Peter Twist
Peter Twist Story
Be Your Best
A healthy lifestyle is a critical component of my corporate success and a foundation of my daily routine. At 6 am I arrive into the Twist Sport Conditioning Centre to workout alongside the active adult clients who train with Twist coaches to feed their competitive spirit, diverse recreational pursuits and fast paced lifestyles. My workout is based on the Twist training paradigm and focuses on whole body, multi-joint lifting integrated with dynamic movement and variable balance challenges. The exercises have been created to challenge both the body's hard drive (muscles, heart, lungs) and software (brain and nervous system that commands the muscles) to build Smart Muscle™.
My favourite tools include the SMART Toner™, SMART Balance Board™, TRX, BOSU®, Twist ABS Stability Ball, Olympic bars and plates – my body and mind is my machine. The tempo is high and the results phenomenal as I am now at 45 arguably in the best shape of my life. My workout done, I go back home to have breakfast with my two daughters, ensure they walk to school and head back to the office for the day.
After work I enjoy a trail run in the rainforest to soak up some of the best scenery in Canada. This is an environment that challenges my physicality, feeds my spirit and gives tremendous energy. My most invigorating routine is a power hike up a steep mountain ascent, then, with my dogs ready, we race down the mountain faster than a mountain biker, essentially skiing off the ground, jumping from contact to contact point straight down the mountain. Exhilarating, and sets the tone for how to attack life in general. I also take many of my adult clients and young athletes out of the SCC and into the mountains to hike, mountain bike, ski and snowshoe, where they see the results of their training in real life application and continue to make the positive link between exercise and enjoyment in activities they love.
Much of my business and personal life today has been influenced by my parents who dedicated time and love to our whole family. My father was an active hockey coach in our community and was instrumental in my success as an elite hockey player allowing me to play at the Jr. A and Varsity level at two major Canadian universities. My mother supported everything that I pursued and encouraged me with every step of my youth into adulthood. The values and ethics that lead my business and personal life stem from such a solid family life.
When I entered post graduate study in university, my goal was to become a hockey coach but with my interest in fitness and kinesiology I made the natural shift to a conditioning coach position to help individual players improve. In a time when professional athletes simply played the game, proposing additional sport specific conditioning seemed ludicrous. Securing a job with the Vancouver Canucks professional hockey organization gave me the opportunities to train world class athletes and develop a distinct training style that was directly related to the demands of the game and, as opposed to primary goals of health or appearance, my mandate was to improve athletic performance. With constant retooling, the Twist sport conditioning paradigm that is taught world wide focuses on developing the secondary components of fitness including balance, speed, agility, quickness, multi joint strength, neuromuscular reactivity, deceleration, movement patterning, power and anaerobic energetics. Concepts that came from the sport of hockey, have now been transferred into training athletes of all sports, ages and abilities because the focus is on developing "athleticism". I have programmed this into level appropriate functional exercise for young kids, aging boomers, rehab applications, school curriculums and active adults who get inspired by the opportunity to perform better in their worlds, gaining self efficacy, enjoyment and a positive connection to exercise.
