Local athletes looking to take their preparation to the next level this winter may want to visit Ignite Athletic Conditioning Moose Jaw.

The local training facility at the Team Redgoat Training Centre hosts Ignite, which is run by Vanier Vikings football head coach Ryan Gottselig, a former Saskatchewan Husky, and long-time CFL offensive lineman Matt Sheridan.

Gottselig said the program starts with a strength based focus and then advances to movement and mobility, “We basically try to address all the needs any athlete would need to perform at a high level in their sport.

“We have higher level athletes that are working to get the edge and play at the next level and then we have younger athletes, peewee aged athletes, that are just wanting to learn to move properly and get into strength training, but do it in a healthy, fundamental way.”

The programs run in six-week blocks with the first block set to get underway coming up on Monday.

The athletes can training anywhere from 2-4 times per week during the six-week blocks.

“Human performance is based on being strong and being stable and being explosive and that’s one of the fundamentals that crosses all boundaries regardless of what sport you’re playing, if you can be stronger and more stable than typically that translate to an increased performance,” said Sheridan.

“While the pedigree of the Ignite program lies in the world of football, but we work with athletes in a variety of sports,” he added. “Being stronger and healthy increases your on field, or court, performance, but also decreases your risk of injury.”

The programs are wide open for any age range and Gottselig said that they’ll take anyone interested.

“Last year we worked with athletes as young as 10 and one thing we really want to try to expand this year is get some younger athletes out there. We did have a girls group last year and we’re going to try to expand that as well this year,” he said.

Ignite will be hosting open houses on Jan. 13 and 20 at the Team Redgoat Training Centre on Chester Road in Moose Jaw. The open houses will start at 10 a.m.

For more information on the programs offered by Ignite, click here.