I was logging kilometres training for a marathon, doing deadlifts with bad form, and picking patients up from awkward positions. It could have been any one of those that extruded my L5-S1 intervertebral disc and pushed it against my nerve.  My left leg was numb for 6 weeks and with pain going down my nerve root movement and muscle disappeared.

After 10 months of minimal progress seeing crowds of specialists, some reinjuries, cortisone injections, and contemplating surgery, a buddy told me to check out Ian’s shop.  I was sceptical when I walked into Ascension like a zombie, how was this strange loud guy going to be any different than anyone else I’d seen?  I was berated for not coming in sooner and felt weak.  After that, Ian spent the time and found where my issues were, then he focused movements and his wooden thumbs to those spots.

Each workout is customized for your needs, whether it’s rehab or sport-specific.  Because of this focused approach you don’t waste anyone’s time.

He shares the wins, even if it’s straightening your leg for the first time in over a year.  Comparing where I’m at just 6 months after starting at Ascension is unbelievable.  This gym is for people who want to improve and will put in the time, you will be surprised at the results.

I stumbled across Ascension a couple years ago when I was looking to get over a plateau in my snowboarding. I couldn’t seem to effectively train myself in the gym, and other trainers just didn’t seem to understand what I was trying to do. They didn’t listen or take it seriously, I was just another ‘client.’
The first time I walked into Ascension I was intimidated. This place looked like Schwarzenegger-era World Gym but for outdoor athletes. Super accomplished and inspiring climbers, skiers, runners, and even acrobats all in one place, forging bodies that could keep up with their minds. Despite the ability levels present in the room, there were no egos here. Everyone was immediately friendly and welcoming to a scrawny newcomer hoping to do what they had done.

After a summer of driving from Canmore to Calgary twice a week to train with Ian, I finished my first competitive freeride snowboard season ranked number one in Canada and number 10 in the Americas, due in no small part to the soul destroying workouts at Ascension. Fast forward to midway through the next snowboard season. I had dropped a cliff right onto a rock, fracturing my calcaneus. While it was unfortunate, I truly believe that I would have been much worse off had I not been training with Ian all year – I should have blown out my knee or dislocated my talus (again), but instead the injury was limited only to the heel bone.
After a few X-rays, surgeon consultations, and PT visits I was told I would be on crutches for 8 weeks, I would not be riding for at least 10 weeks, and even then I would not be able to hit jumps or drop cliffs for the rest of the snowboard season.

I went back to Ascension.

Ian immediately had a training plan for me that focussed on helping me get back on snow as fast as possible and strengthening everything else in the process. After 7 weeks I was fully off of the crutches, in 8 weeks I was snowboarding, and today, just over 9 weeks after my injury, I am back hitting jumps in the terrain park and planning an expedition to the Yukon next month.

Upon meeting you, Ian will quickly tear down all of your excuses and ego-preservation mechanisms. Then he will guide you to becoming a better version of yourself. The results are extremely tangible. The only limiting factor is how hard you are willing to work.

Now the real value in this spectrum is understanding that at any moment we are likely occupying multiple spaces on that continuum, and using that information to inform how we train and approach our injuries.

So if we have had an acute injury to a pec (caught a hold on an extended arm while bouldering and got a sharp pain in the shoulder) that seems to have resulted in movement related pain that exists in certain angles (it hurts to lift my arm overhead and my pec hurts), the road to recovery is going to be a lot easier to navigate if we understand what is going on.

First off, a bunch of that pain might just be a locked up trigger point that resulted from you taking tissue outside of its normally adapted range. However, we really should aim to get the shoulder moving, work on changing the way you use your arm, and start developing strength at a further range. Yet, in all of this, you may very well have gotten an actual tear in your pec.  The tissue itself may have some hard limits on the time it takes for actual recovery. Maybe it will take a full 180 days until you can load it fully again (assuming you don’t injure it again along the way).

The best athletes I have ever known adapt to injuries. They train other things. They work on weaknesses and try and figure out why they injured the tissue in the first place. Sure, they do daily work to speed the rate of recovery, but beyond that, they have grace. Rather than obsessing about the injury, and regularly making it worse, they do other things. They come back stronger, with fewer weaknesses. They treat injuries as opportunities to improve in areas they have neglected.

In the end, pain from injuries is a thing we will all deal with at some point. With effective training, patience, and some insights into how tissue moves, we can drastically change the timeline with which we can recover from these things. However, the far more interesting item is to ask the question about whether or not we can change our training so that we quit getting injured at all. That continues to be the item I am chasing. How do we train in a way that leaves us capable of our sports, regularly improving, but also free from injury?

I came to Ian looking to improve my functional movements.  After a short time I began seeing improvements not only in posture and movement but also in my sports.

My body shows many tales from years of motocross and mountain biking. Along with some that I’ve sustained in sport recently. Ian has been a great help in rehabbing old injuries and expediting recovery when I dislocated and fractured my ankle this summer.

Ian’s an asshole. He’s made me cry and swear and bleed and cry some more. But he’s also made me into the best athlete I’ve ever been. I joined the gym in April, 2017 with a nagging back injury I’d sustained at some point during my last six years of competing in various strength and power sports. I was at the point where I couldn’t walk up stairs without back pain, much less squat heavy, climb, or do anything else I wanted to do. And then I went and got a concussion. I went from training six days a week to being unable to ride a stationary bike for more than ten minutes. I wore tinted glasses to the gym to protect my head from fluorescent lights, and often trained while hiding in the quietest corner of the gym, avoiding any kind of human interaction because that was too much stimulation for my brain to handle. Ian worked with me through all of that, finding ways to keep me moving despite my injuries and reminding me to be patient with my recovery. Once I got to a point where I was able to train hard again, we sat down, set some goals, and got to work.