosen for the work, not the following.
Congress faculty will include researchers who can explain what the evidence does and does not establish, practitioners whose judgment has been tested in real rooms, clinicians who understand collaboration and scope, and younger professionals already advancing the field.
Faculty appointments and the call for presentations will be announced as the program develops.
Make a faculty inquiry ↗Washington, D.C. · 2027
Be there when the profession begins to look like one.
Venue, faculty, tuition, and registration details are in development. Join the priority list for the first program announcement and preferred access when registration opens.