You may notice a wood-planked wall when you enter Valeo…it’s a familiar sight if you’re a member and, while it adds to the aesthetics of the space, our members know it to be much more. It’s the wall of brawn. The wall that takes the brunt of a long day of work. The wall that absorbs energy and gives it right back to you. The wall that reveals your inner athlete.
The Slam Ball Wall is perfect for taking heavy medicine balls and, well, providing a steady solid surface to slam them against. More than just a fun way to get aggressive and diffuse energy, these throwing exercises train a very important aspect of exercise: POWER.
In physics, power is the rate of doing work, the amount of energy transferred per unit time. It’s moving or traveling with great speed or force and is as important to a football player as it is to a grandma playing with her kids. You see, no matter the population or the activity at hand, one’s ability to react and generate force quickly is crucial to overall function and safety during movement. (reference: http://blog.nasm.org)
Whether you’re tackling on the turf or carrying a heavy laundry basket upstairs, your nervous system needs to not only recruit the right muscles but needs to do so in the right amount of time (aka quickly)….and your nervous system will only recruit muscles at speeds it has been trained to. For this reason, we do things like throw heavy balls at walls, really hard. 🙂 As you throw the ball, your muscles generate force concentrically through explosive movement and then – perhaps the best and most rewarding part – your muscles have to reduce the force as the ball comes back. This means everything from the arms to the hips to the core are all working and squeezing tight to decelerate the ball. Your ability to decelerate a rapid motion is essential to moving safely and preventing injuries.
We lose this ability to generate and control power if we don’t practice it (yes, “use it or lose it” is so true!), so we use the gym as our lab. We train you in the lab so you can be ready out in everyday life. You’re more ready for that curb that’s lower than you expected, for that heavy snow on the end of the shovel you’ve got to toss overhead, or for the toddler unexpectedly jumping into your arms. It’s actually pretty cool how it works.
Are you including power exercises into your regimen?
If not, we invite you to come on by this Saturday, October 7th at 10:30am. Not only will we let you slam a few medicine balls against the wall (we promise; it’s pretty fun) :), we’ll also treat you to a circuit-style strength class along with coffee, smoothies, and Farmer’s Market goodies. All you’ll need to do in return is give a freewill donation to the Pure Hope Foundation for the building of Carole’s Hope Home, a safe house for trafficked women and children. How cool is that?!
It’s our way to say Thanks and to give back to a cause so important in a time such as this – a cause that will help people feel safe and thrive.
Would you consider joining us?
You can check out more info and Register HERE!
See you in the gym,
Jess + Team Valeo
PS – if you’re not able to attend the event but would like to still support the building of Carole’s Hope Home, you can give directly to them HERE. Thank you!!
