Last Saturday we held another powerlifting contest at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. Here's a quick recap of the day and two quick lessons that will help you improve your lifts. The one interesting thing about our powerlifting contests is how casual they are. We have the music playing. Everyone is joking around. And everyone is wearing triple layers of everything as it is -18 C outside. But once we get started we look forward to seeing who can lift what for deadlift, bench press, squat and 3 rep chin up. And it's always fun when friends and family come by to watch. One of them observed a successful deadlift, which involves picking a bar up off the ground and standing up with it, and commented 'now what?' Yes, it's true powerlifting may not impress everyone but it's still a great way to see where you're at. And besides seeing where you've made gains with your lifts you also learn quite a bit about the lifts themselves. Lesson #1 - Sticking Points ExposedFor example, you learn your sticking points. This is the part of the lift where the bar seems to stop moving and either leads to an unsuccessful attempt or results in spending an excessive amount of energy in order to complete the rep. Let's consider the bench press. If someone were able to press the bar off their chest but not be able to lock out the lift it may be that they lack triceps strength which is crucial for extending the arms and finishing a press. Maybe some isolated triceps training would help this person complete the rep more easily and push through to new gains. Or it could be that someone is able to pull a deadlift to mid-shin but lacks the glute and low back strength to...

Recently we held a power-lifting meet at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc. Below are the results of this lifting meet as well as some benefits of testing your lifts.Before we get to the results of the meet it is important to understand why we held this lifting competition. My goals and some of the main reasons were:1. To see where we're atHere's an analogy I like to use as to the benefits of testing.Imagine you want to go to Vancouver and you're starting out in Kelowna. But you don't know where Kelowna and couldn't pin it on a map.What are the chances you will reach your goal of getting to Vancouver? Probably not very good. And if you do make it what are the chances it was the most direct and efficient way of getting there? Again, probably not very good.When we test our lifts we set a starting point. We know where we are. We know what the next goal should be. We know how long it will take to get there. And we have a good idea of the most efficient way to achieve success.Given this is all common sense and fairly obvious isn't it surprising the number of people who train but don't test themselves?2. To identify weak linksI'm a big believer in addressing weak links. If weak links are ignored they come back o haunt as bigger, more painful problems.When we test our lifts we push ourselves to the limit. This exposes our weak links and lets us know what we need to do to improve.For example, for some people they missed their bench press as they couldn't lock out and complete the press. For this individual some more triceps training or rack presses would help overload the finishing portion of the lift to eliminate this weak link.3. To...

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...

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...