Happy Halloween from our Pivotal Fort Saskatchewan location and staff ! From us to you, have a great day, stay safe and enjoy the treats 🎃

Michelle, one of Pivotal physiotherapy's ambassadors acted as a demo patient this past Tuesday for a live display on cupping, given by our massage therapists at the Fort Saskatchewan location. The evening consisted of physio's and massage therapists from our team speaking to fitness instructors regarding what services we offer here at our clinic! For anyone who isn't familiar with cupping here's a brief description of this growing service that's being requested more and more by patients and athletes around the world... ' Cupping therapy is a form of alternative medicine in which a trained practitioner uses cups and a suction pump to create negative pressure which aids in myofascial release, decrease in inflammation and eliminates stagnation/metabolic waste in the tissue. Some benefits of cupping are : - decreased muscle tension. - decreased myofascial restriction. - decreased inflammation. - increased circulation (vascular and lymphatic). - increased relaxation and athletic performance. In certain cases cupping can also be placed in line with acupressure points to aid in organ toning and to relieve anxiety/stress on the mind and body' . For more information on cupping therapy, or to book an appointment with one of our professionals please visit our website www.pivotalphysio.com

Many of Jack’s patients at the High Performance Centre would probably fall into the weekend warrior category each with massively different interests. He contributes to training programs with goals ranging from completing the “Canmore Quad” to cyclists who clock up to 2 days worth of kilometers on a road or mountain bike. Whether its formal sport or pleasure pursuits, he thinks we’re all practicing a bit of escapism and dreaming about what could have been if we’d been professional athletes. Jack treats weekend warriors like high-level athletes. Usually the injuries in question won’t affect a weekend warrior’s “desk job” Monday to Friday, but there will be a competition or an event on the weekend that might be affected by his or her current physical state. Quite often the injury is not considered a “formal injury” (no muscle or ligament tearing) rather, it’s an accumulation of stress and load placed on the body from adventures associated with the weekend warrior lifestyle. The treatment requires more of a recovery session. Physiotherapy can help reset the system with traditional practices such as needling and muscle energy techniques, then reload the tissue correctly in the gym. Typically, treatments finish with a recovery flush in the hot/cold contrast baths, NormaTec or Game Ready modalities. #makeshiftrecoverysession #afterhikecooldown #coldmountainwater #yegphysio #weekendwarrior #pivotalmoment #pivotalphyso #athlete #recovery #adventure #lifetyle #physicalrehabilitation #coldwaterimmersion #contrastbaths #normatec #gameready

Weekend warriors! How do you do it?! “Balance is key!” Jack says. He works 5 days a week as a busy physiotherapist, and also squeezes in cross fit at Black Tusk Athletics in the early mornings or lunchtime so that his weekends can be dedicated to rugby, golf, hiking, and skiing. This weekend, Jack plans to tackle the difficult Skyline Trail in Jasper, AB. In preparation for the trek, he climbed Lady MacDonald located in Canmore, AB. Lady MacDonald is one of the best day hikes he has done. It has riverbeds, woodland areas, boulder sections, and lose scree at the top. Not to mentioned beautiful panoramic views of the mountains. We see many weekend warriors at the clinic! Being a weekend warrior is having the ability to take your own physical fitness and strengths, and succeeding in an entirely different setting. Most weekend warriors have multiple areas of interest in terms of fitness, but not enough time to dedicate to excelling entirely in all of them, so it becomes giving your best effort to fit that particular demand. #weekendwarrior #yegphysio #pivotalmoment #pivotalphysio #highperformance #dayhikes #explorealberta #physiotherapy #physiotherapist

This is Josh! Josh is a college basketball player who came to physiotherapy due to a knee injury he sustained during an intensive basketball camp. Following the injury, he took a few days off (even though he didn’t want to). However, basketball is a huge part of his life and he wanted to be cautious about rehabilitating his knee as to not make the injury worse. Raj immediately instructed him to avoid pivot movements and only engage in light shooting. During his treatment, Josh would complete multiple exercises to regain strength and stability in his knee. In this video, Josh is improving his speed and single leg dynamic control while performing lateral movements against resistance with a Resistance Vest. Lateral mobility and lower limb control are integral components of the defensive aspect of basketball.. He also received hydrotherapy and Game Ready® Injury Treatment System recovery treatment. His movements improved over the course of his training and recovery sessions. After working with Raj for a few weeks, he had successfully completed his rehabilitation and was back to playing full games! #RehabToSport

“It’s going to take too long before I can play again” “I give up, I’m never playing again” “Life will suck if I can’t play” “Why me?” “I quit!” You might have heard athletes say these not so positive things or have had similar thoughts yourself as an athlete following a sport related injury. We often neglect the role that our minds play in the process of recovery. Negative thoughts, anxiety or decreased self-confidence can manifest an athlete’s mind following an athletic injury. Marek, our Sport Psychologist, asserts that mental rehabilitation is equally important as physical rehabilitation. Rehab to sport is 100% physical and 100% mental. Whether an injury is keeping us off the playing field, or out of work, there is no question that they are a drain on our physical and emotional health. Check out our latest blog for tips from Marek on how you can train/rehabilitate your mind following a sports injury. To take it up a notch, athletes can book sessions with Marek at the clinic to work on mental rehabilitation and mental performance. Link to blog: http://pivotalphysio.com/3-ways-bridge-gap-physical-mental-rehabilitation/ #rehabtosport #sportpsychology #mentalrehablitation #peakmentalperformance #acceptance #processfocus #selftalk #pivotalmoment #pivotalphysio #yegphysio #highperformance #sportinjury #athlete

Once upon a time, Benjamin Williams was a young kid in Jamaica who had the dream of becoming a track and field star. Back then, long jump was his thing. Now, he is a national sprinter and is part of the national relay pool. This year he anchored the men's 4x100m relay team to a silver medal in the Francophone Games in Ivory Coast on July 28, 2017. The Francophone Games were first launched in 1989 in Casablanca and Rabat, Morocco, and are a combination of sporting and cultural events for nations where French is the main language or where significant parts of the population use French as the first language. Congrats on this exciting win, Ben! So how did he get to where he is today? For one thing, Ben doesn’t shy away from hard work. He trains 5-6 days per week 2x per day-- Gym workouts in the mornings and track workouts in the evenings including lactic work, speed intensity, speed endurance, and speed/power conversion. A key aspect of his training is developing his ability to imagine and visualize his process to mentally prepare for competitions, which reflects his motto, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13).” Ben worked with Craig prior to nationals and we are looking forward to seeing him back in the clinic again. He says, “I try to incorporate recovery every day into my training program. The earlier I recover the better I am able to handle the next day’s training.” His ultimate achievement is not only to represent Canada in a major international competition but also run a sub 10 seconds in the 100m to be a world class sprinter!

Bryan Giebelhaus is a local amateur Muay Thai fighter, training out of Next Level Martial Arts under Kru Mukai Maromo. For the past nine months, Bryan has been seeing Craig and Raj at our High Performance Centre for training and recovery. He was referred to us from a good friend of ours, Othieno Chi Bey-El who also happens to be Bryan's trainer. He came to us with two goals in mind: 1) Move faster 2) Hit harder. Clear and concise. We like it! Bryan aims to compete in five amateur fights this year with the goal of turning pro in 2018. He currently holds a record of 3W - 1L and is preparing for his next fight on August 19th, where he will be competing against an 8-0 fighter from Montreal. The fight is will take place at The Ranch Roadhouse. It is an all ages show. Tickets are available at theranchroadhouse.com. Good luck, Bryan!

#TBT Last June, one of our Pivotal Sponsored Athletes, Matthew Anderson-Baron competed in the Saint City Fitness Fight of the Fittest competition and earned his spot on the podium at third place! Good work Matt, see you at your next Recovery Session! Matt Anderson-Baron started CrossFit in January of 2013 and hasn’t looked back since. He continues to train at a competitive level and has competed in multiple events. Most notably, he qualified for the 2016 CrossFit Games West Regionals as an individual athlete. You can find Matt coaching CrossFit at Capital City Athletics! #pivotalmoment #crossfit #crossfitter #yegphysio #highperformance #pivotalphysio

We always enjoy seeing Neville Wright in our clinic! We first met Neville when we asked him to be a guest speaker at our launch party in September 2016. He then became a Pivotal Ambassador and has been working weekly with Raj ever since. His career began in track and field. He competed at the 2007 IAAF World Championships as a member of 4x100m relay team and won bronze in the 100m at the 2007 World University Games. After pushing the four-man sled to a fifth place finish in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, Wright has continued to be a mainstay on the Canadian bobsleigh team, competing at the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2017 World Championships. He also finished in ninth place at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. He is currently working towards his next goal: qualifying for the 2018 Olympic Games this February. His ambition and drive is truly inspiring! #Ican #Ido #Iwill"

We enjoyed learning about BioSteel Sports Nutrition products today! Thanks, Jason, for sharing your knowledge and helping us learn more on how to improve our athlete's performance! #yegphysio #biosteel

As an experienced runner, Matt has developed his own coping mechanisms and self-confidence in his training/performance throughout his athletic career. Matt met with Marek and completed an assessment that provided him baseline psychometric data. He will use that information for himself as insight into what he needs to work on to improve his mental performance. . . In other news, unofficial results have Matt in third place for sprint distance (1:14:24.4) at the ITU Triathalon this past weekend! With this placement he will qualify for the 2018 World Triathlon Championships in Australia!