by Athletic Engineering Subscribe to our YouTube channel here → Use it or Lose it People say you shouldn’t squat if you have knee pain. Well, maybe you have the knee pain because you haven’t been squatting. Our knees and hips are made for squatting. If you don’t use it, you lose it. A Resting Position The squat is one of the human body’s resting position. Think about it - the squat is supposed to be for rest/sitting, elimination (i.e. going to the bathroom), and childbirth. It is essential for the knee to go passed the toe line in order to squat properly. What About Knee Pain? People say you ..read more

Blog / 6 Misconceptions of Athletic Performance Training Most training approaches today are just based on the most commonly available information - and not the best information. There are 6 really prevalent approaches to training for athletic performance that simply do not work. Misconception 1: more muscle = more athleticism and more strength Truth: a lot of people with big muscles actually have weaker structures, more fragility, and are less capable of transmitting power than children. A cow can crush a cat by sitting on it, solely because of its relative weight to the cat - but the cow is ..read more

Blog / Activity Trackers Misguide You: Here’s Why The high level quality your life, and health, cannot be captured in quantitative measurements. Activity trackers (like FitBit and the Activity app on Apple Watch) are obviously becoming more popular. More than 30 million people were actively using FitBit in 2019. In 2021, it seems like 1 in every 4 people in North America are wearing some kind of wrist device that is tracking their every move. People seem to think that the metrics they report on have value, and indicate the user’s level of health. Here’s a breakdown of the most common metrics ..read more

Home ≫ Blog ≫ Lifestyle ≫ 4 Practices to Improve Health and Wellness Every Day by Emily Veira   The first step to achieving balance is understanding that everything is constantly in flux. Health is dynamic. What if we told you that feeling physically and mentally out of whack is likely because you are imbalanced. You’d probably ask: “In what way?” Answer: it depends. Every person is different. Luckily, there are some very easy things that you can implement right now to address imbalances, physically and mentally. These are in no particular order, and all will have a positive impact on yo ..read more

Home ≫ Blog ≫ Lifestyle ≫ How to get Motivated to Exercise by Darren Veira   “If you don’t use your body enough, and in the right ways, there are unpleasant consequences.” - Darren Veira Struggling to find motivation? If you have to try to motivate yourself to do something, obviously it’s something you don’t really want to do. You don’t have to motivate yourself to watch your favourite show. You don’t have to motivate yourself to shower and brush your teeth. Even if you don’t really want to shower or brush your teeth, you do it (hopefully) because you know it must be done or the conseque ..read more

Home ≫ Blog ≫ Lifestyle ≫ 20 Non-Workout Ideas to Move Every Day By Emily Veira Move it or lose it: the human body needs circulation in all of its parts to prevent tissue degeneration and inflammation, the primary causes of chronic joint pain. Here we are in 2021: technology is evolving at what seems the speed of light. But by comparison, the human body is evolving at a snails pace. Did you know our bodies are designed to: walk up to 90km per day squat to rest (instead of sit) squat to use the bathroom, climb trees, and be exposed to elements almost all day, every day? If you mapp ..read more

Home > Blog > Injury > How to Prevent Sports Injuries By Athletic Engineering Preventable injuries are escalating at an alarming rate among all levels of athletes in Canada and the US. To cover some fundamental bases, here are 10 tips how to improve athletic performance by preventing injuries in sports. These tips are not mutually-exclusive and all relate to one another in some way. Watch the videos ↓ 1. Become softer and less rigid Softness doesn’t mean weakness. Actually, only when you’re really strong can you be soft by choice, because it requires a high degree of coordination. B ..read more

by Darren Veira Emily leading a group of high school students who are in an athlete-specific phys-ed class. Time and again we see athletes, especially younger athletes, unknowingly damaging themselves in the gym. Their aim is always to “put in the work”, and are taking training ‘guidance’ either from a coach, a trainer, or something they saw online, or something they’ve seen their peers doing. In almost every case where they are being coached or trained by someone, the instruction is wrong. Then, an injury is just waiting to happen. (In most cases, the athletes are already injured.) So what i ..read more

by Athletic Engineering Coach Darren Veira leading a group of high school students through wrist strengthening exercises. Compared to previous generations, today’s athletes are more fragile, and increasing rates of injuries in athletes on a global level, despite enormous investment into training and infrastructure, cannot be ignored. This article looks at how to keep athletes strong, healthy, and in shape to perform. Putting the cart before the horse Athletic performance tends to be associated with strength training. Coaches, trainers, and parents go to strength training because of an assumpt ..read more

Home ≫ Blog ≫ Athlete Advice by Emily Veira Darren demonstrating a mobility exercise for a client’s mobility training program. We had a question recently about some ideas for New Years’ resolutions for athletes. We tend to not set resolutions each year, and under normal circumstances, would go more into the mindset of continuous evaluation and fine-tuning of whatever you’re doing, regardless of time frame. However, given the global pandemic, many people, athletes, and coaches feel a bit lost during season cancellations and training delays. Based on recurring weaknesses that we always see in a ..read more