You know that bum knee or achy shoulder that’s stopping you from beating your twerpy young friend at golf or tennis?
What about those cement-mixer hips that have you thinking you’re not going to try for that half-marathon after all?
Or even that hip-replacement that has you looking at a long stint of rehab before you can walk your dog again?
What if you could boost your performance or speed up your recovery with the same cutting-edge know-how and technology that helps Olympic and professional athletes bounce back from blown-out knees and ruptured tendons?
In Burnaby, you can … or so they tell me.
For the next 14 weeks, this reporter has been assigned to undertake a “Fortius Challenge” – a chance to set some fitness and physical performance goals and experience first-hand the different ways Burnaby’s Fortius Sport & Health can help.
Fortius, the sleek, world-class, $61-million sports medicine and performance facility on Kensington Avenue, was built to bring together the best and brightest in Canadian sport and exercise medicine under one roof to “integrate, collaborate and innovate.”
It’s a one-stop shop for elite athletes and teams, like the Toronto Raptors who recently spent a four-day training camp there and for the national women’s soccer team who’s currently using it to prepare for next summer’s World Cup.
Whether it’s recovering from injury or maximizing performance, Fortius has all the trainers, sports doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, kinesiologists, optometrists, biomechanists, physiologists, dieticians, pedorthists, podiatrists and orthopedic surgeons any high-performance athlete could need.
But part of the Fortius vision, when the founders were planning their dream facility and picking their dream team, was always that the technology and know-how should become community assets.
The Fortius Foundation, fuelled by philanthropy like that of founder and chairman Scott Cousens who donated $23 million to the project, built and equipped Fortius with cutting-edge equipment and technologies that would attract Canada’s top athletes.
But it also made those amenities available to a public that normally wouldn’t have access to them.
Fortius has been trying to get that message out – that the centre is for anyone motivated by an exercise-related goal, whether it’s making an Olympic comeback, playing recreational tennis or walking the dog.
But the idea that Fortius is a facility for elites only persists – helped, no doubt, by the recent Raptors visit and news of other elite clients since the centre’s May 2013 opening.
Fortius biomechanist Dr. Christopher MacLean told me he recently overheard a young soccer player walking past the centre tell his mom he’d really love to train and play at Fortius.
“Oh no, son,” she said, “that’s for professional athletes.”
MacLean shook his head.
“The perception and the reality, there’s a bit of a disconnect,” he said.
My first visit to Fortius was for a meeting with director of clinical operations Randy Goodman to tour the centre and set goals.
Goodman has 25 years’ experience as an international sport physiotherapist.
At the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, he was the supervisor of therapy in the Athletes Village.
He’s not alone; when Fortius went into its final planning phase in 2011, many of the practitioners on board had been at the Games and been part of what the International Olympic Committee called the best sport medicine platform in Olympic Games history.
“I feel like an all-star manager,” said Goodman of the Fortius staff.
After touring me around state-of-the-art amenities like hydrotherapy pools, a performance vision clinic and a biomechanics lab, he sat me down to set goals.
As a rehab project, we agreed to zero in on an achy shoulder that’s been bothering me since college volleyball.
By the end of the challenge, the goal was to be able to play a game of tennis without it throbbing and stiffening up.
I’d also get a chance to sample everything else Fortius has to offer – massage, a consultation with a dietician, a barrage of tests for everything from my running gait to my vision.
My first appointment was arranged for the following week, and I left Fortius with the intro from the old Six Million Dollar Man ringing in my head.
“We can rebuild (her). We have the technology. We can make (her) better than (she) was. Better…stronger…faster.”
Follow Cornelia’s road to recovery at www.burnabynow.com.
