See the SwimEx tank at 1:02 in this 60 Minutes piece about the beautiful $3 million locker room built by new Jaguars owner Shad Khan.

SwimEx. Go with the Flow.

A Montreal Canadiens player exercises in the team's SwimEx 900T

What do the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Lakers, Montreal Canadiens and Green Bay Packers have in common, besides the fact that they’re all professional sports franchises?
Answer: They all have SwimEx pools in their training facilities.
These teams, along with nearly 50 other professional franchises and more than 80 college sports programs, use the strong, deep current generated by SwimEx’s unique paddlewheel technology to provide physical therapy to their elite athletes.
Graham Rynbend, Head Athletic Trainer for the Montreal Canadiens, said the team’s SwimEx 900T equipped with an integrated treadmill is used daily to treat injured players during the hockey season.
“We put the athletes into the pool before they’re able to do any other exercises. Even if they’re on crutches, we can get them into the pool and get them moving and exercising, which speeds up their recovery,” Graham said.
Prior to installing the SwimEx, the club had only a hot tub for aqua-based therapy, Graham said. “The SwimEx is by far the most important therapy modality that we’ve added,” he said.
With an overall depth of 66 inches (167.6cm), the 900T features a second floor level creating anywhere from 42 inches to 54 inches (107cm to 137cm) in water depth. Therapy patients can utilize shallow rehab stations as well as deep-water exercises. The optional integrated treadmills give athletes the ability to begin running against the SwimEx’s “wall of water” without bearing their full weight.
Ed Lacerte, head athletic trainer of the Boston Celtics, said the deep well and workstations in the team’s SwimEx 700T provide an effective mixture of therapeutic options for recovering athletes.
“Our deep water well is particularly important to us. It allows for a totally non-weight-bearing environment. Utilizing the pool’s multiple water depths and various workstations, athletes of different sizes and heights and in all stages of injury recovery can run, swim, or complete prescribed therapeutic exercise programs against the current,” Ed said.
The ability to avoid placing stress on an injured joint while rehabbing in the strong current provided by SwimEx pools worked out well when Percy Harvin, a star running back for the 2009 national champion Florida Gators, suffered a high ankle sprain and associated hairline fracture. University of Florida assistant athletic training Kyle Johnston said Harvin said the team’s SwimEx 700T played a crucial role in Harvin’s recovery.
“We used the SwimEx to help him regain his range of motion and strength through active plantar/dorsi flexion and inversion/eversion exercises with the foot attachment. It was used to unload the joint as we progressed him into jogging/running, and we used it to maintain his cardiovascular fitness and introduce him to explosive movements through agility exercises with the aid of the water’s buoyancy,” Kyle said.
The 130-plus pro and college teams with SwimEx pools in their training facilities feature athletes of all heights and weights who suffer injuries of all kinds. But they share one thing: Reliance on their SwimEx therapeutic pools to help their athletes recover from injuries.
SwimEx. Go with the Flow.

The Yankees have been a longtime SwimEx fan, and according to NBC News York, the private clubhouse is a cozy place to lounge and dodge reporters:

Players drove right into the stadium, without having to interact with fans. The Yankees clubhouse stretches from home plate to right field and includes a swimming pool, SwimEx spa, dining area and lounge.

 

 

 

Since the Miami Marlins unveiled their new home, the park is winning rave review from fans.  The 37,000 seat sports venue has a retractable roof, a 360-degree promenade level, parking spots reserved for fans, and an innovative software program that allows ticket holder to get a 3-D look at their seats prior to the big game.

But what fans may not see — is what’s going on behind the scenes at the state-of-the-art building.

The Marlins now have a new clubhouse to train in, complete with one of our largest SwimEx pool models. The Sun Sentinel called the new workout facility a breakthrough for the on-field hopes of this long-suffering franchise:

“Back at Sun Life, a line typically formed for the one working whirlpool.

Here, four Marlins can fit in the so-called plunge pool at a time — “and be very comfortable,” said Claude Delorme, the Marlins official who oversaw all aspects of stadium construction.

There’s a SwimEx pool in the Marlins’ 18,000-square-foot clubhouse now; that’s 50-percent larger than their old digs.” (Source: Sun Sentinel)

The Marlins have been a longtime “fan” of SwimEx, and we can’t wait to catch a glimpse of their new pool in action. Good Luck!

Watch the video of your favorite pro athletes using SwimEx.

2 November 2010

Regular swimmers are less like to catch a cold this winter and will suffer less severe symptoms, according to new research.

In a report published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, scientists from North Carolina found adults physically active on five or more days a week suffered from cold-like symptoms almost half as frequently as those exercising once a week or less.

“Exercise like swimming is fantastic for reducing stress which helps maintain a healthy body.”

The study, which tracked 1,002 adults between 18 and 85-years old over a 12-week period, also found the severity of the symptoms fell by 41% for those who felt fittest and 31% for those who were the most physically active.

The researchers said the results were due to a temporary rise in immune system cells every time the body exercises which led to an increased resistance to viruses and bacteria.

Aerobic exercise and perceived fitness were the most significant factors measured while eating fruit was also linked with a lower frequency of colds.

And ASA Exercise Scientist Ian Freeman admitted eating a meal rich in protein and fibrous carbohydrates immediately after exercise was the best way to maximise immune function.

“Your immune system actually dips during exercise but then raises to a higher level over time,” said Freeman. “Exercise like swimming is fantastic for reducing stress which helps maintain a healthy body.

“But eating the right foods at the right time is also important. Lean protein is excellent for boosting your immune system function and fresh fruit and vegetables will also certainly help.”

To find out more about how a healthy diet can improve your performance in the pool and out, click here.

Aquatic immersion has been reported to produce a significant number of physiological changes in blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV), autonomic nervous system (ANS), and core temperature in young healthy subjects. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of water immersion in younger and older populations, determining whether there are age related differences for ANS regulation measures in cool, neutral, and warm water. Vitals and ANS measures were collected from two samples representing different age-groups in the general population. It was found that water immersion produced a significant number of important physiologic responses such as decreased blood pressure and increased SVB during the warm water cycle. These changes are important components of ANS bioregulation and clearly seem to be influenced by water temperature during immersion. There was a statistically significant relationship between ANS activity manifested by heart rate variability and water temperatures.

http://bit.ly/aiDIM3

Injured Athletes

Some form of rest is often the treatment recommendation for an injured athlete. The rest may be relative rest, in which the athlete reduces the intensity of training or activity, or it may be absolute rest, during which the athlete performs no activity. In either case, rest for an athlete can be problematic. The research of Coyle et al. (1986 and 1984) showed that a significant decline in cardiovascular fitness can result from as little as 3 wk of inactivity. A 14 to 16% decline in maximal oxygen consumption has been documented after 6 wk of rest (Coyle et al., 1986 and 1984). Given that 3 to 6 wk is not an inordinately long period and certainly within the realm of the time needed for recovery from a musculoskeletal injury, the loss of cardiovascular fitness needs to be considered. An athlete may rehabilitate an acute injury only to find that he or she returns to the sport with a significant loss of conditioning. Fortunately, the aquatic environment can help to mitigate some, if not all, of the potential fitness loss.

read more http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/aquatic-training-programs-benefit-injured-athletes

To learn more about Stoke City visit their official website, www.stokecityfc.com.

“I own stock in Apple Computer because I think it’s the best computer available and it’s what I use. Likewise, I feel SwimEx is the best counter-current pool available,” Mark says. “I became a SwimEx dealer because the chance to be involved in a business that offers an excellent product that is an important purchase for the customer’s lifestyle is attractive to me.”

Mark’s first encounter with SwimEx was installing one in his own home. When he discovered a lap pool would not fit into his building plans, he started surfing the Internet and found SwimEx’s counter-current technology, quality materials and rugged construction. He chose the 500-OS, since he’s over six feet tall and appreciates the extra depth, added seats and running pad.

“I also feel it’s the most cost-effective of the residential pools. Price-wise, it was comparable to the quote I received from Endless Pools here in Japan, so it felt like getting three times the quality or more for roughly the same price. Endless always reminds me of something I’d come up with if I was told to go to the hardware store and build my own pool,” Mark observed.

His partner, athletic trainer Koichi Yasuda, uses it for aquatic therapy education and programs in their joint venture. Mark uses it for exercise, a little rehab, a sometime showroom, a little stress relief, and occasionally as fun when relatives come to visit.

“Since I play basketball with relatively reckless abandon, I’m often injuring my ankles, knees, fingers and shoulders, so I’m sure I’ll be constantly rehabbing ‘something.’ Today it’s my knee,” he laughed. “The convenience of an in-home pool allows me to use it to reduce whatever stress accumulates at work (my office is in my home) in addition to more regular exercise with less joint stress that, of course, can only bring positive results.”

Once delivered, installation of the one-piece pool proved easy enough. “The electrical and plumbing connections to the pre-prepared supply and drainage took all of one and a half days, even though the installers had no experience with a pool,” he says.

SwimEx Serendipity

Mark’s partner Koichi was flying to the U.S. to attend the annual NATA trainer’s conference and happened to be on the same plane as Kazuhiro Kiyohara, a player for Japan’s Orix Buffaloes professional baseball team. Kiyohara’s trainer was an old friend of Koichi’s, and he explained that the player was on his way to a consult at the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic.

“Kazuhiro Kiyohara was undoubtedly the most famous ballplayer in Japanese baseball, but he had injured his knee a few seasons ago and had never been able to rehabilitate it properly, with two unsuccessful comeback attempts,” Mark explains. “My partner introduced them to SwimEx as a rehab tool. When Kiyohara discovered that both the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic and the Dodgers used a SwimEx, and when the consulting doctor naturally suggested using it as the focal point of his rehabilitation, Kiyohara felt fate was at work – his words – and he decided to purchase a 700-OT from us.”

The story was picked up by numerous media outlets in Japan, as Kiyohara’s fans hoped to see him in action once again. The SwimEx was installed at the Orix Buffaloes’ training facilities and, within six months from the start of rehab, at the age of 41, Kiyohara was already practicing with the farm team, hitting his first home runs in two years, and recently had his first hit, extra base hit, and RBIs upon rejoining the major league club.

“We’ve had our SwimEx in Pittsburgh for about ten years,” says team trainer Erwin Valencia, M.E.D., P.T., A.T.C., C.S.C.S., P.E.S. “We chose SwimEx for our training facility in Florida for two reasons. Having one in Florida means we don’t have to send injured players back to Pittsburgh, so they are able to concentrate on getting better, not on travel. Second, players are used to the one in Pittsburgh, so this gives them a sense of familiarity. If a player is hurt this gives them a comfort level and it offers a continuity of protocols for me.”

Valencia appreciates the SwimEx’s patented laminar flow that delivers a wall of water. “The water pressure is consistent and strong, it’s not just jets like other pools. It’s great for deep water running and the work stations allow for a comprehensive workout.”

In fact, SwimEx is the only aquatic therapy pool with a current strong enough to hold a body up for 45 degree running. The swimmer or therapist can control and change the pool’s counter-current on the fly from inside or outside the pool for multiple intensity levels. The integrated treadmill also has an adjustable speed for varying workouts.

Major League baseball can lead to major league injuries both acute and cumulative. The Pirates use their SwimEx to get players back on the field as fast as possible.

“In baseball, we see a lot of shoulder injuries and rotator cuff strains, plus lower extremity injuries such as calf and hamstring strains, ankle injuries, even low back pain,” Valencia says.

SwimEx aquatic therapy allows players to rest and rehab overused muscles in the nearly weightless environment of chest-deep water without risk of further re-injury.

“The buoyancy of aquatic therapy lets us start running form therapy right away. As soon as we get a player into the pool he’s running within one to two days. Compare that with land-based therapy where you have to start them on the bike, if they can tolerate that you move on to elliptical, then treadmill, then finally back to running on the field,” Valencia explains.

Speed of recovery is a major benefit, Valencia reports. “It’s scientifically proven that water adds compressive force, which increases hydrostatic pressure and gets blood flowing faster, promoting healing. For injuries, I can challenge the body a bit more without the pounding, which always causes issues. You can do the same amount of work but get extra benefit.”

Valencia says the workstations are beneficial as well. Sitting on the benches enables calf exercise if the player cannot stand. Players can also perform upper body and core exercises, using the water’s resistance as they sit next to the flow to maximize benefit. Many trainers add swimboards, paddles or water dumbbells to increase resistance and build strength.

Valencia advises any team or trainer considering a SwimEx to actually get in one and do the workout. “Get Dave Brennan or Rick McAvoy (SwimEx Educational Coordinators) to show you the how to use each workstation. You’ll get a better sense of its worth when you can feel it for yourself.”