Wilkz Performance

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." -Steve Jobs . I highly doubt Steve Jobs ever did a box jump or even made sure he got all his protein in every day but I like that quote because I love what I do. If you give me a football and some open space I will revert back to that 12-year-old kid firing throws at his dad, brother, or whoever else he could find to catch. I will need to be yelled at, and you will have to take the ball inside to make me stop. . I was ...fortunate enough to call myself an athlete until I was 24 years old. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to do that and I realize now that I took a lot of those years for granted. I worked my ass off but my priorities MAY not have always been in the right places all the time, 365 days a year. I say that with minimal regret because that 12-year-old kid learning to throw a spiral just wanted to play university football. I made that happen, and I had a whole lot of fun doing it. . I'm still that kid. I have a couple of cool-looking (highly overpriced) degrees and certifications behind my name now; but at the end of the day, I'm still just trying to find a way to work on that spiral, that vertical jump, those sprint mechanics, that new movement pattern. . I pride myself on being a resource for my athletes that wasn't around when I was growing up. I am a year-round, individualized approach to athletic performance. Let's take that part of your game that you love and make you dominant at it. More importantly, let's identify those weak points in your athletic ability and make them strengths. You can't play like your favorite player if you can't move like your favorite player. . It took me a couple of years after football ended to realize that we're all athletes. Crowds, stats (which I didn’t have much of) and the atmosphere with the fellas in the locker room are all great, but they're no reason to give up something you love after the lights go out. Being able to move pain-free, sling the ball around, enjoy that game of pickup hoops or a weekly round of golf. Hell, even to just look good at the beach. Those are all more than enough reasons to train like an athlete #yegfitness #yegfit See more

Upper Body Mobility - Your shoulder is a synovial joint and needs to be able to move through a full Range of Motion in order to function properly. It’s a ball and socket kind of setup that articulates directly with the scapula. When our shoulder loses central stabilization with our scapula, we start to lose stability through the joint. Our body adapts to this by moving the shoulder forward or moving our scapula upwards because it's trying to find that stabilization. Unfort...unately, when it does this it can get locked up, and those muscles around it are turned off over time which leads to poor posture, pain, and injuries. . Mobility is a crucial aspect of athletic performance and something I individualize with my athletes. Just because you struggle in a movement pattern doesn't mean it should be neglected. Let's address that problem directly and see if we can make improvements. Fitness programs don't always have to be about building muscle and sweating our ass off. Taking some time to focus on mobility can be just as beneficial to your health as it is for athletic performance. Try this drill out at home, if you hate it, well that’s weird; but if you think you'd benefit from some more drills like this one let me know. I’m still putting together custom @ home programs for anyone interested . #jointpainrelief #shoulderprehab #shoulderworkout #shoulderhealth #thoracicmobility #tspinemobility #scapularstability #scapula #yegfitness #yegfit #yegfitfam #yegpersonaltrainer #yegsmallbusiness #yeglocal #edmontonfitness #dynamicwarmup See more

Visual representation of avoiding everything 2020 has cooked up so far. Get over it and keep moving forward . This is actually just a progressive ladder series but these captions are hard to write so here are some inspirational plyometrics for your feed. . .... As an athlete, the faster you can absorb force the faster you can express it. This is a skill, and one that can be isolated in training settings to improve performance. The Stretch Shortening Cycle is the body’s built-in elastic recoil mechanism. There are some seriously tedious physiological aspects to it but at the end of the day, it occurs in fast movements and involves a large eccentric contraction, an amortization phase, followed by a quick and powerful concentric contraction. Like when we land and jump over hurdles . . Ground Contact Time needs to be less than 0.25 seconds in order for this process to benefit our athletic performance. Training with drills like this one can improve muscle stiffness and tendon strength, which is the quality you see expressed when you look at elite athletes’ movements. This is a bit more of an advanced drill that requires high levels of force development to perform, but it was also an easy opportunity to show off the cool new hurdles I just got in . If you want to assess your SSC at home, set this up over some objects in your living room, and go for it . . . Don’t actually do that, but like, if you do, film it. What you can actually do though, is use a stair or anything from 10-18 inches high. Put your hands on your hips and step off the edge, landing with both feet at the same time. As soon as you land, jump straight into the air as high as you can (without bending your knees in the air) and make sure you land softly. Record it from the front and send it to me and I’ll take a look at it . If you are genuinely surprised by your lack of bounce, or just bored as hell with nothing to do, send me a message. I happen to be conveniently offering some home-based workout programs at the moment so you’re in luck . #yegfitness #yegfitnesscoach #yegsmallbusiness #plyometricstraining #yegathlete #edmontonliving #edmontonfitness #kinesiology

Shifting gears just like everyone else for the next little bit. Lockdown is going to be tough, but finding some time in the next month to focus on your fitness is going to be important both physically and mentally . Sign up by December 18th Shoot me an email at [email protected] or send me a DM to book your consult . .... To show my appreciation for all the support I’ve received lately; anyone that signs up for a program will be entered for a chance to win a $50 Earls gift card. When things open back up, that first dinner out is on me! . Any successful referrals will be an additional entry . Let’s stay connected, put in some work on our health, and head into 2021 ready to go . #yegfitness #yegfitnesscoach #yeg #yegsmallbusiness #yegsupportlocal #yeg #stalbert #stalbertmoms #stalbertbusiness #stalbertfitness #yeglocal #yegathlete #yegfootball #yegbasketball #yegliving #edmontonbusiness #edmonton #edmontonliving #yycsmallbusiness #yycfitness #yyclocal See more

Unless you’re getting crossed up by your coworkers on the way to your cubicle, you might be able to leave this one out of your basic resistance training sesh. This is obviously a pretty dynamic movement that is somewhat unnecessary for the 9-5 work life. But if you’re an athlete you should be working frontal plane movements into your training. That explosive first step is critical to maintaining leverage and advantage over your opponent. . With so many missed seasons ...this past year, athletes have lost out on hours of gameplay and reps in their respective sports. That’s an immeasurable number of reps and therefore development. Finding ways to accumulate reps in your training is going to be necessary for any athlete looking to performing at a high level when amateur sports can get back on track. The gym shouldn’t be all about numbers and weights if you’re an athlete. There are so many components that go into a well-rounded athletic performance training program. . Every athlete has strengths and weaknesses in their game. I work 1 on 1 with athletes to identify those factors. In my opinion, if we take your strength, that aspect of your game that you love, and raise that as much as we possibly can, that’s going to push your abilities even further. On the flip side, an honest evaluation of the weak points in your athleticism is just as important, and isolating several of those skills to focus development on is a key foundation of my individualized approach to athletic performance training. . So if you’re an athlete or you just want to start snatching some ankles at the office send me a message. My approach to personal training is the same. Let’s identify your goals and challenge some aspects of your fitness you’ve been neglecting, on purpose or unknowingly. Filling bookings for January now #plyometricstraining #basketballdrills #footballtraining #bandresistance #yegfitness #yegfitnesscoach #yeg #yegathlete #yegbasketball #yegsmallbusiness #yeglocal #edmontonliving #performancetraining #explosiveness #yeglife #yegfit

Battling knee pain in the gym can kill anyone's motivation. A lot of the time knee pain can be traced to a lack of ankle mobility. When our ankle can’t dorsiflex through its whole range of motion our knee mechanics are forced to change in order to compensate. If you have a history of ankle sprains or ankle injuries you most likely have some reduced dorsiflexion. . I’m a huge fan of this exercise for a couple of reasons 1 Ankle Mobility Work - When we can’t dorsiflex properl...y our ankles and knees internally rotate. Excessive internal rotation leads to pronation of the feet and knee valgus (caving in) which increases the chances of an ACL tear. This exercise not only works our ankle mobility but it's loaded with our body weight, so we’re developing strength through that full range as well. . . 2 - Soleus Isolation - Most traditional calf raises primarily activate the Gastroc (the interior aspect of the calf) more so than the Soleus. When our knee is flexed we’re able to isolate the Soleus, which tends to be undeveloped in most people. Since our calves are responsible for absorbing the eccentric force every time our foot strikes the ground it's important to take the time to strengthen it eccentrically to better perform that responsibility. For athletes, building that ankle stiffness is critical for jumping and acceleration. 3 - Isometric Contraction - We’re also getting some isometric work here at our knee joint. Isometric contractions have been shown to not only be great for rapidly developing strength but they can actually temporarily relieve pain at the joint; which is obviously beneficial when you’re training lower body and your knee hurts. . Try mixing these into your training or even on your stairs at home a couple of times a week. Love this exercise as part of a dynamic warmup but you can easily progress it by adding load with dumbbells, a weight vest, or even a backpack. Our ankles, knees, and hips are all part of a chain. When something is wrong at one of those points it disrupts the others and leads to pain and injuries . #yegfitness #yegfootball #yegfitnesscoach #performancetraining #longtermathleticdevelopment #basketballdrills #plyometrics