About Us

Why we started Kaliber Health Online

Our mission: getting jiu-jitsu athletes STRONG and MOBILE so they can dominate the mats!

After over a decade of working with clients in-person, we developed Kaliber Health Online as a way to offer high-quality, results driven strength training online, without the price tag of in-person coaching.

Why BJJ athletes?

We started personal training in 2010 and BJJ in 2019. We quickly realised there was a lack of knowledge and understanding on how to effectively strength train for BJJ. Not to mention, the rate of injury in this sport is also quite high, and there is a lot of misinformation (or lack thereof) on how to strength train and support an athlete in the gym who is injured. That's where we come in. We have experience and knowledge working with those who are injured and/or are in pain. We also LOVE working with performance athletes (and people in general who are interested in performance). You guys work hard, and understand the concept of patience and consistency.

Because of our love of BJJ and the people we've met through this community, we decided to dive deep and invest our time in becoming the best strength training coaches possible for people who train BJJ.

We take a personal approach and strive to be a non-dogmatic voice of reason in the sea of overwhelming and misleading strength and conditioning advice for grapplers. Using our classic strength training approach, alongside tailored accessory & structural balance lifts, plus our balanced view on nutrition, we meet you where you're at and teach you how to become the best performing version of yourself on (and off) the mats.

Meet Greg and Jaclyn

 

Greg

Greg struggled for the first 22 years of his life wondering his purpose, never excelling at sports or fitness until he found personal training. His personal fitness journey started like many – he dealt with food issues, managing body fat, eating what he thought was healthy, but having no clue. He began his career at a commercial gym in Newfoundland, Canada, where his co-workers introduced him to different leaders in the industry, one of which was Charles Poliquin. After learning from Charles’ and helping a couple of figure skating kids win nationals, Greg moved to Toronto. The city was rough, but then he found Reach Personal Training – a boutique training studio that felt like home where he currently trains his clients in-person.

In 2019, he started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu and fell in love with its playfulness and the fact that there is always more to learn. As a blue belt, he's struggled with various BJJ injuries, all of which have been a good learning experience in how to manage recovery and BJJ training intensity. Greg currently trains some of Canada's top jiu-jitsu athletes and loves to educate anyone willing to listen and learn about the nerdy side of strength training for grappling athletes.

 
 

Jaclyn

After retiring from competitive gymnastics at age 17, she got her first gym membership. Shortly after, she got her trainer certification and started training clients at a commercial gym, initially thinking “I’ll just do this for a few years"... but those "few years" never came to an end. She was drawn to pursue a career in the fitness industry because of how much she enjoyed it.

Over the years of training various types of clients, she's taken a special interest in helping those who want to perform better, get stronger and feel good for their sport, but also for life. Like Greg, Jaclyn is also a student of the late Charles Poliquin – applying many of his methods to her own and her clients' training. Since 2019, she’s taken an interest in Olympic weightlifting and started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu (she's currently a purple belt). BJJ opened up a whole new world of training for performance. She fell in love with the sport and the community. She absolutely loves helping grappling athletes get strong and mobile so they can feel great and dominate the mats.

 

The Kaliber Training Philosophy

  1. Movement – master movement first, full ROM, perfect movement quality, accessory & structural balance lifts before the barbell, strength through full range of motion (importance for BJJ = healthier, stronger joints)

  2. Tempo – follow correct tempo, variable, learn what it is

  3. Weight – after you can do step 1 & 2, slowly start adding weight

  4. RPE – rate of perceived exertion, 1-10 (as a BJJ athlete you shouldn’t be lifting 10/10 and maxing out every week)