So how do you roll? I don't mean this in terms of your style but more as to how you move.  [caption id="attachment_3979" align="alignleft" width="300"] This is not how we roll   For most of the adult population the day consists of sitting on the commute to work, sitting at a desk, sitting on the drive home, sitting to eat dinner followed by sitting down to watch the latest episode of Suits. [caption id="attachment_3980" align="alignleft" width="238"] You might want to sit down for this one While the obvious pattern above is too much sitting we make this worse by not only not moving enough but moving in only the sagittal plane (think forward and back). We are ignoring movements in the frontal and transverse plane. Recently we have seen in increase in multi-planar movements and function from people like Dewey Nielsen, the folks at Primal Move and any else that trains with varied movement and challenge. So why the interest in rolling and 3D movement? Well part of this traces back to how we learned to move as infants. We learned head control, then as we explored with our heads to get to whatever it was that caught our attention we would bring our opposite arm or leg over to flip over. And while we learned this rolling pattern as infants it has been lost as we become more sedentary, become injured and age. However as we address our ability to roll we can see improvements in our ability to perform in rotational sports such as hockey, tennis, golf as well day to day movements such as squats and hip hinges. Check out the video below to see Charlie Weingroff, who spoke at the 1st Okanagan Strength & Conditioning Conference, talking about rolling. http://youtu.be/gmQuG2mnkWwHere are a few takeaways from the video and...

Local Olympian to Open Okanagan Strength & Conditioning Conference FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Kelowna, BC – June 19, 2012) Local Olympic medallist Chris Le Bihan will open the Okanagan Strength & Conditioning Conference and provide the welcoming address. Le Bihan, who won bronze in four man bobsled at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, will speak as to the impact top-level training methods and scientific research allowed for his success at the Olympics.Notes conference co-host Chris Collins, of Okanagan Peak Performance Inc.; “Typically we associate Olympic legacies with the facilities which remain after the Games. In this case with Le Bihan, we have a real life legacy that interacts with our clients and athletes on a daily basis. He exemplifies what an Olympic athlete should be and is a great mentor for those seeking elite athletic performance.”Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. will be hosting this inaugural event bringing to Kelowna some of the top experts in athletic strength & conditioning. Following Le Bihan’s welcoming address attendees will have the unique opportunity to learn from the best in the field of strength & conditioning.Presenters will include: Dr. Charlie Weingroff – Noted physical therapist, former NBA      strength coach, Nike Sparq Training Human Movement Expert Dr. Martin Gibala – Professor McMaster University, emphasis in high      intensity interval training Dr. Jeff Cubos – Chiropractic sports specialist, certified strength      coach, specialization in core stabilization Joel Jamieson – MMA trainer, specialist in managing athletic      training stress & recovery Sean Skahan – Strength & conditioning coach with the Anaheim      Ducks, 2007 Stanley Cup, 9 players in the 2010 OlympicsAttendees will range from personal trainers, strength & conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, therapists, medical professionals, sports coaches and sports enthusiasts. In addition to the presentations attendees will have opportunities to meet Le Bihan and the presenters during meal...

Recently Alexandra and I drove down to Seattle with Jordy and Megan for a one day clinic put on by Perform Better. At this particular event we were lucky to catch the following four presenters: Rachel Cosgrove Charlie Weingroff Gray Cook Alwyn Cosgrove Mike Boyle was scheduled to present but I can imagine his new position with the Red Sox probably limits his time and availability to participate in these events. So Gray Cook filled in for him. Are you familiar with Gray Cook? If not it's like saying Crosby is not available for the shootout but Ovechkin can fill in for him. Kudos to Perform Better for providing a fill-in such as Gray. And lucky for all of us in attendance. But let's get to what they all talked about. 1. Rachel Cosgrove -  Designing Fat Loss Programs For Your Female Clients The big take aways from Rachel's presentation was the level of system development that exists at Results Fitness which she owns with her husband Alwyn. Better systems allows for better results. She went into detail showing the breakdown of what an hour session looks like at her gym and provided a number of examples of factors that are unique to training women. For example there should be consideration of prone exercises, jumping exercises, time of month (menstruation) and time of their life (menopause) when training women. 2. Charlie Weingroff  - Understanding Joint Centration If you've seen Charlie speak before you'll know what a treat it is to learn from him. And while he's great online and on podcasts etc he's such an energetic personality you really do need to see him in person. Click at the end of this sentence to see Charlie in Kelowna this summer www.strengthconference.comWhat is joint centration? Well I hope I'm doing Charlie justice by describing...

One thing we put a high priority on at Okanagan Peak Performance is education. We have summer interns who come work with us during the summer. We subscribe to relevant journals and trade publications. Staff are paid for the journals and articles they read each week.We put on seminars for our clients every few months. And of course we travel far and wide to learn from the best.So how do we improve on that?We bring the best to us, that's how.And who do we mean by the best anyway? Well bringing in 5 top level speakers from across North America. This list includes:Dr. Charlie Weingroff - I first saw Charlie speak last year in Seattle and I was immediately impressed. He stole the show. His presentations are a great mix of both interesting and useful. He has a great sense of humour and fields questions from the audience like a pro. Besides the fact he is one super smart dude he is also an accomplished powerlifter putting up a 1915 lbs total for his squat, deadlift and bench. Unbelievable!Want more? How about the fact he was the strength and conditioning coach for the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA, has his doctorate in physical therapy and trained the special forces the United States Marines. Wow!Dr. Martin Gibala -In our industry there are a number of research papers that constantly get quoted by those of us who want to appear really smart and show what we know. Just kidding. But Dr. Gibala's research is commonly referenced when you are talking about high intensity exercise, EPOC and other exercise related topics. As well, it turns out Olympian Adam vanKoeverden thinks pretty highly of this guy as well. I still can't believe we're going to have him here.Joel Jamieson -Have you heard of this thing called...