Edmonton fitness entrepreneur Erin Baker is entering her second year as a movement consultant for the Denver Broncos, adding her training method to the work of a team that reached the AFC Championship last season. She spent a month with the Broncos during the NFL preseason, travels regularly between Alberta and Colorado during the season and coaches players remotely through online workouts.

Baker founded True Movement, a fitness business headquartered in Edmonton’s west end. Its facilities include multiple workout studios, a red-light therapy booth, a cool-down area, and a makeshift warehouse and video recording studio. She opened her first Edmonton studio in 2014 and moved into the current west-end location two years ago.

The company’s training method uses a platform Baker designed. When she could not find a local manufacturer willing to make a platform based on her design, she partnered with a company in Poland. She is now transitioning production to local manufacturing.

Baker has named the training approach after her company. It combines work on stability, range of motion and strength, including the use of heavy spring tension on the platform. She says the method is intended for people with different needs, from elite athletes to people seeking lifestyle changes or help with chronic pain.

“The testimonies and feedback of the pro athletes has definitely helped grow the brand,” Baker said. “If it’s adopted at the pro fitness or the pro athlete level, that credibility just grows so much faster for us. I think it’s about the longevity of showing up every day and proving the same concept and the same message. We don’t veer from how we think movement should be taught and how we deliver that information.”

Her client list spans several sports. She trains members of the Edmonton Oilers and works with Winnipeg Jets goaltender Stuart Skinner and Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill. She consults with hockey programs at the University of North Dakota and the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and also has Canadian Football League clients.

Baker is also working with Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward and expanding her work with the team. The opportunity arose through a professional connection: the sports science staff member she worked with in Denver became the Titans’ director of sports science.

“That’s how I started working with the Titans,” Baker said. “That’s because I worked with the sports science person with the Broncos, and then they are now the director of sports science with the Titans. This is why I feel that if you just keep showing up daily, provide value and show that your method works and that you can teach the method. You have to relate to your colleagues and the players. And then, everything seems to sort itself out.”

She is also franchising True Movement. A studio recently opened in Algonquin, Illinois, and Baker is working to open a location in Denver. Her work in the NFL has brought the Edmonton business exposure in a league she describes as a major opportunity for a fitness company.

“Yeah, the NFL is definitely king,” she said. “For my family, it’s how we spend our Sundays now. We’re watching football. And yes, it is very validating. It’s been a dream come true to work with teams players in the NFL. I always knew that the True Movement method was meant to be implemented at that level, and it just took 15 years to make it happen.”

Baker said she was welcomed by the Broncos during training camp. She described the experience as surreal, surrounded by top-level players and staff. The club’s coaching, athletic training, and strength and conditioning departments were receptive to her demonstrating the method and contributing where she could.

“They’re amazing. I was welcomed. It was a surreal moment, especially in camp. You’re surrounded by the best of the best, of course,” she said.

“It’s the different departments: the coaching department, the athletic training department, the strength and conditioning,” Baker said. “Everyone was so receptive to letting me come in and show them True Movement and provide value where I could, and it was just such a collaborative process. It was it was unlike anything I could have imagined, at just how positive everything was, and the players are amazing to work with.”

The Broncos’ performance last season underscored the injury concerns Baker sees across professional football. Denver was the top seed in the American Football Conference and appeared on course for the Super Bowl, but quarterback Bo Nix was hurt on the final play of the team’s preceding playoff win. The Broncos then lost the AFC Championship at home to the New England Patriots without him.

The championship game was remembered for a blizzard that arrived at Empower Field at Mile High in the fourth quarter, making field goals and completed passes impossible. Baker said teams focus heavily on injury prevention, recovery and maintenance because a major injury can derail a season.

True Movement’s emphasis on flexibility, strength and movement is designed to suit the physical demands of football, as well as sports such as hockey. A football player may need to brace for repeated collisions, while a goaltender needs a wide range of motion to make saves.

Broncos linebacker Alex Singleton, a former Calgary Stampeder, said the training has helped him avoid pain while playing a position that requires quick changes in direction. Singleton famously missed only three weeks last season while undergoing surgery for testicular cancer.

“Playing linebacker, it’s a lot of following somebody, kind of mirroring quick loading, then getting out of it,” Singleton said. “With the True Movement stuff, I haven’t had groin pain, hip pain, none of that.”

Singleton said Baker’s method helps athletes activate muscles in what he called a “box” in the lower abdomen, supporting better body position. Balance and posture are important when football players explode out of their stances, he said.

Baker first connected with Singleton after contacting Korey Jones, a former Edmonton Eskimo who was then the Broncos’ strength and conditioning coach. Singleton’s CFL ties helped Baker establish a foothold in the NFL, where player and coach movement between teams can carry recommendations to new locker rooms.

Baker said the method has taken time to gain a place in professional sports, and that referrals and testimonials have helped build its reputation. She also credits the routine work of showing up, teaching the same approach and building relationships with players and colleagues.

Her explanation of the method centres on three areas: creating a stable foundation, increasing range of motion and space in the body, and building strength through the platform’s heavy spring tension. She said the equipment offers resistance that she believes other workout equipment does not provide.

“The method works so well because it’s unparalleled,” Baker said. “There’s no other movement method in the industry like this because we look at three separate things. We look at creating a stable foundation first, then we look at increasing range of motion and and space in the body, and then we also do strength training with our platform because we have the really heavy spring tension that doesn’t exist in other equipment.”

“Most methods are cookie-cutter, so they’ll pick one area of focus, which is great, but it’s not how we want to show up in the industry. We look at the whole body. We don’t just work on stability. We don’t just work on mobility. We don’t just work on strength. Every person gets something different from True Movement, but the results are the same. How do we help this person move better, feel better, and live with less pain?”

The Broncos connection also carries an earlier Edmonton link. The late Pat Bowlen owned the team for more than three decades and had major interests in Edmonton’s legal, construction and oil businesses. His company, Batoni-Bowlen Enterprises, built Northlands Coliseum, and he spent his formative years in Edmonton.

Based on reporting by Edmonton Journal.