If you've trained with OPP for a while you've probably seen the wide variety of clientele that we have the pleasure of training. From post-rehab to body transformation and sports performance there is a huge range in training goals. [caption id="attachment_4154" align="alignleft" width="300"] Clients train for a variety of goals at OPP. One of the groups we work with doesn't really fall into any of these categories. While there may be some in this group that have played sports they aren't preparing for an upcoming season. And others may benefit from a little more lean body mass they aren't coming for this goal. And others still have have some type of injury but that isn't what brought them to us either. You see these students are from a school here in Kelowna which is a school that helps young people facing different types of challenges in their lives. These challenges may be substance/alcohol abuse, behavioural problems or some other type of conflict. Now since these are students they are still under the care of a parent or guardian. In other words it is usually someone else's decision that results in attending this school and ultimately training at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. Think about that for a second... Imagine that someone else decided to send you to OPP? Imagine that it wasn't your choice to train? And that one day you ended up at our facility and someone such as Graeme, Megan, Jordy or myself was telling you to do squats, deadlifts, chin-ups and burpees? When we start with a new client there is one thing that determines success more than anything else and it has nothing to do with training, nutrition, recovery or supplements. Before we can worry about dropping 6 inches off the waist and hips we need to ensure the 6...

Do you have a fitness goal that you've been working towards for a while?If it's a weight loss goal you've probably tried different approaches. You may have tried a new training program. Maybe you switched up your nutritional plan. Perhaps you tried a new supplement to boost your workouts or enhance the fat burning process.And if you're like most people you probably have only so many tweaks you can make to your lifestyle in an attempt to achieve your goal before you just throw in the towel and give up. I mean that's a common theme on the after-noon talk shows isn't it? The attitude that it's not your fault, that you're an amazing person just the way you are and all the other warm & fuzzy psycho babble that is used to justify falling short of your goal.Now don't get wrong here. I understand there are a number of factors that contribute to an individual's propensity to gain weight and subsequent ability to lose it as well. And unless we have a blood and hormone profile to work with it may be quite difficult for some to drop weight without knowing the information that can be collected from such tests.But maybe we're going about this the wrong way?Maybe instead of trying harder we need to relax our efforts a bit.What? How does this make sense? How can relaxing the nutritional and exercise efforts you are making be holding you back from having the lean and healthy physique you would like to have?Look at it this way.A new exercise and fitness routine can be thought of as juggling.Ask someone to reduce the calorie containing beverages they consume and they may be able to handle this. (more on this in a bit)Now ask them to take omega-3 every day, plan and pack...

When it comes to coaching everyone has a different style. Sure we pick things up from different coaches here and there. We'll steal a tip from this one. We'll adopt a practice from that one. But for the most part we have to figure what our style is and then develop it to the best of our ability. Learning to Lift Analogies For me one of the things I like to use when coaching is analogies. Big surprise right! Why analogies? Well because it allows the coach and client to find a common reference point regarding the concept being addressed. It gets away from the specific language and terms that both people may people may not be familiar. Analogies can also make the experience more fun. Because when someone steps on the training room floor they be very unaware of the technique required to perform a lift. Some may think they know what they're doing and then as a coach when you watch them lift you realize they don't. So you need to step in and coach them. Here's how I like to coach a lift. Analogies Save Time & Money First, of all don't let someone continue performing lots of reps the wrong way. This just ingrains a poor motor program which is then harder to fix later. For example, I wouldn't look over and say to myself 'wow, that guy (or girl) is using terrible form on their deadlifts! I should talk to them later.' That would be like watching someone drive past you in their car going the wrong way and you don't stop them. You let them continue on thinking they are making progress in the right direction but instead they are wasting time and money. Worse the path they are headed down may cause extensive damage...

Chris is not my first. By Chris, of course, I am referring to our fitness lord and savior, Christopher M. Collins. The MSc, CSCS, strength coach, gym founder and all-around guru-dude cracking the whip here at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. Now you have to know that I’m not bragging about this. To have gone through seven or perhaps even eight different trainers in the last twenty years or so is not exactly a badge of honour. I want nothing more than for Chris to finally be my last. It’s been a solid two decades since I first went to war with my body. And throughout that time I have enjoyed my share of victories and defeats, along with more general frustration and base-line annoyance than I could ever shake a foam roller at. (and if you don’t know what that analogy means then I guess you gotta join OPP…) Sure I can get motivated but I can also give up. I can get happy and excited but slip just as fast to angry and frustrated. The battle is never-ending, for me at least. Now I recognize tagging this intensely personal struggle as a “war” may not be a particularly healthy way to view such things, but in all honesty that is exactly how it’s progressed. I fight my way down the weight ladder (or up the fitness one) only to lose focus or somehow self-sabotage and muck things up anew. I’m petulant, impatient and easily distracted. I’m also slow-moving and easy, until I get annoyed and flip out in an instant. I am as active and as diligent as I can be lazy like a sloth. Add in decades of marinating my over-stimulated consciousness within a brew of media-perfected imagery crossed with Hollywood outcomes and you’re left with a forty-two year...

Often times people will stop in to our facility and ask what it is we do. They already have some idea because the signage out front identifies us as an athletic training facility and through the mindows they can see some of the equipment. But while there will be some pieces of equipment they will recognize there will also be some items which are foreign to them. For example, for what do we use the big wooden platforms are the floor? And what is the bench back by the med balls? And lastly why do you have a big tractor tire? And that's just trying to figure out the equipment. Imagine trying to make sense of the various types of training that goes on. Whereas most fitness centres are slower in the summer we are the opposite. Summer is the time winter sport athletes have an off-season. And it's also the time student athletes are home for the summer and can make gains with their training. And summer is when we run our youth fitness training camps. So when you add all of these to the mix it can make for a busy place. Take a look at the following video to see what I mean. http://youtu.be/AiRHwZ8fZ3M Let me walk you through everything that's going on here. The first thing you'll see is a client foam rolling before a training session. This is something we have all our clients do before training to release any knots or trigger points. Next the shot shows Matt and Jordy doing a powerlifting session. Matt is doing deadlifts on the platform and Jordy is doing presses beside him. All the way in the back corner you'll see someone in a Group Fitness session performing a hip mobility drill at the squat rack. This involves stepping over the...

Do you enter competitive events? For example, if you don't play a sport what are you doing to assess yourself?For many, the days of playing competitive sports is long gone and a thing of the past. Now just the thought of getting in a workout feels like a accomplishment let alone thinking about actually entering a race or competitive event.But there are huge advantages to entering some type of competitive event. Here are a few.1. You'll zero in on the weak points of your training.Let's say you entered a powerlifting competition and tested your squat, deadlift and bench. And you put up a personal best in your squat and bench but not in your deadlift. You would know where to put more of your attention in the next phase of your training.You can also get very specific about certain aspects of your lifts. I won't go into all the details here but let's imagine you had difficulty locking out the arms to finish the lift. That would be a clue as to how we could modify your training so this is not an issue for you.2. You'll get a better appreciation for tapering.For example, if you were to enter an 8 km race on a Sunday it may not make a lot of sense to go out late on Thursday night and run intense sand dunes and initiate a swim program on a Saturday (more details below).If doing something you routinely do for a race feels difficult on race day, chances are you didn't back off on the training enough, increase your rest enough, or both.The higher the level you attain in your sport the more you'll appreciate the benefits of tapering and adjusting your training as race day approaches.3. You'll be more clear of what you're capable.If I weren't a runner...

One of the things that has been fun as we continue to move forward with Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. has been all the changes that have happened in the past year. We've moved into a new facility. And we outfitted it with the best equipment anywhere in town. Next we did some touch ups to freshen up the look of the place and make it a little more comfortable for everyone. Lastly we've looked to bring on some new talent that can help us continue to help you get better results in less time. But we're not looking to bringing just anyone on board. We want people that meet very specific criteria. They need to be great people, who live an active life already and have a desire to continue learning and getting better. With this mind we've recently added Matt Baumeister to the OPP team. Matt is a recent kinesiology graduate from UBCO and is certified through the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiologists. But besides his degree and credential Matt is also an accomplished athlete specifically in triathlon. Recently we did our weekly sand dunes workout on a Saturday morning. If you've joined us before you'll know what this workout it all about. If not let me explain. This dune can take anywhere from 5 minutes plus for a newbie to climb. Some first timers don't make it up. And the all-time fastest climb ever was 3:12. I thought I might have a shot at this time as I put up a 3:15 this year but now this dream is crushed. You see Matt climbed this dune in 2:50! For the longest time I was trying to go under 4 minutes. And when I did I felt like Roger Bannister breaking the 4 minute mile. Now sub 4 minute climbs are a regularity. And seeing Matt going under 3...

Often times when we think about our reasons for training they can be pretty obvious such as a weight loss goal. This is an obvious goal because it's the number one goal of people who have gym memberships. Heck, it's probably even the number one goal of even the ones who don't have gym memberships.And it makes sense to drop a few extra pounds. It takes stress off weight bearing joints. It allows us to move more easily and without feeling totally spent after performing daily tasks like walking up a flight of stairs.There are improvements to our blood chemistry and overall physiology. Our sleep improves and so does our mood. The truth is we can find many reasons to invest our health by taking some time for training and proper nutrition.But what I find really interesting is that all of these reasons are lower in the grand scheme of things.Consider Maslow's Hierchy of Needs.The diagram represents a variety of human needs from more basic ones at the bottom. In other words as basic requirements we need to breathe, eat, drink water, sleep and carry on basic physiological human needs.But as we progress we must satisfy higher levels of needs related to feeling safe, being loved, having esteem and eventually realizing self-actualization.So how does this relate one's fat loss goal? What does my fitness training have to do with these needs?Let's look at each of these in detail.Physiological - Getting started on a training program involves better nutrtional choices. We drink more water. We sleep better. And as a result our physiological needs are satisfied.Safety - With our training our primary goal is to reduce the incidence of injury. We want to strengthen your immune system to keep you from catching the various colds and flus that get passed around. You...

 Recently I was down to Las Vegas for some meetings, lectures and networking. In between our meetings I had the chance to track down Dr. Peter Osbourne for a quick interview on gluten and celiac disease.In the interview I ask Dr. Osbourne a number of questions including:1. What is gluten?Dr. Osbourne defines gluten as a poison for certain individuals that when they eat it this causes an immune system reaction. This reaction causes a host of problems of up to 140 auto-immune diseases.2. What foods trigger a response or reaction to gluten?Gluten is found primarily in grains such as bread, pasta and cereal.3. Is it possible that some people have celiac disease and may not even know it?Lots of people have gluten sensitivity but have been misdiagnosed and don't know why they are sick. In terms of celiac disease there are an estimated 2 million people that are 'silent celiac' meaning they are asymptomatic and have the disease but won't find out until their fourth decade when the symptoms really start to set in.I ask him a couple more questions but you'll have to watch the video to see what they are.At the end of the interview Dr. Osbourne shares with us his website and facebook fan page. Make sure to watch for this information and contact him for more resources or to inquire about being tested for gluten sensitivity.Are you gluten sensitive?Do you have celiac disease?Do you have reactions to certain foods where the cause hasn't been diagnosed yet?Post your answers in the comments section below.Chrisokanaganpeakperformance.com 'always moving forward'