Training our Trainers: A Workshop with Dr. Stuart McGill

At the Cambridge Group of Clubs, we believe in growth.

We believe that the only way we can offer our Members the best service is to ensure that our staff stays at the forefront of the industry, gaining new knowledge and experience that will help them to better serve our membership. Because of this, we invited noted speaker and expert Dr. Stuart McGill to the Toronto Athletic Club to teach our trainers more about working with clients suffering from back pain. 

Dr. McGill, a former Professor of Spine Biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, spent his 30 year academic career investigating issues related to the causal mechanisms of back pain, how to rehabilitate back-pained people, and the ways to enhance both injury resilience and performance. As a consultant, he has provided expertise on lower back injuries to various government agencies, many corporations and legal firms, and hundreds of professional and international athletes and teams worldwide. 

This past Saturday, Dr. McGill ran a very special and exclusive Training the Back Pained Client: From Pain to Performance workshop with our trainers. This one day course, with a combination of lectures, workshops, and McGill’s signature “no nonsense” approach, was designed to teach our trainers the best way to help our Members who suffer from back pain.

Our trainers gleaned background information on the mechanisms that cause back pain and how these mechanisms can be assessed and addressed with movement and an exercise program. Since many of our Members have suffered from back pain (and maybe still do!), “Dr. McGill’s work proved very relevant to our everyday job,” says the Adelaide Club’s Lauren Neal. “Having worked with all sorts of people, from elite athletes to the average Joe, many of us now have some extra tools in our back pockets to help with assessing back pain. A plus for the members at the CGOC.”

The Toronto Athletic Club’s Mike Savage continued, “Dr. McGill is the master of back health. He has proven time and time again that his methods take patients who suffer with severe back pain, and return them into highly functioning athletes.”

From exploring common myths about back pain and spine health to learning how to assess our clients’ pain and the best movements to incorporate into our training to build a foundation of a pain-free and resilient back, our trainers are now equipped with the latest research and guidelines to help our Members. “Working with a personal trainer can be life altering. We need to continue to align ourselves with other health care practitioners, and realize how powerful we can be,” Meg Sharp stated after the workshop. “There are situations where a personal trainer is singularly positioned to be able to help someone overcome challenges that no other practitioner has been able to address.”

If you suffer from back pain, we have a great team that can help to treat your pain - from our training staff, to our Directors of Personal Training, and our practitioners. Thanks to a strong alignment between trainers and practitioners, we pride ourselves on being a "one stop shop" for our Members.

Adelaide Club: Meg Sharp

Adelaide Health Clinic

The Cambridge Club: Paul Hudson

Sport Medicine Clinic

Toronto Athletic Club: Lauren Fernandes