Even though my doctors had urged me to get into an exercise program, the seriousness of my injury made me very reluctant at first to do any type of exercise. But Chris soon put my fears to rest. He talked with me at length about my specific problems and goals and in several very helpful sessions showed me, with the aid of a model skeleton, how we could strengthen and reduce the pain in my lower back, hip, and knee. We started slowly with some stretching exercises. These were especially beneficial because they opened up my spine and made me much more flexible. Over the next eight months, Chris guided me through a variety of weight-bearing and stretching exercises targeting the muscles in my back and legs. The results were dramatic: the pain in my lower back and knee disappeared completely and overall I was much stronger. In recent months Chris has added new exercises to my routine to increase strength and improve flexibility. My hip is more stable than before and with the help of some extra tips from Chris–relating to how I stand and sit– I expect it will be back to normal fairly soon.

Working with Chris has been a tremendous boon for me. I’ve benefited not only from his impressive expertise as a movement specialist and his thoughtful attention to my specific problems but also from his positive and encouraging manner. Today, I am in better health than I was before my accident and for that I have to thank Chris Poljacik, one of RVC’s greatest treasures!

“On November 10th I injured my right shoulder during a tennis match: a torn rotator cuff, according to a DHMC orthopedic surgeon.

I worked with the DHMC re-hab staff for a month, and then I started working twice a week with Chris Poljacik, a Movement Training Specialist. Chris worked with me for five months, while he slowly added exercises to strengthen the area around the tear.
By early June my pain had diminished to where I was able to play golf, and I even began to play some low intensity tennis once again.

It has know been nearly nine months and I am pain free! I play golf five days per week and I play tennis each week with my regular group. I am still working weekly with Chris. He varies our workouts with strength training exercises that will keep my shoulder from re-injury and improve my total fitness. I can not emphasize enough the benefits of working with a personal trainer of Chris’s stature. His training and expertise in working with athletic-type injuries is a true asset to his clients.”

Antranig A. Boghosian

“When Andy came to me with a right rotator cuff tear, he had two goals: No surgery and a desire to get back to playing tennis and golf in the spring. I took him through a functional assessment in order to uncover the musculoskeletal imbalances that usually exist in such an injury. I also evaluated his tennis strokes to see his limitations there so that when Andy does return to playing, he will not re-injury his shoulder through a faulty movement pattern.

Based on these finding and continued re-evaluation, Andy and I developed a program that would treat his injury as well as condition him for tennis and golf.

It was a pleasure to work with Andy; for he did the work that it takes to make a program like this successful. He showed that with the right program and the right effort can accomplish any goal.

Andy is the perfect example of what a Movement Training Specialist can successfully treat. An MTS trainer specializes in both injury rehabilitation and sport conditioning. This example showcases that personal training is not just about weight loss anymore. As a Movement Training Specialist I have successfully treated hundreds of clients like Andy. Not only do they needed to recover from their injuries but also want to return to their sport moving better, feeling better and performing better.”

Chris Poljacik

Movement Training Specialist

This winter, in the three months preceding the marathon I worked with Jen. Over the first 10 weeks she helped me to build strength and power which complimented my running and helped to prevent me from over training. Knowing that my left hamstring was prone to overuse injury, we also worked to strengthen the supporting muscles in my gluteus medius and minimus to help prevent injury. In the last few weeks prior to race day I began to have pain in my left calf, deep in the soleus muscle and tight peroneal muscles that added to the problem. It seemed to me likely that this could become an injury that would prevent me from running again. Jen and Chris worked together to evaluate my stride and analyze the mobility and movement patterns in my legs from my core to my hips to my knees, ankles and feet. Chris isolated each joint and the muscle groups that worked with it to help determine where my weaknesses were, where the muscles necessary to land a successful stride and absorb the impact of three times my body weight with each step, were not working in concert. Jen was then able to use this information to design functional exercises that continued to build strength, flexibility and endurance and challenged me but also helped recruit muscles that I was underutilizing in an attempt to train my me to move through each stride more optimally and thus to counteract some of the undue stress I was putting on my calf.

On race day I was still unsure of how my calf was going to hold up over 26.2 miles. But after the firs big hill at 7 miles I was feeling great and was confident that my calf would not prevent me from finishing this race. So I was able to settle in and “enjoy” the experience that I had waited years to be able to have. And just under 4 hours later I finished with a respectable time for a first marathon. And now? I’m looking forward a second one next year . . . .

Liza Lokich M.D.

Just recently, I traveled to New Hampshire to visit the Edge’s flagship club, the River Valley Club, and was able to meet one of their famous Master Trainers, Chris Poljacik. I was accompanied by 2-time, World Junior Bodybuilding Champions Matt Stirling and his fiancée Emily Ramsden, also a World Bodybuiling Champion, and we were equally blown away by our experience and coaching session with Chris. Chris has been a student of the world famous, Gary Gray, a leading expert on designing truly functional exercise programs for all client types. Chris invested over $15,000 during his mentorship with Gary and is now offering a certification program for Edge PFP clients – that’s you! Emily, Matt and I have already reserved our spots to be the first to get the Movement Training Specialist Certification.

Chris took us through a collection of functional training exercises to strengthen and lengthen the entire kinetic chain – from dynamic balance training, core drills, functional spinal stabilization drills and his world famous “lunge matrix” performed all three planes of movement for all ability levels. Within 15 minutes, Chris had identified misalignments in my body that have been causing 4 years of lower back pain and conservative lifting. It’s been over a week since doing his drills and exercises, and my back is STILL pain free. Matt and Emily both had similar experiences and we giggled like little kids after he wowed us with this experience!

Honestly, after this experience, I would never work with another trainer if they did not possess the same level of “movement specialty” as Chris has and was ready, no joke, to drop a few thousand dollars of my own money on working with Chris for the next few months. No other physical therapist has ever been able to help me like Chris did.

Here’s the best news. The Edge is bringing Chris Poljacik to Canada in the near future so you can be the FIRST in the entire fitness industry to get certified to teach Gary Gray’s functional training system. This will be a mandatory requirement for any Edge trainer to achieve master trainer status, and will truly take your fitness business to a whole new level.