uce you to Matt Yegge.
Hi Matt, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Matt Yegge, and I own Altius Sports Performance and Rehabilitation in Stillwater, MN. I graduated from the University of Colorado in 2008, where I played football and studied mathematics and secondary education. Throughout my youth, I was blessed with fantastic mentors and coaches who poured into me tremendously and inspired me to want to lead/mentor and empower the next generations in the same way I was blessed. This path would be through becoming a high school teacher and a coach. However, my passion for sports and performance led me towards a different “classroom” and drove a career in health and fitness. After a shoulder injury ended my college football career, I took a job training at a commercial health club, where I worked to earn club management roles and master trainer certifications. Here, I found my niche working with athletes and was inspired to start my own sports performance business. Altius Performance was established in 2013 when I moved with my family from Colorado to Stillwater, MN, to be near my wife’s family while I attended physical therapy school. I graduated with a doctorate in physical therapy from St. Catherine University in 2018. Since 2007, I have been able to coach, train, and rehab thousands of athletes, including Olympians, professionals, collegiate athletes, and youth athletes. Additionally, I have had the opportunity to present research on lower extremity movement mechanics and ACL risk factors, sport-specific training, and return-to-sport programming. Outside the gym, my time is primarily spent with my family, and we stay busy! My wife Danielle also owns two small businesses in Stillwater (Style and Structure and SloanHouse Branding), and I swear it feels like my kids Cooper (14) and Oakley (9) each have sports 8 days a week, but we love our crazy life and wouldn’t have it any other way.
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Calm seas never made a good sailor.” As a new fitness and rehab facility that opened its first brick-and-mortar location in 2019, there have been some choppy seas. Following our opening in June 2019, we quickly gained fantastic momentum, so much so that we leaped to expand, adding another 3000 square feet for our weight room and doubling the size of our turf space in February 2020. This, unfortunately, did not time out well with the COVID pandemic that closed our doors in March 2020. A pandemic was never considered in the business plan, and navigating COVID lockdowns was trying. We are eternally grateful and feel extremely blessed that we survived this storm, ultimately due to the significant loyalty of the Altius community fostered through the relationships and culture we were initially able to establish. The most obvious and direct struggle instigated by the pandemic was the lockdowns. Many businesses were hit extremely hard. Gyms and restaurants may have been hit the hardest. Another area for improvement is the uncertainty and trending direction of the economy.
There are also some less obvious repercussions:
- Look at any sports game. Momentum is real. We had so much momentum going into 2020, which was unexpectedly and abruptly halted by the pandemic. After lockdowns ended, we had to restart from square one to get athletes, teams, and patients back in the door. Not only did we have to restart, but what worked seamlessly in our marketing strategies before the pandemic was less effective. We are continually learning and adapting to a world that has changed.
- Our clients and patients were also all personally affected by the pandemic in their ways. The numbers show astounding increases in the rates of societal mental health issues (ADHD, depression, anxiety, suicide, mass violence, etc.) and substance abuse across the age spectrum following COVID. The pandemic was brutal for everyone, but I think our youth (comprising our primary client base) were hit extremely hard. They were shut down and deprived of growth and developmental opportunities in multiple areas: social/emotional, academic, athletic, etc. They could not be kids as everything they were supposed to do was stripped away from them (School, social interactions, community, sports). Growth occurs outside the comfort zone when we are challenged, pushed, and encouraged to face obstacles and to view failure not as the end all but as an important tool for progress to reach new heights. For the majority of people, when we are not pushed to achieve and progress, we become complacent, and thus, intangibles like drive/passion, work ethic, and the ability to receive constructive criticism all tend to diminish. It is easy to train an athlete who is extremely passionate about their sport and embraces the work it takes to improve. It is substantially more difficult when that passion is not there. We are working hard and adapting to reach the best, impact, inspire, and empower this generation.
- COVID Relief Packages: Although COVID relief packages were intended to help businesses, we could only qualify for or receive a little aid. For example, we could not qualify for PPP because our payroll at the time was not a high enough percentage of our monthly expenses (compared to rent/lease, loan payments, utilities, etc.). I was trying to do things the right way by not paying myself to pay off loans, but this backfired on us significantly in obtaining forgivable PPP and ERC assistance.
- Staffing: We strive to be the best at sports performance and rehab, but even more so, we want to be the best at empowering and speaking life to our athletes and clients. Finding suitable people/trainers was difficult initially but has been especially difficult following COVID. Training is a difficult job with demanding hours. To be successful requires not only enormous energy and mentorship on the floor but also a lot of behind-the-scenes effort and follow-up. It’s taken more time than anticipated, but I am incredibly grateful and excited about the staff that we have assembled who are excited about our mission to pour into our clients.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our mission here at Altius Performance and Rehabilitation has always been to be a culture that promotes character, attitude, effort, and coachability; our goal is to inspire, develop, equip, and empower athletes of all ages for greatness in sport and life through the delivery of evidence-and-encouragement-based sports performance and rehabilitation programs We truly strive to be the best at sports performance, training, and rehab. Still, we strive even more to be the best at earning and developing authentic relationships and truly speaking life into our people. As a result, the Altius community has grown to be special. Our commitment goes beyond the confines of our facility, ensuring that the benefits of our services extend seamlessly into the everyday lives of our clients. We provide top-notch in-house programs, including physical therapy, performance training, and wellness initiatives. We also strive to equip our athletes/clients with the knowledge and tools that translate beyond our walls into real life. Our experts work collaboratively with clients, offering tailored guidance, exercise regimens, and lifestyle recommendations that can easily be incorporated into daily routines. Whether our clients are recovering effectively and efficiently from an injury, desiring to enhance athletic performance, or simply striving for overall well-being, the Altius mission is to empower our community to take control of the entire health journey within our facility and in the broader context of your lifestyle.
Services we provide:
- 1-on-1 Private Training: 1-on-1’s maximize performance by addressing the individualized needs of each specific athlete/client with a performance trainer. Full biomechanical movement analyses, goal-setting, sport-specified movement pattern coaching, strength training, power training, nutrition consulting, and extended program design are built for each athlete. Athlete progress and goals are regularly assessed and addressed. These sessions are arranged around the athlete/client’s schedule with an individualized performance specialist.
- Semi-private training is a partner or small group training that effectively addresses the needs of multiple athletes by segmenting them within age and ability-specific small groups. Like 1-on-1 training, small group training offers program design based on group biomechanics analysis, overall group needs, and sport-specific movement modalities. The athlete/trainer ratio is kept to a maximum of 6:1. These sessions are arranged with an individual performance specialist.
- Adult training services are offered with both personal training and group class options. Regardless of age or ability, Altius Adult is for you! Our trainers will meet you where you are and provide the workouts, education, resources, and encouragement needed to help you become strong! Whether your goal is to lean, lose weight, bulk up, achieve general fitness, or prepare for a competition, we can help! Our Adult class community is enjoyable and welcoming, and we would love for you to try us! The first week is free, so there is no risk to you :).
- Team Training consists of strength, power, explosiveness, speed/movement mechanics, agility, flexibility, speed, form, and balance. Team training sessions address team tendencies and weaknesses to optimize efficiency in sport-specific movements. Our Altius Performance Specialists will design and implement a detailed performance schedule to meet team goals and objectives while maximizing the performance and mechanics of each individual.
- Altius Speed sessions are geared primarily toward our younger athletes (lower and middle school) and offer drop-in convenience to deliver all the fundamental components required to build the successful athlete. ALTIUS SPEED sessions exist to teach and empower athletes to move effectively and efficiently to maximize speed, quickness, power, and injury resiliency through evidence and encouragement-based instruction that will show on the field or court. As with our adult class, the first week is free, and we would love to meet you!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.altiusmn.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/altiusmn
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/altiusmn
- Other: https://linktr.ee/altiusperformancemn
Image Credits
Danny Yuan: @dannyfantastic
