At Twist Conditioning, we went as far as defining a vision statement, which defines who we are, what we do, and how we will do it. As such it reflects our principles and values. Ultimately every project we are involved in must adhere to the vision statement. At a corporate retreat on Vancouver Island, set amongst rainforest and ocean, we chipped away at the arduous task of defining what we do and how we do it. The result a crystal clear vision statement for the team at Twist Conditioning: "A progressive team, driven to re-define sport condition... Read more

At Twist Conditioning we work within a fast paced environment of very high expectations and aggressive deadlines but also one that is relaxed and fun. This combination is founded on mutual respect with the camaraderie and dynamics similar to a close knit winning sport team. But this is much more than group cohesion. From a business perspective it was important to secure 100% buy-in to a process that not only accepts but thrives on new challenges and efforts to raise our own ability levels. This requires a positive, supportive environment and en... Read more

To instill positive physical change, the body must be challenged beyond the current comfort level.  Athletes and coaches must all commit to engage in this style of workout to maximize results and guarantee safety.  Coaches must be fully engaged using a critical eye that instantly identifies and corrects mechanical errors using well established cueing techniques.   We have carefully designed Smart Muscle™ exercises which are actually combinations of several lifts, some concurrently, some sequentially. For example, a lat... Read more

Twist Conditioning’s sport conditioning certifications have 3 primary pillars of training to reflect all of the secondary fitness characteristics. The athletic training style revolves around training sport movement (agility, quickness, speed, reaction skills, power, coordination, acceleration), sport strength (muscular strength, endurance, power and whole body strength) as well as sport balance (stability, kinesthetic awareness, proprioception, neuromuscular pathways, transitional balance and peak power).  Training all aspects of spo... Read more

Message from the President - 2010 is Your Year! Kicking off a New Year has many people in the same mindset as coaches, we stay in all year - defining goals with specific action steps to help our athletes reach new heights. However,, we never decide where we want to go until we first reflect on where we have been. As our customer, client and committed advocate we are most appreciative of your support and shared enthusiasm throughout 2009 where Twist Sport Conditioning proved a recession proof business. With more people in multiple countries tak... Read more

Happy New Year! 2010 will serve to be a big year for our Community and for  the Twist Sport Conditioning Family. We have a great line up of Educational Events, Products and Tradeshows planned and New Programs being introduced in to or Sport Conditioning Centres in  2010, along with the excitement of our home city hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics! Our head office is located in North Vancouver, BC right in the centre of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The city is under full construction, many venues now in full operation and ready to welco... Read more

When I started with Twist Conditioning I was one of five employees packed into a small office in an industrial business park in North Vancouver, British Columbia. We were a cohesive group that shared common interests in life, philosophies on training, and 2 very small offices.The business was simple. We perceived our training and educational services to be in demand as we ran a very popular summer hockey camp, trained athletically inspired clients during the day and spoke at local coaches workshops and fitness clubs. We carried a small product ... Read more

A great big thank you to all of you who attended the Twist Sport Conditioning and Functional Fitness Summit. We gathered together a passionate group of sport and fitness professionals and had 2 outstanding days of learning and training - Twist style.Saturday Highlights include:Sport Balance Level 2 - the 50 coaches in attendance got an indepth experience as they learned all about advanced balance training methodology with Douglas Brooks, Peter Twist and Gerard Recio as their presenting team - world class presenters AND cutting edge training.Spo... Read more

A Twistmas Taleby Jeff RouxTwas 2 weeks before Christmas and all through CentreHeather’s touch made it festive for all who would enter.Eric calculated and cursed from his Ballast BallAnd the smell of Jesse’s dinner permeated the hall.Adam walked in with his usual shout,Yo, what’s up y’all Twist gang, it’s %$*@ing cold out.Jeff was all snuggled in at his laptop upstairsListening to mashups and getting workouts prepared.Big Todd was out setting up hurdles and sledsWith Nancy digesting the drills she just read.A regul... Read more

This blog will be updated on a weekly basis, so we encourage you to check back weekly for the latest post, or choose to "follow" this blog to get regular updates sent to you. Contributions to this Blog will come from a variety of sources- Peter Twist, Douglas Brooks, Janice Hutton and Twist Coaches and staff- from a variety of standpoints including; whats hot in the industry, current research reviews, upcoming events, discussion boards, training tips and more...We encourage you to provide your comments, ask questions, create discussion topics a... Read more

The evolution of athlete conditioning established roots in individual sports where coaches turned to physical development to get the most out of each athlete's performance. Individual sports like track sprinting found they could benefit from enhanced leg strength and power. Head coaches were the first trainers of athletes, taking them into the weight room with an eye on improving performance.The systems and strategies in sports such as football, cricket and tennis can best be described as organized chaos; during competition no one knows wha... Read more

The sport skills of kicking a football, swinging a tennis racket, shooting a hockey ball, getting air and spin on snowboards, spiking a volleyball, driving a golf ball and hitting a baseball are all dependent on a highly developed torso capable of explosive rotation. The paradox continues in that most exercise professionals, with their good intention of ensuring core exercises are safe, prescribe very limited exercises that ultimately under prepare their clients for sport demands and actually set them up to be injured.In the fitness world, &lsq... Read more

Throwing (football, softball, lacrosse) striking (hockey, tennis, golf), and kicking (soccer) sports all can benefit from stronger and more effective torso rotation. Examining the mechanics needed to optimize sport skills, rotary power is the key link from the weight room to the playing field. Preferred exercises use a closed chain position (standing up on your feet), weight shifts both laterally and horizontally (to pre-load the rear leg) and transfer of weight to lead leg at a high velocity.When working movement around the spine, through a tr... Read more

Success in the fitness and sport industries is measured by results. Professional athletes maintain sizable contracts by working diligently with well organized sport coaches who plan every aspect of the performance process from intricate workout design through to extensive season long cyclic training programs. Personal trainers in the fitness industry are hired and fired based on their ability to inspire clients to create short and long term tangible physical change. In a society that changes in an instant, moves at a lightening fast pace and pr... Read more

Twist Smart Muscle™ exercise captures the essence of elite athlete training and applies level appropriate programming to kids and aging boomers.Active Adults of all ages benefit from Smart Muscle™ training methodology by awakening movement patterns, activating extensive muscle groups, re-energizing neuromuscular communication pathways and restoring total body function mentally and physically. The result is enhanced mobility, reduced incidence of injury and a youthful sense of athletic confidence that brings new excitement to every r... Read more

Combining Strength with a Balance Challenge - BOSU® Balance Trainer up, up, down, downBegin in a plank position with forearms in contact with BOSU Place one hand on the BOSU, press up through the BOSU and place the other hand on top until shoulders are directly over hands and the body is flat from shoulders to toes. Establish stability before lowering one arm down placing forearm on the BOSU followed by the other arm to return to the starting position all the while moving with balance and torso control.Combining Movement with Strength - Sma... Read more

In the not so distant past, efforts at training athletes relied on expensive and bulky equipment which was designed to either isolate muscles or replicate mechanics in an attempt to “develop” the bodies of players into their specific sport. Today we know that only the athletes themselves are the machines. It is through a method of teaching the athlete to exploit their machine’s natural affinity for movement and reactivity that we can train both the physiology and mechanics needed to optimize skillfulness. Today we also use por... Read more

To instill positive physical change, the body must be challenged beyond the current comfort level. Athletes / clients and coaches / trainers must all commit to engage in this style of workout to maximize results and guarantee safety. Coaches / trainers must be fully engaged using a critical mechanical eye that instantly corrects errors using well established cueing techniques and demands precision over repetition.During Smart Muscle™ exercise, we have carefully designed exercises which are actually combinations of several lifts, some conc... Read more

To drive up your skill velocity, build for power through athletic rotation. After that, all you need to do is practice celebrating points and victories! To begin, safely, follow the progressions below that first build postural strength and as a last step fine tune high velocity rotation.Progressions   1. To achieve desired results as well as prevent lower back injury, athletes are cued to ‘set their core’. The easiest way to explain this is to experience the ‘clenching’ or ‘bracing’ of the core when... Read more

With September just around the corner, many conditioning coaches and fitness professionals invested in their professional development and attended Twist sessions at conferences across North America this month. While many took vacation, the Twist Presenter Team was busy educating about the “in demand” Twist training style to enthusiastic crowds at every event. Twist training methodology was delivered at DCAC Washington for the first time this year with Douglas Brooks teaching an enthusiastic group of new Twist advocates. The 2 bigges... Read more

BOSU, Stability Ball Standing Core Stability    * Purpose – this exercise trains core stabilization in a standing position with a balance challenge    * Set up – have the athlete stand on 2 feet on the BOSU Balance Trainer, holding a stability ball with arms extended, in a low athletic position with the core braced.    * Execution – have the Coach press on the stability ball from random locations (up, down, side) while the Athlete attempts to keep the ball from moving. Cue the Athle... Read more

I am back from California from working with a stellar team of sport and fitness leaders on Bosu programming. Inspiring days immersed with Group Xers Mindy Mylrea and Jay Blahnik, all round Douglas Brooks, program leader Candice Brooks, multi talented Kelli Roberts, football coach Todd Durkin, all high energy teachers and first class people - true professionals. For myself, with a focus on multi directional, anaerobic based sports, learning from other disciplines is always an interesting opportunity.The Bosu Balance Trainer is the world's nu... Read more

What do schools, corporate workplaces and home offices all have in common? Each is experimenting to replace traditional chairs with stability balls. Many have found the BOSU® Ballast® Ball to work particularly well, since it does not roll away.When sitting on an exercise ball, the body is constantly making adjustments with key postural muscles that include abdominals, lower back muscles, gluteals and leg muscles. But, user beware! Similar to expensive ergonomic chairs, individuals can still have poor posture on the stability ball.The fo... Read more

When it comes to children and fitness, there are two main trends in developed countries. A growing number of children tend to be less active and more obese. At the other end of the continuum, there is also a trend to physically train young sport participants at younger and younger ages.From a fitness and health perspective, we do have an epidemic on our hands. Many obese children as young as 8-10 years old possess symptoms of heart disease and diabetes, raising a red flag that cries out for strong national intervention strategies. In fact, if t... Read more

The secondary fitness characteristics include balance, multi joint strength, power, speed, quickness, agility, movement skills and reaction skills. Together, the secondary characteristics of fitness enhance the movement abilities needed for real life actions and sport participation. The goal is to improve the mind-muscle connection, making the muscles more compliant to the brains commands, while enhancing inter segmental communication, linking the kinetic chain for more skillful movement. Training the secondary characteristics of fitness involv... Read more

A New BOSU Exercise from Douglas BrooksDrop-pop-burpee to quick coupling with a line of pull (LOP) utlizing the Twist Smart Muscle Technology- Sling Shot as resistance from behind the old guy..."yeah baby"..."quick/quick!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es9kM-EtrLEHave you got anything better? Then, show us here at Twist!Send your videos or pictures to belliott@twistconditioning.com... Read more

Hockey coaches focus on helping players develop hockey specific skills (skating, shooting, body contact) along with the individual and team strategies and tactics required for success. A sport conditioning coach focuses on the development of athleticism whereby they improve an athlete’s physical tools that support hockey skill execution. Enhancing athleticism comes from the development of the secondary characteristics of fitness including: balance, agility, speed, power, coordination, body awareness, reaction skills.To have the greatest i... Read more

Professional hockey players are serious about their sport and focus on the training and development of their “physical machines” year round. Sport conditioning has evolved into big business with the development of branded shoes, clothing, equipment, print and TV media that profiles the training programs of pro athletes. If the pro athletes train this way, shouldn’t every serious athlete do the same whether they are 8 or 18? Parents who are passionate about their children and their hockey are fueling a new segment of the sport ... Read more

Children cannot be simply treated as miniature adults. Those of similar chronological age may vary significantly in their progress toward the mature adult form. Even within the same age group, kids are at different stages of readiness for training. To understand what can be trained when, training guidelines are linked to the phase of growth and maturation.Pre-pubertal children are those that have not yet gone through their adolescent growth spurt, or their period of most rapid growth (peak height velocity). Pre-pubertal children are often less ... Read more

IntroductionThe focus for training athletes at Twist Conditioning is to be progressive, innovative and creative. With each new day we learn more about how best to train athletes to achieve the desired results, improve performance and push our knowledge further ahead. The complexity of the human body should never be underestimated and when it comes to developing effective conditioning programs attention to details produces greater results.Many conditioning coaches do not modify their training programs when coaching female athletes, but the body ... Read more

As physically active individuals we all take mobility for granted when every day our mind commands our muscles and they easily comply with just the right type of movement and appropriate force production. At Twist Sport Conditioning this is called Smart Muscle®. With each repeated action, our mind to muscle communication pathways strengthen and like building muscle, each successful action that our mind commands, our physical confidence grows.Physical confidence is the assurance that when your mind commands your body to move, your muscles co... Read more

Over the last 20 years concern for athlete safety has increased as more females have become involved in sports. Females are statistically 4 times more likely to sustain a serious ACL knee injury compared to males. These injuries are most frequent in high risk sports that require jumping and cutting (i.e. Soccer or Basketball). Another interesting trend is that female athletes are most often injured in a supervised setting (64% of injuries) compared to males who are most often injured in an unsupervised setting (55%). This information prompts us... Read more

Developing strong balance is an asset for all athletes as it creates smart muscles and an efficient mind to muscle link. With a lower center of gravity, women have an advantage in balance drills. Single leg exercises are a great way to decrease this stable base of support, create a greater balance challenge and strengthen the entire lower body. A simple, yet very important balance exercise for females is a single leg squat. The challenge is to perform the exercise correctly with proper knee tracking. As a coach, focus most of your athlete cues ... Read more