Swimex.  Go with the Flow.

Here’s a video tour of the beautiful new basketball suite guided by UK basketball coach John Calipari.

SwimEx. Go with the Flow.

“It really helps with their balance rehabilitation,” Pam says. “We have them walk the length of the pool, and we work on their gait pattern. Then we use the current to challenge them a bit. Being in the water helps them get over their fear of falling.”

Watch Pam demonstrate some techniques and exercises.

SwimEx. Go with the Flow.

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.

Case in point: Top-ranked high school volleyball player Kristi Rhead, who broke her ankle while surfing this summer.

“Kristi suffered a severe break which required open reduction internal fixation, which means they had to surgically fixate the break with hardware,” explains MountainTop owner Preston Hall, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS. “She was non-weight bearing for six weeks.”

So Preston set up a rehabilitation regimen for Kristi using the center’s SwimEx 600T. Initially, he had Kristi work on strength and range of motion exercises in a non-weight-bearing fashion utilizing the SwimEx’s powerful paddlewheel current and the deep well. Then, as Kristi’s ability to bear weight improved, Preston moved her onto the treadmill and onto the pool’s work stations for exercises focusing on weight bearing, dynamic movement and explosiveness.

“The SwimEx allowed us to be a lot more progressive in Kristi’s treatment, which meant she could return to the team in time for volleyball season,” Preston says.

The SwimEx at MountainTop is the first 600T model fitted with an integrated treadmill to be sold in the United States. The pool offers trainers a wide assortment of treatment options, with its front-to-back work stations providing water depths of 48 to 60 inches. Preston has used the pool to treat a wide variety of physical conditions, such as pelvic fractures, tibia or fibular fractures, hip and knee replacements, degenerative spine issues and post-op spine issues, ACLs, and rotator-cuff recoveries.

“We’ve had a lot of patients in there in the first few months,” Preston says. “The pool allows the patients to make great progress.”

Kristi found time between school, homework, rehab and volleyball games to send a grateful message regarding her treatment by Preston and the SwimEx 600T.

“SwimEx has played an extremely important role in my early recovery from a broken ankle! Before I could bear weight, I was able to build my muscles and stay in shape through the resistance from the underwater current…with the help of SwimEx and my wonderful physical therapist Preston Hall, I will be back playing volleyball more quickly than I thought to be possible!”

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.

This three-day conference and expo brings together rehabilitation professionals from multiple disciplines, creating an educational and networking experience like no other.  Aquatic therapy is always a hot topic, and our staff will be on hand to provide insight on our most popular pool models and latest state-of-the-art technology.

This is a great opportunity for therapists to also set up a private pool demonstration at our Fall River facility, a mere hour away from the Seaport World Trade Center, and a great opportunity for therapists to get a closer look at our pools. Call 800-877-7946 to schedule an appointment in advance.

“A company in the city’s industrial park is expanding its market in a big way.

SwimEx Inc. announced Friday that it is entering the Chinese market with the sale of its largest therapeutic swimming pool to a hospital in Shanghai. A manufacturer of state-of-the art therapeutic swimming pools, SwimEx is shipping its 1000T model with an integrated treadmill and two small plunge pools. The pool is being sent this month.”

Read the article from The Fall River Herald: 

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x1098661628/Fall-Rivers-SwimEx-sending-therapeutic-pool-to-China

Take a look at some of the photo of SwimEx President Mark Pearson alongside Vice President of Sales Suzanne Marchetti, Fall River Mayor William Flanagan and Fall River Vice President of Economic Development Ken Fiola during the news conference:

• The aquatic pool is handicap accessible with the use of our lift system. An easy enter/exit system makes for a comfortable transition into and out of the pool.
• The Hamilton office boasts a SwimEx 1000 T pool with current generating capabilities (.1 to 10 mph of current) to make rehabilitation more complete.
• Depths are 4-6 feet with stairs or lift entry/exit into and out of the pool.

To learn more about the SwimEx 1000T, click here.

Check out some of these great pictures of patients in action:

Core exercises are an important part of an overall fitness routine, leading to improved balance and stability.  It also helps to train the muscles in your pelvis, hips, lower back and abdomen to work in tandem.  There are a variety of exercises one can perform in a pool to help strengthen the core muscles.

Here’s a blast from the past. Back in 1987, SwimEx was featured in Sports Illustrated magazine for reinventing the wheel (or paddle wheel) and winning praise for designing a cutting edge swim spa for top athletes. Here’s the article titled “Staying In The Swim At Home”. A fun read:

“When it comes to distance training indoors, runners on treadmills and cyclists on stationary bikes no longer have a technological edge over their aquatic counterparts. The concept of swimming in place—explored by enterprising spa designers—has been refined by a company called SwimEx, Inc.

In the late 1970s several spa builders began lengthening the typical hot tub or spa and adding large hydrotherapy jets that produced streams of water and air strong enough to hold a swimmer in place. Twelve to 18 feet long, 7 to 8 feet wide and selling for as little as $6,500, “swim spas” are now manufactured by a dozen or so companies across the country. They cost far less than a full-sized indoor pool, but they also have their drawbacks. Most notable are the teeth-rattling turbulence and the disappointingly narrow stream of resistance that most of the jets produce. My experience with the typical swim spa is that you need unwavering concentration, tight goggles and half an hour of practice just to get the hang of it.

The SwimEx pool is different. Made of stainless steel and carrying a hefty $20,000 price tag, it is 12 feet long, 67 feet wide and 4 feet deep, holds 3,200 gallons of water and operates on a simple principle. “The secret,” says Stanley Charren, a Cambridge, Mass., entrepreneurial engineer who was one of the three founding partners, “is to move a lot of water at low pressure instead of a small amount at high pressure.”

There are no jets to be found in the SwimEx, only five-foot-wide grates on either end below the waterline. An enclosed paddle wheel at the back draws water off the surface and propels it through a channel underneath the pool to the front, where it flows back out. In contrast to a swim spa’s small area of churning water, nearly the entire surface of the SwimEx is in motion, like a gentle stream.

Swimming in place against the steady flow is as natural as doing laps in a pool, only better. Since you never reach the wall, you don’t break your rhythm to turn every 25 yards, and you get a better workout in a shorter time. With the turn of a knob, the speed of the flow can easily be adjusted from less than 1 mph to close to 4 mph, a range good enough for all but the fastest competitors.

Charren, 62, has a chronically bad back, and his orthopedist suggested that he take up swimming. But he was soon discouraged because it was taking him two hours to swim for half an hour, with travel and locker-room time figured in. Charren tried a swim spa and was disappointed. He inquired about indoor lap pools and was told that it would cost him more than $100,000 to build one. He recalls, “My wife said, ‘Let’s use the money to buy a condo where there’s a pool.’ ”

The Charrens bought the condo, but Stanley kept thinking about an aquatic treadmill. In 1984 he and Sy Mermelstein, a friend and fellow engineer, went to work and, after 17 years of what Mermelstein calls “the classic garage operation” and several hundred thousand dollars, the first SwimEx was ready.

The pool is as well suited to beginners as it is to advanced swimmers, so it should prove valuable as both a teaching and coaching aid. Tillotson-Pearson Inc., a Warren, R.I.—based company that builds fiberglass boats, purchased SwimEx in December and began promoting it, but even before that, the small staff was fielding inquiries from health clubs, chiropractors and corporate fitness centers. But the majority of the potential SwimEx market may well be private consumers—those who want to swim year-round but, like Charren, consider the cost of enclosing a pool prohibitive. Some may not be ready to spend $20,000 on a personal-sized pool, but there will be a fiberglass model sometime this spring that will sell for roughly $14,000.

Now you can put a SwimEx next to your treadmill and stationary bicycle and train for your next triathlon without ever leaving the house.

Jim Harmon once held the Pine Bush (N.Y.) high school record in the 100-yard butterfly.” (source: SI)

According to Nicole McLain, DPT, “the pool provides a fun, safe alternative or addition to land based therapy. We can work on things like strengthening, stretching, balance, agility/coordination, swimming, diving under water, jumping and other gross motor skills. The warm water is soothing to the patient and allows for reduced muscle tone for children with high tone from neurologic origins or from muscle tightness.”

The SwimEx pool enables temperature and flow adjustments, helping to create ideal conditions for children, “It can be soothing and provide a sense of safety for some patients,” says Rosa Garcia, Pediatric Occupational Therapist at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. (Therapists provide a sensory assessment for patients prior to their first swim in order to gauge gravitational insecurities or tactile processing issues.) The unique paddlewheel technology created by SwimEx offers the widest, smoothest, deepest and strongest water counter current in the industry. The paddlewheel “pulls” the water rather than pushes, and generates a smooth wall of water extending up to 30 inches (76cm) in depth.

“Building that sense of security and comfort is necessary before we can start working with other skills in the pool. Therapy in the water also helps by providing a fun environment were the kids work hard without “knowing” they are. For most patients with body awareness limitations or those who need deep and/or proprioceptive input to be sensory organized, the movement in the water as well as the effort they have to put to complete their exercises improves and helps meet these needs,” says Garcia.

The findings from clinical studies suggest that clinicians are observing multiple benefits from the use of aquatic therapy for children with an ASD in many areas of function, which provides support for the use of aquatic therapy as an effective treatment option. Results of increased swim skills, motor skills, social skills, and water safety, as well as decreases in sensitivity to sensory stimuli are similar to the findings of Vonder Hulls et al. (2006) (Source)

McLain says the SwimEx pool offers a variety of features that traditional pools lack, “The aquatic environment provides a different and varying sensory environment for children with sensory integration difficulty. The colored areas  for different floor heights are also good visual cues for children with difficulty following complex directions and enable them to work on agility and coordination with less assistance from the therapist.”

About Swim Ex:

SwimEx specializes in the design and manufacturing of superior fiberglass rehab and exercise swim spa pools for home and professional use. Our focus is centered upon controlling the therapeutic properties of water used for aquatic therapy to provide a nearly stress-free environment for rehabilitation. SwimEx is dedicated to building the finest swim spa swimming pools and rehabilitation equipment for home, sports, therapy and healthcare.

For more information on SwimEx, visit www.swimex.com

Media Contact: Julie Ruditzky, Julie@publicitycrew.com, 860-334-4774

Her first experience with a swim-in-place pool was during a visit to Hong Kong fifteen years ago, “I loved it!” But back home, Karen had a tough time incorporating swimming into her daily exercise routine. ”I didn’t like going to the gym pool or dealing with dirty locker rooms. Meanwhile, the town’s public didn’t offer many open swim hours.”

Frustrated with limited lap pool options, she started researching in-home therapy pools. Karen says SwimEx was the most appealing brand due to its quality and smooth current, “one of the advantages with a SwimEx was the quality and the width of the current. Another plus, I don’t have to bother with a lot of harsh chemicals and ventilation.”

Aquatic therapy paid off quickly for Karen after she tore her (ACL) anterior cruciate ligament during a skiing accident. Tears almost always require surgery, but Karen was determined to avoid going under the knife, “I decided not to undergo surgery and rehab it. I found that swimming exercised it enough and my leg felt really good.”

Today, she alternates her daily swim with her favorite exercises: breaststroke, freestyle and running. According to Vice President of Sales Suzanne Marchetti, she joins the growing number of retired homeowners turning to SwimEx for a stress-free workout.

Because she loves her SwimEx so much, Karen recently purchased her second pool and installed it in her new home.

About Swim Ex:

SwimEx specializes in the design and manufacturing of superior fiberglass rehab and exercise swim spa pools for home and professional use. Our focus is centered upon controlling the therapeutic properties of water used for aquatic therapy to provide a nearly stress-free environment for rehabilitation. SwimEx is dedicated to building the finest swim spa swimming pools and rehabilitation equipment for home, sports, therapy and healthcare.

For more information on SwimEx, visit www.swimex.com

Media Contact: Julie Ruditzky, Julie@publicitycrew.com, 860-334-4774

The Salt Lake Community College Physical Therapist Assistant program utilizes the pool in the following ways:

• Student instruction for both physical therapist assistant and occupational therapy assistant students
• Aquatic therapy interventions for the pro bono on-site clinic physical therapy patients.

Program Director Diana Ploeger says the SwimEx pool is a great teaching resource and enables uninsured patients to receive high-tech care, “students appreciate the opportunity to implement what they have learned in class through individual practice and providing aquatic therapy interventions under the direct supervision of a physical therapist. Physical therapy clinic patients are pleased with the opportunity to receive treatments utilizing aquatic therapy as well as land-based techniques.”
“The pool is used in a variety of ways to meet the individual needs of patients who are served by the pro bono clinic. For a back patient, the deep end is utilized with some ankle weights and swim noodle in order to provide gentle spinal distraction. For bariatric clients, the pool is utilized for aerobic exercise with less weight bearing on lower extremity joints. For a patient with balance issues, the water and some resistance provides challenges not possible during land-based therapy.”

About Swim Ex:

SwimEx specializes in the design and manufacturing of superior fiberglass rehab and exercise swim spa pools for home and professional use. Our focus is centered upon controlling the therapeutic properties of water used for aquatic therapy to provide a nearly stress-free environment for rehabilitation. SwimEx is dedicated to building the finest swim spa swimming pools and rehabilitation equipment for home, sports, therapy and healthcare.

For more information on SwimEx, visit www.swimex.com

Media Contact: Julie Ruditzky, Julie@publicitycrew.com, 860-334-4774

Renee Mills, Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner Director of Rehabilitation Services at VCA/Veterinary Referral Associates Gaithersburg, MD