Adapt Fitness

Today’s buy-out (the thing you gotta knock out before your next set) — single-arm dumbbell overhead carries.

Honestly one of our favourite movements to program. Carrying just one dumbbell overhead instead of a barbell or two dumbbells gives your shoulder more room to move naturally, so it’s a really approachable way to start building strength overhead — no matter where you’re starting from.

Simple movement, but it’s quietly doing a lot: stability, control, strength, all while you’re just... walking around trying not to bump into people.

DM us or check adaptplus.ca if you want to come feel it for yourself.

Power is in the details. 🎯

Duncan is heading into another season with the University of Vermont Catamounts (NCAA)—and one thing hasn’t changed: he’s still one of the hardest-working, strongest athletes in the room. More importantly, he never overlooks the details.

Years of training and competition can create movement compensations. This offseason, one of our biggest focuses was helping Duncan generate more rotational power from his hips instead of relying on his low back.

He was already powerful. Now that power is coming from a better place.

One staple in his program: the Med Ball Rotational Scoop Toss—an exercise that teaches athletes to transfer force from the ground, through the hips and core, and into the upper body. Whether you’re shooting a puck, swinging a bat, throwing a ball, or changing direction, efficient rotational power starts from the ground up.

❌ Common mistakes we see:
Using mostly the arms
Rotating through the back instead of the hips
Letting the shoulders collapse forward
Using a ball too heavy to move explosively

✅ Keys to doing it well:
Move with maximum intent—throw it hard
Choose a ball you can accelerate fast
Keep the ball loaded near your hip
Drive with the lower body first, let the upper body follow

Strength is important. Power is important. But learning how to create power efficiently is what separates good athletes from great ones.

Want a program built around how your body actually moves? DM us to get started. 💬

Doing what you love should never be limited by pain.

When Colleen started training with us, she already had an excellent foundation in the Olympic lifts (credit to her previous coach for building that base 👏).

The challenge wasn’t learning the lifts—it was managing a few nagging injuries that kept getting in the way.

Colleen isn’t training to compete. She simply loves Olympic lifting. She loves the precision, the timing, and all the little technical details that make every lift so rewarding. Ask her to do heavy accessories, and you might get a different answer... but put a barbell in her hands for cleans or snatches, and she’s all in.

Through targeted rehab and individualized programming, she’s been able to get back to lifting pain-free while continuing to refine her technique.

Working alongside Myles and Brandon, the goal has been simple: keep her healthy, keep her improving, and most importantly, keep her doing what she enjoys.

At ADAPT, performance isn’t always about chasing bigger numbers or winning competitions. Sometimes it’s about helping people continue doing the things they love—for years to come.

Dealing with an injury that’s keeping you from the thing you love? DM us — our Athletic Therapy team can help you get back to it, pain-free.

Why do our hockey athletes hold a split squat for 60 seconds in the off-season?

Because hockey isn’t just about strength. It’s about holding strong positions, producing force on one leg, and staying healthy for an entire season.

Long-duration rear-foot-elevated split squat holds help:

✅ Build knee and tendon capacity before heavy training resumes
✅ Restore hip mobility after months in a hockey stance
✅ Expose side-to-side strength differences before they become injuries
✅ Build strength without piling on fatigue or joint stress

The goal isn’t a bigger squat. It’s a pain-free foundation so your player is more explosive, more durable, and ready when puck drop comes.

60 seconds of control now = more powerful strides in October.

Want your player training this way? DM us or call (902) 883-1939.

This is Trish. 👇

She’s been working with Brandon for almost a year now, with one main goal: move well and build general fitness that actually holds up in everyday life.

They mix things up often to keep training interesting, and one of their latest additions is the Suspension Trainer Straight Arm Jammer Press.

While this movement is often used for building explosive power, Brandon is using it a little differently with Trish — as a joint-friendly, full-body strengthening tool. Here’s why it works:

* Joint-Friendly Strength: The suspended, guided path lets Trish push through a full range of motion with far less stress on the shoulders and joints than a traditional press — perfect for building strength & mobility without wear and tear. (The nerd in us particularly likes that it drives upward rotation and posterior tilt of the shoulder blades)

* Full-Body Engagement: Because she’s on her feet and driving the movement forward, her core has to work the entire time just to stay stable — it’s strength training and stability training in one.

* Real-Life Carryover: Pushing, driving, and stabilizing through a standing position translates directly to everyday movement — think pushing open a heavy door or catching your balance when you stumble.

Almost a year in, and Trish keeps showing up ready to try something new. That’s the kind of consistency that actually changes how you move and feel.

Awesome work, Trish! 💪

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She first came to ADAPT for her son. It didn’t take long to realize she needed this for herself too.

Since then, it’s been surgery, injuries, stress, and just life. The kind of stuff that gives most people a permanent excuse to stop showing up.

Rachel never took it.

Here she is benching 135lbs for 3 — not her heaviest ever, but the heaviest since coming back from surgery. And honestly? We think that makes it a bigger accomplishment than any number on the bar.

Training looks a lot different than it did when she started. There are work-arounds now. Modifications. Days that don’t go as planned. But she keeps showing up and keeps putting in the work — and that’s the part that actually matters.

She’s a strong mama, inside and outside the gym.

Awesome job, Rachel. We see you. 💪

Drop a 💪 for Rachel below.

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Core training gets reduced to “do more crunches” way too often. But a strong core isn’t about how many reps you can grind out — it’s about how well your spine stays stable when force is trying to move it.

That’s why we use the partner Pallof hold + rotation in our classes.

By having you press or hold against a partner’s changing resistance, your core is forced to resist rotation in real time instead of just moving through a fixed pattern. This variation checks three big boxes:

* Anti-Rotation Strength: It trains your core to resist unwanted twisting, which is the actual job of your abs in daily life — not sit-ups.

* Real Carryover: It builds stability that transfers directly to picking up your kids, carrying groceries, golfing, or any sport where force moves through your trunk.

* Group-Friendly Fun: The partner element keeps class engaging and easy to scale, whether we’ve got 4 people or 14 — nobody’s just counting reps alone.

Controlled tension. Real stability. That’s how you build a core built for life, not just for the mirror.

Want to feel this in a class? DM us to try the Everything Membership.

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