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Inside Apex Performance Facility
There’s a certain kind of building you feel the second you walk in. No chaos. No wandering. No “kinda-sorta” training. Just intent.
That’s the vibe at Apex Performance Facility in downtown Phoenix, a few minutes from the Diamondbacks’ stadium. Athletes don’t show up here to “work out.” They show up to train—with numbers, expectations, and a standard that doesn’t care what level you’re at. High school, college, pro… the message is the same: show up, lock in, get better.
The person holding that line is Wes Budge, a sports performance coach who built Apex around two things: (1) culture that demands consistency and (2) systems that produce measurable change. Sprint work. Velocity-based training. GPS tracking. Resisted running. Strength blocks that actually build robust athletes.
And in the last year, one tool has become a surprisingly important part of that system: NerveOTX direct current neuro therapy—specifically the DX500, the portable device that now lives in Wes’s backpack and shows up at field sessions, warm-ups, and recovery routines.
This is the Apex blueprint: how Wes went from injury-riddled athlete to elite performance coach, why his facility is sprint-heavy in a baseball world that used to avoid sprinting, and how NerveOTX direct current neuro therapy is now integrated into modern sports performance training for NFL and MLB athletes.
From small-town Texas to a Phoenix performance hub
Wes was born in Dublin, Texas—a town of about 2,500 people—then moved to Arizona when he was 10. His earliest fuel wasn’t hype; it was obsession with improvement. He played community college baseball at Scottsdale Community College, but his athletic career got derailed by the kind of setbacks that force you to either quit or evolve: two ACL tears, one in high school and one in college.
The rehab experiences didn’t inspire confidence. They were part of what pushed him toward the “behind the scenes” process—the weight room discipline, the training structure, the habits that actually keep athletes available. He originally wanted to go into physical therapy, but life and school fatigue steered him toward performance coaching instead. What never changed was his fascination with the process of getting better.
That process became his career.
After working in sports performance for years, Wes and his partner Justin opened their own facility—first in Mesa, then moving to their current downtown Phoenix location in December 2023. The move was a turning point: bigger space, sharper identity, better location, and more room to expand the Apex standard.
What Apex Performance Facility actually does
A lot of gyms say “sports performance.” Apex Performance Facility is more specific: offseason development for high-level athletes, especially MLB offseason training and NFL offseason training.
Baseball is a major window for Apex. Players often arrive in October, sometimes before the World Series ends, and stay through February until spring training. NFL players come in chunks depending on OTAs and camp schedules. The mission is consistent: build bigger, faster, stronger, more resilient athletes in the offseason, then help them maintain during the season.
Wes is blunt about one misconception: the offseason isn’t a vacation. Not for the athletes who last. This is the time where you “beat them to the ground a little bit” (his words) to build the capacity that lets them survive the season. In-season is maintenance. Offseason is construction.
That’s why Apex doesn’t major in fluff.
The culture piece: accountability that isn’t optional
Before the sprint training, before the tech, before any device—Wes talks about culture.
At Apex Performance Facility, accountability is built into the environment. There’s a group chat of athletes. If a guy is slacking, skipping, or failing to hit numbers, he doesn’t just hear it from a coach, he hears it from the entire room. It creates a “we’re doing this together” culture that feels like a team even when players are in different sports.
That matters because elite athletes still respond to the same thing that made them great in the first place: standards, teammates, and measurable goals.
And Apex is built on measurable goals.
Sprint training: why Apex makes pitchers run like sprinters
If there’s one thing that makes Apex Performance Facility stand out, it’s this: sprint training is non-negotiable.
Wes sprints his athletes at least two times per week. Baseball players sometimes roast him for it—“Is this a track club?”—but the point is deeper than conditioning. Sprinting is one of the highest central nervous system outputs you can create without actually pitching or playing. For pitchers especially, that matters because pitching is a high CNS output skill.
In other words: the nervous system has to be fast if the athlete wants to be fast.
Apex also avoids “dumb running”—running without intention, without targets, without meaningful output. Instead, Wes uses tools that force intent:
- GPS units to track speed and ensure athletes hit required numbers
- Velocity-based training (VBT) to measure bar speed and match load to intent
- A resisted sprint machine (“T-Apex,” similar to a 1080 Sprint concept) to create purposeful resistance and improve output
This isn’t cardio. This is sports performance training built around speed, power, and repeatable athletic output.
And the athletes feel it. Wes even described a first-year MLB guy who didn’t sprint previously and ended up saying sprint work became the part he looked forward to, because once athletes have targets, they buy into the chase.
That’s Apex in a sentence: make it measurable, and the athlete will compete.
Finding the “edge” without chasing every trend
Wes sees a constant parade of people trying to sell the next miracle modality, especially because his facility trains high-profile athletes. He’s honest: he can be skeptical and defensive about new products because people often want access to his athletes more than they care about his outcomes.
So when NerveOTX direct current neuro therapy showed up at his door, his first reaction was essentially: “I’ve used stim before. I’m good.”
Then he tried it.
The first NerveOTX session: why he changed his mind fast
Wes has lived with intermittent knee pain from two ACL reconstructions. When he tried a knee protocol—targeting areas like VMO and tibialis—he didn’t claim it “healed” anything, but he felt something that made him pause: he could get into ranges he normally felt hesitant about, and the knee felt better moving through those positions.
That’s the moment skepticism turns into curiosity. Because in performance coaching, you can argue opinions all day, but outcomes don’t lie.
Wes did what every good coach does when something works: he tested it on himself, then wanted to test it on everyone.
He brought the device in, ran a trial (starting with a larger unit), and had his in-house PT use it with clients. He used it with athletes, including NFL players dealing with chronic aches. And the “general consensus” was simple: it works—at minimum, it improves range of motion and changes perceived pain quickly.
That’s enough to earn a spot in a real system.
Why the DX500 changed the game for Apex Performance Facility
The biggest shift for Wes wasn’t just direct current—it was portability.
When the DX500 entered his routine, it became something he could use everywhere: in the gym, on the field, before sprint sessions, before throwing work, and as a quick primer when a player shows up stiff or “not firing.” He literally brings the DX500 in his backpack and uses it with athletes for 3–5 minutes before field sessions to get everything “working.”
That’s why the DX500 fits so well inside sports performance training. It doesn’t require a full clinic setup. It lives inside the real environment where athletes perform.
And because it’s accessible and portable, it’s now the kind of tool you’ll start seeing in dugouts, bullpens, and training rooms—used pre and post as part of performance and recovery routines.
At Apex Performance Facility, the DX500 isn’t an accessory. It’s part of the standard.
The foot bath protocol: the “cheat code” for people on their feet
Wes is on his feet all day. He says his feet are constantly beat up. So when he talks about the foot bath protocol with NerveOTX direct current neuro therapy, it doesn’t sound like marketing—it sounds like relief.
He described stepping out of the foot bath and feeling like his feet “don’t exist” anymore—in a good way. The constant ache disappears, and he gets that floating, pain-free feeling that makes you remember what normal should feel like.
That’s why he calls it one of his favorites. And it’s a reminder that recovery tools aren’t only for pros. Coaches, parents, and everyday “athletes of life” benefit just as much.
The concussion protocol and the nervous system effect
Wes also experimented heavily when he first got the DX500 because he wanted to understand how it felt before recommending it. He ran the concussion protocol a couple times per week, not because he had major symptoms, but because he noticed something subtle: his “mentals” felt better and his body felt better afterward, like the current traveled through the system.
That’s consistent with how nervous-system-based tools are often experienced: not just isolated muscle changes, but a broader sense of system regulation.
And it aligns perfectly with why Apex is sprint-heavy: the nervous system is the engine.
The “little things” advice every young athlete should steal
When asked what he’d tell his younger self, Wes didn’t give a flashy answer. He said the same thing every durable pro eventually learns:
Do the little things. Mobility. Recovery. Consistency. Find modalities that actually work for you. Because eventually the body breaks down, and you have to be able to keep it moving.
That advice is the connective tissue between sports performance training and NerveOTX direct current neuro therapy. You can’t out-train poor recovery. You can’t sprint at high output if the body is locked up and compensating. And you can’t stay available if you treat recovery like an afterthought.
Wes’s athletes don’t train like it’s 1998. They don’t wait until January to get serious. They don’t shut it down and hope two weeks of panic-work saves them. The offseason is a construction phase. The daily recovery work supports that construction.
That’s modern performance.
8:07: a simple ritual that explains everything
Near the end of the conversation, Wes revealed a tiny habit that says everything about how he lives: he has an alarm set for 8:07 every day.
It goes off and says: “Time to be great.”
Why 8:07? Because there’s no wrong time to be great.
That’s not just a motivational line. It’s how Apex runs. It’s how Wes trains athletes. It’s how he evaluates tools like the DX500. It’s how he built Apex Performance Facility into a standard instead of a gym.
It’s a reminder that greatness is not one moment. It’s a daily decision—made in sprint sessions, in mobility work, in recovery habits, and in the willingness to stay open-minded enough to try something new… even when you think you’ve already seen it all.
Want to train with intent instead of guessing? Build a real system with sports performance training, consistent sprint training, and a recovery routine that includes NerveOTX direct current neuro therapy—especially the DX500 and the foot bath protocol—so you can stay fast, stay durable, and stay available.
