| Rick Burkholder, Head Athletic Trainer On the Hydroworks pools in the new training room: "The centerpiece, the jewel, of the training room is the hydrotherapy area with three pools by Hydroworks."" "We have the best therapy pool in the business. The main pool has a hydraulic system that allows players to raise the floor to ground level so that they can literally walk into the pool, and be lowered via remote control, on an underwater treadmill. We can then station the player at different depths, which is really important to us in terms of getting a player back to health and playing condition more quickly."" "The concept is that at chest-high in the water you are 75% weightless, at waist-high water you're 50% weightless, and at thigh-high water you're about 33% weightless."" "What the Hydroworks equipment enables us to do is, it essentially allows us to rehab players with very little stress on their joints."" "Our natural progression with a guy who can't walk, for example, is we'll put him in neck-high water and he'll be able to walk in the water without a limp. We'll then, over a period of time, raise the platform and progress the athlete back to the point where he is running on the ground. That is something we simply could not do in our old facility with the one small, old tub we had. With that pool, which had sides that rose up above ground level, we had guys with injuries that would not allow them to lift themselves into it. And with some of the guys who struggled to get in it, it was an even greater struggle to get them out." "Now if we have a guy sprain an ankle during a game and he's unable to walk on Monday, we will have him exercising that very day. When we were at our facility at the Vet, we may not have had him exercising because we weren't as technologically advanced as we are now."" "The Hydroworks pool has three portholes that give us three different camera angles to view a rehabbing players' range of motion. In the Vet, even if a guy could be weight-bearing in the pool, we couldn't see the way in which their feet struck the bottom. We couldn't evaluate the bio-mechanics of their walking or running motion. Here we'll be able to videotape it and the player will also be able to see it in real time on a TV monitor."" On having the Hydroworks plunge pools as adjuncts to the main therapy pool: "We have a six-man cold plunge pool that will be at 50 degrees at all times. The players will be able to immerse themselves in there after a hard practice or a hard workout on their legs in the weight room."" "There also is an identical hot spa with the water at a constant 106 degrees. While the cold-plunge pool is for post-exercise treatment or to combat inflammation, the hot-plunge pool can be used as a warm-up device and for treatment of chronic conditions."" "Both of the pools have a massage hose that can be used to pinpoint an area on the body and deliver a very high degree of deep tissue massage."" On the fact that the NovaCare Rehabilitation Center for Excellence, located adjacent to the training room, will house an MRI machine: "We'll have MRI capability beginning in June when the NovaCare wing of the building becomes operational. It will literally be within a few steps of the training room. Nobody will have one closer to their training room than the Philadelphia Eagles."" "We'll also have x-ray facilities as well as both x-ray and MRI technicians in the building." On how the 8,000 square foot weight room will enhance the club's ability to rehab injured players: ""There is now a greatly enhance area within the weight room that features selectorized machines by Life Fitness, machines that are unilateral. With these apparatuses you can separate one side of the body from the other or one joint from another. A player can work the right arm separately from the left arm and can therefore do a greater amount of rehabilitation at a faster pace."" "For example, if a guy has a right shoulder injury and can't bench press in the normal manner, he will now be able to bench press in a unique way. We can keep the normal weight on the left side and significantly lower the weight on the right side. We can set it up that way until the injured side catches up with the healthy side."" "The weight room is, obviously the place where our strength coaches help players get bigger and stronger but it also is an area that we use extensively when it comes to rehabilitating injuries. The number and the quality of the new machines available to us there is outstanding. They are well spaced out and in a comfortable setting."" "In all, the comparison of the NovaCare Complex to what we had a the Vet is beyond night and day."" On the Peak Performance Room that will serve as an adjunct to the weight room: "This allows us a space in which to do, among other things, "back school," the therapy session that strengthens the core muscles of the body between the knees and the chest."" "It also will be the place where we can set up massage therapists. With this room we will have a quiet area for guys who want a relaxing massage. At the Vet the massage table was set up in an open space, adjacent to the locker room and shower area, in a noisy spot that was anything but conducive to relaxing."" "We'll also have the capability of performing various types of aerobics and step-aerobics in the Peak Performance Room."" On the creation of a Players' Lounge: "Having that space will be great. It'll take the players' dominoes games out of the training room."" "I'm not against the dominos games and I'm not against guys hanging out in the training room; I think it's a great place where we build team chemistry. But in our space at the Vet, sometimes we'd have to kick guys off a table who were in here visiting somebody else who was getting treatment."" "Now the players will have a spacious lounge of their own and they'll build plenty of team chemistry in that room. They'll have a ping pong table, TV, etc." On special parking spaces for injured players: "This, too, is a great, new feature. We've set aside a number of parking spaces right by the training room door, just 100 feet away, which is phenomenal. We'll provide those spaces to injured guys who need to be able to access this room without a great deal of walking. They'll be able to park there and walk just 100 feet into the training room and won't have to worry about their cars being towed or stolen like they did at the Vet."" On the shower heads in the players' locker room being set at 8-feet high: "That's a great plus for the Jon Runyan's and Tra Thomases of the world who used to have to duck to get under the shower heads at the Vet because those facilities were set up 30 years ago when most athletes were six feet tall. It may sound like a small thing but it's real nice for the players and whoever thought about doing that is to be commended." |
