Recently you may have noticed some big changes at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. Specifically I'm referring to a recent addition to our coaching staff at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc, Graeme Lehman. At 6'5" Graeme is definitely big but it's not his stature that impressed us enough to know he would be a key addition to our team. Read below to find about Graeme, his background and what he brings to OPP.
[caption id="attachment_3865" align="alignleft" width="243"] New coach Graeme Lehman
Chris Collins (CC): First of all Graeme I want to say welcome aboard and we are excited to have you as a member of our team. Why don’t you start off by telling us a bit about your experience in the strength and conditioning industry.
Graeme Lehman (GL): Thanks Chris, I am really excited to be a part of Okanagan Peak Performance!!! I’ve been working in this industry for 10 years now and have accumulated roughly 12,000 hours of coaching a wide range of clients ranging from post surgery rehab to elite level athletes and everything in between. My first job was as a general manager of a fitness studio since my under graduate degree was in business administration from Jamestown University in North Dakota. About a year later I literally got thrown into the training side of the business when one of our trainers called in sick and I haven’t looked back. In 2006 I became a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and in 2008 I enrolled in a graduate program to get my Master’s degree in Kinesiology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN).
CC: North Dakota, Newfoundland and now BC. You’re all over the map. What brought you to Kelowna?
GL: Kelowna has always been a place that I have wanted to live ever since I was kid and my family would make an annual trip to the Okanagan from Edmonton. My desire to move here grew even more over the last four years while my wife I were living in Vancouver while she attend school to become a Naturopathic Doctor and we always knew that once she graduated that Kelowna would be the #1 place where we wanted to live and settle down. And as luck would have it I met both you and Megan at a seminar down in Seattle where we first discussed the possibility of working at Okanagan Peak Performance. The final piece of the puzzle came when my wife got the opportunity to start her Naturopathic practice at the Core Center of Health downtown.
CC: The seminar that Graeme is talking about was a shoulder specific seminar delivered by baseball strength and conditioning guru Eric Cressey. You have a keen interest in this area don’t you?
GL: My primary sport growing was baseball and it afforded me the possibility to go to University on an athletic scholarship and it has always been a passion of mine. After my playing career was over I wanted to stay involved in baseball so it made sense to combine it with my job as a strength and conditioning coach. I’ve been lucky enough to train a lot of baseball players over the years including the UBC Thunderbirds for two years along with some teams in the Lower Mainland. I look forward to continuing this work with the local baseball teams like the Okanagan Athletics’ and the Okanagan College Coyotes.
The great thing about my interest in training baseball players is that it has allowed me to gain a lot of knowledge and experience in working with people with shoulder injuries which has carried over to other sports as well as your average gym goer who happens to have shoulder issues.
CC: Shoulder injuries are one of the most common issues we see if people joining our gym too so it will be nice to add your expertise. Outside of the gym and work what do you like to do?
GL: I am quite a bit of nerd when it comes to both baseball and exercise science so believe it or not I like to read and write about these subjects in my free time. I’m not a total nerd however since I love being active and enjoy playing a lot of sports such as basketball, volleyball, golf, skiing and tennis. The fact that I can all of these things here was the driving force behind wanting to move to Kelowna. When I am relaxing my wife and I are addicted to a lot of TV shows like The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Dexter, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Breaking Bad.
We try to restrict our time spent watching these shows to the winter because we intend on spending as much time as possible at the beach and touring wineries.
CC: That’s great Graeme. We are looking forward to having you on our team.
GL: Thank you very much Chris. I am even more excited to be part of this team after spending a week here getting to meet some of the clients and the other coaches like Megan and Jordy.
Graeme is currently accepting new clients and can be reached at our facility, by email
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