Damien Wild
Physical activity has always been a passion for Damien as a means of personal growth, stress release, and developing and maintaining relationships. The injuries resulting from said sport and activities is what gave Damien his first taste of physio! Feeling the loss of not being able to play and participate from an injury is what makes Damien want to help get people back in action asap with the skills and knowledge to help prevent future and or further injury.
Prior to finding physiotherapy Damien developed an exciting and diverse background in exercise physiology and taught at the University of Alberta for 2 years while working on his masters in exercise physiology. He was part of the team (as a researcher and test participant) responsible for revamping the standards utilized by the Department of National Defense (DND) firefighters for entry and yearly recertification, as well as the development of the practical components of testing protocols used by several municipal fire departments across Western Canada. He was also participated in pre-season testing with the Oilers for years, and saw a diverse range of Olympic caliber athletes in the lab for VO2max testing and exercise prescription. This extensive testing and research allowed him the opportunity to take on the lead role in the development and implementation of the East Central Health region's first community-based cardiac rehab program, followed by three years of full-time work as a firefighter in the oil sands while concurrently running the physio department. This intimate understanding and background with high-performance athletes, fire and EMS personnel, and exercise prescription within an aging population, makes him an ideal candidate to continue working with those individuals as a physiotherapist.
Like all physios, Damien’s experiences as an athlete and as a physio have led to a certain number of biases; he believes movement IS medicine and injury is often the result of muscle imbalance. He will most likely get you to move and load more, not less. That being said, there is a lot to be said for symptom management through the recovery process and Damien uses a combination of Gunn IMS, Gokavie Transverse Technique, and traditional acupuncture (TCM) as his major symptom management techniques. He has seen remarkable recovery with the combination of IMS and home exercises. He will most likely encourage you to try dry needling as a part of your recovery so be ready for that (and be prepared to do some homework)!
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