Profile: Climber, Design Guru, Giant dog owner 

Injury: A really fucked leg

Issue: Falling

Shattered Tib Plateau, blown LCL, fractured ankle, two surgeries and 6 weeks in a wheel chair. Diagnoses: Straight up f*cked.  And thats probably how my leg would have stayed if it wasn’t for Ian and Ascension.

It took hard work, countless “zero” reps ( you’ll learn about these the hard way ) and lots of verbal abuse from Ian

At first, I was sceptical about working with Ian. It wasn’t until he approached me at the climbing gym and asked why I was doing the physio exercises I was doing. My response “because my physiotherapist told me too”. So he had me do one exercise. In 5 minutes I made more progress then I had made in five 1 hour sessions at physio. I signed up for a membership at Ascension the next day and drank the kool-aid.
Now buying a membership didn’t automatically fix my leg. It took hard work, countless “zero” reps ( you’ll learn about these the hard way ) and lots of verbal abuse from Ian. But all joking aside, he changed my life. The hard work and abuse was worth it. I made leaps and bounds and not just in the recovery of my knee. I went into training with Ian in a weak and frail state and I came out the other side, stronger than I had ever been.

Even though my leg is better now, I still train at Ascension today and will continue to train there until Ian kicks me out. This isn’t just because I believe Ian is an amazing trainer, it’s because of the atmosphere and all the incredibly talented people who train there. Ascension is always a motivating, humbling and inspiring place to be.

Zak McGurk