Fernwood Movement Academy

DO YOUR PRE-HAB TO PREVENT YOUR REHAB Why would you do pre-habilitation? - Do both of your shoulders operate the same?... - Do you wear insoles? - Is your low back ever sore after a lifting? - Do you have knee or hip pain? - Do you feel like you're "missing a piece" or you can't explain why you're uncomfortable in your body?? If you said yes to any of these you're on your way to an injury. Why wait until that point? Pre-habilitation is just as important, if not more important than your rehab. Often overlooked are the fundamentals. I'm talking breathing and bracing mechanics, short-footing, and an understanding of what proper stabalization looks and feels like. Pre-habilitation in optimizing basic function and injury prevention. You'll have to do it eventually, so why not save yourself an injury

Creating a space of healthy movement and education that will serve you no matter what walk of life Stay tuned rolling into the new year for our built for you programs !!! #yyjfitness #functionalmovement #yyjyoga #posturalexercises #foryou #yyjsmallbusiness #yyjfitnessmotivation

GIVEAWAY TIME Ok you guys Let’s do this !! These are so fun !! ... What is up for grabs ... - a 45 minimum extensive movement assessment - pain management, mobility and postural tips and tricks specifically for you - 4 sessions in our private studio This is a $360 value !!!!! How to enter ... - like our business page @elevatefitvic - tag a minimum of 3 friends ( each tag is an entry so don’t be shy ) - share this post to your stories !!!! For Vancouver island folks only Winner will be announced December 23rd !!!! Let’s get your new year started right !! Good Luck everyone

We are so excited to welcome Brooke to the Elevate team! A recent graduate of Camosuns BSFL program, BCAK member and future CSCS recipient. Brooke uses her extensive and ongoing education of the human body and movement patterning to heal and care for her clients by focussing on pre-habilitation and rehabilitation to increase quality of life, performance, and overall health and wellness. ... She works to align physical movement with healthful living in all clients by identifying and correcting underlying movement restrictions while simultaneously working towards client goals in a fun and sweaty environment. Outside of Elevate she's not in one place for long. You can catch her coaching girls mountain biking, hiking and camping around the island or exploring the waterline via kayak. Brooke is excited to make her home at elevate and start taking on clients. Her infectious smile and personable nature pairs perfectly with a schedule that is ready when you are! @drookebendl

Where does rehab end and performance begins ??? The answer is it doesnt .... Any good training program should be focused on improving the quality of movement (rehab) ... And any good rehab program should be focused on improving the performance goals (training) The two run hand in hand For example.... When we improve the function of our feet (rehab) we can improve our deadlift (performance) . . When we improve breathing mechanics (rehab) we improve our ability to lift heavier, move faster and move better (performance) . . When we improve shoulder mobility/stability (rehab) we improve our ability to press over head (performance) . . One makes you better at the other and vise versa. And both are equally relevant #functionalfitness #whitelionathletics #movementfundamentals #fitness #yyjfitness #activerehabilitation @julialoglisci

The face you make after a 350ft climb . . I have been pretty resistant about trail running in the past; it never really appealed to me, and I had a hard time coming to terms with the part about having to slow down my pace and be more tactical. I would say a big part of it was ego around my paces. Its addicting getting faster as a road runner, and my main goal has been to qualify for Boston and other WMMs. .... With having these trails right across from our house, it would be crazy not to go out and explore them. I can honestly say, with this past week on the trails, I have never had so much fun running [exceptions being road races]. I am loving trail running and the climbing way more than I thought I ever would. It is challenging & rewarding in a totally different way. . I cant believe I was going to let my ego and obsession with paces stop me from experiencing this totally different and exciting form of running. I still love my road running, and that will be my main form of racing for a while. But who says you cant do both!? And maybe a 50k ultra is a little bit closer in the future than I thought... . Dont be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. You never know.. it could be your next big passion. See more

I JUST WANT TO TAKE A MINUTE ... Its been a bit since I have posted! We have been busy!!... As I wrap up the first month of the new space I really just wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU!!! The response to the new space has been overwhelming positive and I really couldnt have asked for a better first month of business! Having bought my business in February of this year, when COVID hit just a short month later I was fresh and eager and growing rapidly and very quickly felt like it may all get ripped away from me. This sparked a strong sense of survival in me to keep doing what I was so passionate about no matter what hurdle there was. Adaptation and passion pushed me to reach higher and take leaps that may have otherwise been delayed due to fears or comfortability! Im so glad I took the leap! Im so grateful to have a space where I can come everyday and serve my clients to my greatest abilities in a safe and comfortable environment. This is just the beginning of many big things for Elevate in the coming months! Cant wait to keep sharing with all of you! @julialoglisci

Black out Tuesday

PLYOMETRICS FOR SPEED & RUNNING ECONOMY . Are you incorporating plyometrics into your running program? If this is something new to you, Im going to talk about what they are & why they are important to plug into training once or twice a week. .... Plyometrics are burst exercises that work muscle recruitment & ability to produce force against the ground [think box jumps, jump squats, skaters]. Without getting too much into the anatomy & physiology, heres a skim the surface description of what this means for distance runners. . - distance runners use primary slow-twitch muscle fibres, that is what we train mostly because that is what we need to go the distance [pun intended] . - when we start to train our fast-twitch muscle fibres as well, not only are we working on our speed, but also maximizing our muscle recruitment for when our slow-twitch fibres start to fatigue [same idea as in a carb-depletion training run: we train our body to use its fat stores so we dont deplete our carb stores 3/4 of a way through a marathon] . - training those quick movements & fast-twitch fibres helps produce force against the ground, which decreases the amount of time your foot is in the ground, which means increasing speed . - running economy is the ability of muscles to use oxygen efficiently, when we work on the aforementioned points we can increase economy & how we utilize oxygen [in very short terms: more efficient use of muscles = less oxygen needed] . . Here are some of my favourite plyometric exercise that I like to do a couple of times a week: Skaters with balance Box jumps Split squat jumps Lateral jump squats 4 square hops Plyo spiders . Soft ground for these is best [grass, soft gym mat, etc.] with a focus on quick reaction time of your feet leaving the ground & knees have a soft bend to absorb force. Plyometrics once or twice a week is a great place to start if you are new to it! Message me if youd like videos of the plyos I mentioned above, Im happy to show you what these look like. . If plyometrics are already a part of your training regime, drop your favourite below in the comments to give others some fresh ideas! See more

BENEFITS OF COACHING . Curious about working with a running coach!? Heres a little background story on how I came to the decision to start training with a coach & what the benefits are! .... I had been making my own training plans for about the first two years of running marathons, & absorbing everything I took in on social like a sponge. I did pretty well carrying myself as far as I did on my own, but eventually I started to plateau & got a lot of reoccurring injuries that eventually led to me dropping out of a marathon. Not saying I had a DNF because I didnt have a coach, but because I had taken myself as far as I could with the knowledge that I had, & what I was doing wasnt working for me anymore. . I started seeking out a coach, & landed on an online coaching company I came across through social. I was linked up with an awesome coach that I worked with for a year & a half that lead me to back to back half marathon PBs, a marathon PB, plus qualifications for two major marathons: the Boston Marathon & the Chicago Marathon. . Working with a coach took me to the next level. I may have gotten here on my own eventually, but I was feeling pretty defeated from the plateau I had reached & was more than ready to make that investment in myself to start working with a coach. . Here are just some of the benefits of online coaching: Accountably Prepared training plan Support & motivation Virtual training, so you can be coached from anywhere Race day planning & prep A professional resource when it comes to questions on training & the sport Opportunities to meet others in the running community . Now that I have started working with a running coach I dont think that I will ever not work with one. Even as a coach myself, I still choose to have someone else train me. Keeping me accountable & challenging me to push a little harder than I think I can to help me reach the BIG goals. . I absolutely love coaching & I hope that I can help guide more runners to their BIG goals, just as my coaches have done for me. . If you have been thinking about working with a run coach, or are wanting more information on it send me a message & Id be happy to talk to you more about it. See more

LETS TALK FEET part 1 The forgotten realm in regards to the body. ... The highly underestimated component to movement as a whole.... Id like to take a minute to reevaluate this thought process and help you not only maybe change your perspective on this glorious and much needed part of your body but help you find a deeper understanding of its very big roll in the world of creating and maintaining a strong, efficient and pain free existence. ... The feet are the foundation to our bodies! Everything else is literally stacked on top of them so you can imagine what happens when our feet arent happy and healthy! It leaves the body in a position in which it must compensate to perform whatever life tasks you have laid out for it. Wether that be sport, walking or even sitting! Yes our foot disjunction can effect sitting simply because it can effect everything up stream from the feet, like our hips for example. And our hip health absolutely effects our seating patterns. And unfortunately we live in a world in which we sit WAY to much! ... That hip dysfunction that was create by the foot dysfunction can now start showing up as back pain, neck tension and about 100 other things potentially in the body that would seemingly not feel like they had anything to do with the foot at all! ... YOU SEE WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS ? ... Our bodies do not function in separate parts. Our bodies are meant to work together as one functioning unit so when the foundation of your house in tilted the walls, roof and everything inside your house is effected too! And when those walls and roof finally decide they cant take the load they were not built to manage they collapse and that collapse shows up as pain in the body. ... The feet have 26 bones and 33 joints !! That is a lot of joints and they were all put there to create this support system for you to live your life upon. When we cram them in shoes that were not made for feet or we sit for hours upon hours everyday we are doing not just damage to our feet but damage to the rest of our bodies as well! ... So I encourage all of you to FREE your feet from the shackles of shoes more often! Take care of your foundation!

HOW TO PLAN A TRAINING WEEK . Some requests coming in for setting up your training week & where to place runs. . Training plans are very subjective to the person & should be built around individual needs & goals.... However, this is a general template I would follow when I was first starting out & didnt have a coach developing my plans: -one longer run, that is easy time on your feet [this is usually placed sometime on the weekend for me] . -one or two speed/tempo/fartlek/intervals run during the week. The deciding factor between having one or two of these runs is dependent on your mileage for the week & what you did the week before. . -shorter, easy runs for time on your feet in between the hard run days OR harder cross training days [elliptical, bike, swim, etc.] if you only run 2 or 3 days a week. . -rest day with some mobility, rolling, and active recovery [fairly consistently Sundays for me] . Try to avoid placing two hard runs back to back, your muscles need to time to adapt to the work you did before. . Like I mentioned, training programs are developed for the individual. Each person is different, and as a coach I dont want to encourage a one size fits all mentality with training. But if you are looking for a place to start & are confused about how to layer your training week, I would look at something like this . Whats youre favourite training run? Long run all the way!? Hills for breakfast, lunch & dinner!? Track fiend!? See more

Creating unity and balance in the body builds strength, speed and efficiency!! .... Looking through a lense that sees global patterns and not parts opens up your world to bold and pain free movement. .... Improving Fundamental movement patterns creates a foundation for an unstoppable physical being. ....... Build - Grow - Learn - Achieve @julialoglisci @yyj @yyjfitness @dnsrehabilitation @functionalmvmt @painfreemovementltd @fundamentalmovement @meg.a.mcmanus @becsorensen See more

Tempo Tuesday. Ive had a couple of requests to talk about how to increase speed & to explain what tempos are. They go hand-in-hand! ... For the purpose of streamlining information, Im going to cover which types of training runs to do to increase speed, but there are also a number of things to consider outside of training runs as well (ie. mobility, gait, global patterns, etc). Heres a few training runs to incorporate to help work on speed: 1) STRIDES: this is especially beneficial if you are just starting to incorporate speed into your workouts. I go into detail how to perform these a few posts back. Try adding them in the middle or end of an easy run once or twice a week, 4-6 reps anywhere between 15-30s (refer to older post on technique/pace!) . 2) FAST FINISH: this is placed at the end of a long run. With a fast finish we are increasing the speed gradually from our easier pace & maintaining it for a longer period of time (around 10 min & upward depending on length of run/current goals & conditioning). This gets us used to running slightly faster paces for a longer stretch of time, after undergoing fatigue. They are tough, but beneficial for long distances racers to train yourself to finish a marathon hard when your body starts to fatigue around that 30-42.2km mark. . 3) TEMPO RUNS: the goal is to get us used to faster paces, over longer periods of time. A tempo pace should be comfortably challenging. When you finish a set you should not feel gassed at the end. You should be able to maintain relaxed form & at the end possibly feel like you could have done one more rep. Challenging enough to put load on your muscles & allow them to adapt, but still able to maintain form, breathing & recover well. Tempo segments can be sandwiched in the middle of a run, with easy minutes on either side. Start off by doing 3 or 4 shorter tempo segments in the middle of a run, with easy recovery jog between sets (between 1-3 minutes depending on length). Over time you increase the tempo lengths & decrease rest until you get to a point where you have an easy warm up, a longer tempo segment in the middle, & easy warm down. Happy speed running! . . . : @julialoglis See more

GIVEAWAY TIME Ok you guys !!!! ....... Big giveaway alert .... To celebrate our new hybrid virtual running programs Elevate Fitness is giving away A WHOLE MONTH of our running programs for FREE!! .... This package has a 390$ value and includes - 4 virtual check ins with your coach ( once a week ) - week by week programming with your coach - one movement assessment with Alicia Derousie (owner/director and movement specialist) - and just for the fun of it we are going to add one personal training session as well (90$ value) .... To enter you must follow all of the steps listed below ... 1. Follow @elevatefitvic @elevaterunvic @meg.a.mcmanus 2. Tag 2 friends in the comment bar ( unlimited entries ) 3. Like this post and share it to your stories!!! We will be selecting a winner May 1st so share share share and lets start your May off right!! @yyjrunners @yyjfitness @yyjfunctionalfit @victoria_buzz @victoria_city_canada

Running specific strength, mobility, & stretching. Pt 1. . A lot of requests for these topics! I am going to try my best to keep this short .... There are many runner specific exercises I can get into, & why they are important. To keep this condensed Ill continue with my topic from last week on gait, & talk about posterior chain exercises. . Why strengthening for glutes, hamstrings & outer hips? . -As Id mentioned last week, imagine your pelvis is a rope with your hip flexors on one side & your hip extensors on the other side, in a tug of war. With more strength on one side, the rope pull towards that direction. How do you even out a tug of war? Add more strength to the opposing side. The hip flexors tend to be the stronger side, resulting in an anterior tilted pelvis, & can cause running gait to become inefficient & sometimes painful. . -What about stretching the hip flexors to help bring the pelvis back to neutral? I am going to dive deeper into this in Pt. 2 but the short answer is: stretching will not restore strength to tissue. You can stretch your hip flexors, but it is not a long term solution to address the opposing muscle imbalances around a joint. . Hip extension is an important part of running gait. Your glutes (Gluteus Max & Med mostly) & hamstring muscle groups (Biceps Femoris long head, Semitendinosus, Semimembranosus) are primary movers of hip extension, & the focus in these videos. . V1 What: Single Leg Deadlifts Targets: Hamstrings, Glute Max, Glute Med, abdominal bracing, ankle stability This addresses not just healthy flexion/extension of the hips, but also restores balance within your internal/external patterns of the hips. It strengthens your contralateral patterns in the body, which are the most important patterns to address when we are talking about running, & challenges your entire kinetic chain. . V2 What: Lateral Lunges Targets: Glutes (all), Hamstrings help control decent into lunge & drive back to starting position. Also moving & strengthing outside of the usual linear running plane. . V3 What: Glute Bridges modified Targets: This variation, Glute Med specifically. . I hope this is a helpful start! Stay tuned for Pt. tomorrow! See more

WHAT HOLDS RELEVANCE TO ME IN REGARDS TO BEAUTY, BODY IMAGE AND STRENGTH Huge credit to @julialoglisci For me .. The biggest lesson i have learnt, for myself... ... Is that the love for the body you have is not about just your aesthetic outer shell It is about how you feel in the core of your being ... It's about working to achieve a happy, HEALTHY and functioning body that allows you to enjoy your day to day life, your sport, your job, playing with your kids, being active with your partner The list goes on It's not about what other people or the world around you deems right, ok or acceptable!!! To be quite frank f&!$k em! ... It's about what you deem right, ok and acceptable. It's about being vibrant from the inside ... It's about acceptance and love within yourself. Don't let anyone else tell you what your beauty is! Be strong Continue to learn about who you are and how your body works and enjoy that process. My body has changed significantly over the years! I used to be that girl .. The one that always stayed thin no matter what. Sounds like a gift right? Well it turns out it was stopping me from ever really understanding my health, it held me back from really knowing what my body was capable of. Not ever having to work for anything. I now weigh the most i ever have in my life :) and it feels amazing! My body is STRONG and HEALTHY Not to say it wasn't a time getting to the acceptance part of this change because there is always that part! But i can confidently say that i am into myself, I'm into my body, And i wouldn't go back to the way it was before! @yyj @yyjfitness @yyjfitnessmotivation @beyou @strongmindandbody @loveyourself @livestrong @truebeauty

Feelin myself What does body positivity mean to you? To me it means, body neutrality. To neither love or hate it, but respect it. What I do love, is feeling good. And today, Im feeling good ... #yyj #yvr #glowup #fitnessmotivation #raybands

Enjoy the process. By @meg.a.mcmanus Applicable in so many ways, both running and non running related. . . .... This is at the top of my Heartbreak Hill after a Boston Marathon themed run with @runinrabbit . A gradual incline of 91ft after at least 2.62 miles. Enjoy the process of the climb to the top, and enjoy the process of this in-between time. We will emerge on the other side better athletes because of it, as my coach keeps telling me . . . Happy #MotivationMonday & #MarathonMonday See more

LETS CHEER THESE TWO ON Saturday morning time trial! Im doing the half with a goal of 1:27 and @mattymac24 is doing 10k with a goal of sub 40 minutes! ... Hoping for a couple of [unofficial] PBs. We will happily accept your virtual cheers.

That First Meal Written by @becsorensen Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. Pancakes, Smoothies, Eggs Its also a wonderful time to take a break from social media. I recommend that my clients refrain from checking emails or social media for the first 30 minutes of the day. Use this time to have your first glass of water, prepare a healthy meal, and limit outside stressors. ... When trying to integrate healthy eating into your life, keep it simple. Start with what you know, and slowly build your repertoire. Not a morning eater? Thats ok. You still want to prepare that first meal in the morning to prevent a crash that leads to overeating in the afternoon. For that first meal of the day, include a significant sources of protein. This will give you a feeling of fullness for longer, regulate hormones and studies show, can reduce your caloric intake for the day. Banana with Peanut Butter (2 tablespoons) Sugar 14.2g Carbohydrates 26.8g Fat 16.3g Fiber 6.6g Protein 9.1g Calories 300 Source of Potassium, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin C Just what I needed for a good run! I wonder what Megan eats before her runs? @meg.a.mcmanus