What is EVOLVE Flagstaff? Our foundational pillars

What is EVOLVE Flagstaff? What exactly do we do here?

That’s a good question, that we’ll answer in layers.

The get to the “What?”, we first have to answer the “Why?” By that I mean our mission and our driving purpose behind all that we do.

EVOLVE Flagstaff exists to help you feel great and do what you love, for life. We are driven by a belief that it is possible to feel healthy, energized, vibrant, and pain-free while making real progress towards goals that matter to you. We believe that “preventative healthcare” shouldn’t just be a buzzword, but a lifestyle.

With that in mind, we can now answer the “What?”

In order to help you feel great and do what you love, for life, EVOLVE Flagstaff aims to provide comprehensive, proactive, integrative healthcare based on the things that will make the biggest difference for you, long term.

There are six key pillars to our approach. These are:

1. Evidence-based nutrition

2. Progressive strength training

3. Cardiovascular fitness

4. Injury rehabilitation and prevention

5. Positive lifestyle habits

6. Community support

We aim to integrate as many of these elements as possible in our Performance Training Program, and keep them as an essential backdrop to our one-on-one physical therapy and dietitian services. Let’s break each one down.

1. Evidence-Based Nutrition

• What:

  • Science-based, body positive, non-diet nutrition guidance

• Why:

  • What and how we eat is a central component of health and disease prevention, sport and athletic performance, and our culture and relationships. But, our society is cluttered with dangerous misinformation and damaging false beliefs about nutrition.

• How:

• One-on-one counselling with a Registered Dietitian to treat nutrition-related illnesses, improve performance, and build a healthy relationship with food.

• Delicious, balanced meal prep service, EVOLVE Eats

• Frequent workshops, videos, and articles to provide ongoing learning opportunities

• Performance training members receive a 9 week nutrition foundations course that teaches the fundamental science and habits of healthy eating. Members also receive strength reinforcement of nutritional concepts day-to-day, and 10% off one-on-one RD services.

2. Progressive strength training

• What:

  • Individualized resistance training with a focus on full-body compound movements, designed to support long-term development

• Why:

  • Increasing strength, improving movement technique, and developing lean body mass is a vital aspect of overall longevity, bone and joint health, athletic capacity, and disease and injury prevention. However, strength training is often misunderstood or misapplied, and progress over time can be difficult without support.

• How:

  • Progressive strength training is at the heart of our Performance Training Program.

  • All strength training programs are designed by me, a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and customized to your individual goals and injury/health history

  • Programs are based on a long term development model that builds a solid foundation of movement and then provides progressive load to stimulate positive musculoskeletal and metabolic adaptations

  • Members receive strength coach guidance for each workout to ensure proper technique and loading, and a custom smartphone application to track workouts and progress

3. Cardiovascular fitness

• What:

  • Multi-dimensional cardiovascular training and support

• Why:

  • Cardiovascular fitness is essential to good health, prevention of common diseases, and stress reduction. It can be challenging to blend cardiovascular and strength training and make consistent progress without injury in both domains.

• How:

  • Our training members receive constantly changing metabolic conditioning circuits that provide a cardiovascular training stimulus and movement variety

  • We provide members with support developing or implementing endurance training plans to optimize performance while minimizing injury and overtraining risk

  • We also screen cardiovascular risk factors, such as blood pressure several times per year

  • Strength coaches offer guidance to members on daily training intensity and recovery

  • Additional articles provide guidance on cardiovascular fitness, such as the Zero to 60 Program for running, and this article on aerobic training.

4. Injury rehabilitation and prevention

• What:

  • Evidence-based physical therapy and training to diagnose, treat, and reduce the risk of injuries.

• Why:

  • Injuries and pain can stall strength and cardiovascular training, leading to a cascade of negative health consequences. Unfortunately, the field of injury rehabilitation is cluttered with pseudoscience, and often does not consider overall health, wellness, and fitness.

• How:

  • One-on-one evaluation and treatment of injuries and pain by a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Treatment addresses the sources of pain as well as the underlying causes of each injury.

  • All strength training programs are in our Performance Training program are designed by Doctor Physical of Therapy to maximize resilience and minimize risk, and contain a unique blend of time-tested full-body movements with motor control drills and core exercises. Each workout contains an individualized muscle activation routine to prepare the body for training while addressing common causes of injury

  • Members have access to physical therapy open clinic time provides no-added-cost screening of injuries and pain, and receive a 10% discount on physical therapy services.

5.Positive lifestyle habits

• What:

  • Supportive coaching and tools to help foster a sense of balance and contentment

• Why:

  • Our technology-focused, go-go-go society sets us up for high stress and lack of connection. Eating well and exercising is not always enough to bring balance to our world. Adequate sleep (7-8 hours at a minimum), time away from electronic devices, and activities that downregulate our nervous system are a crucial component to overall health.

• How:

  • Members can scheduled lifestyle and goal setting sessions to identify and address lifestyle factors that are affecting health and happiness.

  • All nutrition, injury rehabilitation, and training programs take lifestyle factors into account to optimize the likelihood of success

  • Workshops, videos, and articles to dig deeper into lifestyle topics and provide supportive tools

  • Members receive strength coach support for motivation, recovery, and balance

6. Community support

• What:

  • A positive, like-minded community that provides support and accountability

• Why:

  • Without supportive relationships, even the best program is likely to fail. Positive, like-minded relationships help to create long-term success.

• How:

  • Our members train in a dynamic, interactive environment that promotes support from and interaction with other members. They also receive strength coach support and encouragement

  • Inclusive membership model, rather than sporadic drop-ins, to better foster long-term relationships and development

  • Community workshops and events to develop community beyond the training environment

The healthcare and fitness industries can seem overwhelming, or preoccupied with the latest trend or fad. At EVOLVE, we want to instead stay true to principles and ideas that have been shown to work, long term. We care about how you’re feeling today, and ten years from now. Put simply, these six pillars are the best way we know of to help you to feel great, and do what you love, for life.

Are you curious about how you can better integrate these pillars into your life? Click the button below to schedule to talk for FREE about your issues and questions with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. We’ll develop a strategy together to help you reach and exceed your goals.