Normally I write the majority of the blog posts. But every now and again I like to step back and let someone else take the lead. I encourage our staff to do this as much as possible. Write, that is.  In school I was never a very good writer and I'm sure there's a few of you that are thinking to yourselves 'you still aren't very good!' That's ok. I'm working on it. And I'm getting better. And this helps me to be a better communicator. And hopefully a better coach. So I want the same for our team. Today I step aside and let Jordy share with you her experience from the Perform Better Summit in Long Beach, CA. Now in my best Tonight Show impression....'heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's Jordy! The Okanagan Peak Performance crew and I went to a 3-day “Perform Better: Functional Training Summit” that took place in Long Beach, California from August 9-11. This conference included both lecture and hands-on sessions allowing us to not only listen to the speakers, but also take their information in our own hands. There were four sessions on at one time; two lectures and two hands on. However, the only problem with this is choosing which session to attend.Do you go to the “one and only” Charlie Weingroff who was explaining “Joint Centration”, or do you go to Martin Rooney for some hands-on “Energy System Training”? After a few rounds of flipping a coin, I ended up attending the hands-on session with Martin Rooney and would crown this session as one of my favorites! I love any kind of hands-on sessions where you get to move and stay active while learning and applying it to your own clients. The best part of this session was the energy that Martine Rooney brought to the room! You...

Over the last few weeks you may have noticed some changes at Okanagan Peak Performance. When there was a flu going around we thought hand sanitzers might help to control the spread of this.  When Ryder Hesjedal won the Giro D'Italia, and in anticipation of the London Olympics, we thought it would be appropriate to display a Canadian flag. And when we recognized we would have a need for a summer intern we brought on Jeremy Martin. Jeremy is going into his 3rd of kinesiology at UBC and is gaining some practical experience with us this summer. He has played a number of sports from football, rugby, basketball, MMA and more recently has gotten into powerlifting. I'll step aside here and let Jeremy introduce himself to you all.                 If anyone is still wondering who the meat head in the OPP shirt telling you what to do is, my name is Jeremy Martin. I'm a 21 year old Kelowna native, transferring into my third year of kinesiology at UBC Vancouver. Chris was brave enough to hire me on as a summer intern and I couldn't be more excited to be here.                I'll start by giving a brief rundown of my athletic background; I played basketball and rugby all through high school, going to provincials a few times in both sports. I also played football from grade 8 to grade 12 but my high school (Immaculata) did not have a football team so I played city league. After high school I decided to take up competitive mixed martial arts, much to the chagrin of my mother. I competed for about a year, ultimately stopping due to a mixture of concussions and the desire to pursue an education/career. Not having a sport to compete in started wearing on me so I decided to take up...

One of the things we really put an emphasis on at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. is education. I talked about this many times before and the number of different ways we look to further our education and involvement with students.Recently I announced that we would be hosting the Okanagan Strength & Conditioning Conference. This two day event will bring in some of the top practitioners and researchers in our industry. And I say practitioners and researchers because these are people working in the trenches working with clients on a day to day basis. Or they are performing novel cutting-egde research that allows the rest of us to have a better insight as to what methods work better or ellicit a result sooner.So we feel very fortunate to have these guys coming not only to our region but to our facility. While there may be a day or two in August where our regular coaching or programming is altered to account for this opportunity please know that you will benefit immensely from the enhanced knowledge our staff will gain.If you are a fitness professional, coach, trainer, physiotherapist, massage therapist, chiropractor, physician or anyone else that trains or rehabs clients, you should attend this event.The registration page www.strengthconference.com is now open. Besides two days of presentations and learning we are also hosting an evening social and including some of the meals for the attendees. Register before June 1 for the lowest possible rate.Besides this conference we are hosting we are also going to start something else that new for our area and of special benefit to our members.How many times have you heard one of our coaches make reference of a book, study, recipe or something else and wished you had a pen and paper to make note of the reference?Maybe you have a...

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...