Adults need to be fit too!!

Check out this video about Velocity Sports Performance's ADULT FITNESS Class, and get stronger, more agile, and help fight the aging process!

Ever Feel like each year your AGE is fighting against you?

We can help you fight back!

Many adults have discovered that with each passing year comes a new ache, pain, or injury. As our lives get more hectic, schedules get more booked up, and time becomes more precious, we tend to devote less time and attention to our health and to exercise. But exercise is precisely what we need to keep our daytime energy levels up and to keep away those pesky aches and pains!

Research has shown that many of the common ailments of both adult men and women can be controlled through regular exercise. However, when starting a new exercise program, it’s important to keep certain things in mind to help avoid aggravating those everyday aches and pains or sustaining other injuries:

1) Avoid training when you are tired. This is your body’s way of telling you that you need rest, and might cause you to be more susceptible to injury.

2) If you experience pain when you are exercising – stop! It’s normal to “feel the burn,” but not to feel the pain.

3) Tone down your exercise program for the day if your muscles are feeling stiff from previous workouts or hard labor.

4) Introduce new activities gradually – if you are not familiar with an exercise or are trying it for the first time, take it slow.

5) Make sure that you stay hydrated – before, during and after your workout.

With the Velocity Fitness program, we will:

Warm you up with an active dynamic warm-up to wake up those muscles, get your heart pumping and help ward off potential injuries.

Increase your stamina during exercise by focusing on energy system development. We’ll work on building up your energy system to help you last longer while you participate in aerobic activity.

Make you stronger. Want to increase your muscle tone? Get an over-all leaner look? Or even protect yourself against bone loss that comes with Osteoporosis? The strength training portion of Velocity Fitness is just what you need.

While it may seem like introducing a new exercise program might introduce new aches and pains, in reality, a regular exercise program can help alleviate the ones you may already have. In addition, a regular exercise program can help prevent chronic health problems that tend to appear later in life, such as high blood pressure, Type II Diabetes, high cholesterol levels, arthritis, and even depression. At Velocity Sports Performance, our Velocity Fitness adult program is just what the doctor ordered, not only to help you feel better, but also to provide a little fun and variety to your exercise program!

You CAN slow down the aging process. So let’s get moving!

Velocity in the News - The Seattle Times

Performance Art

In coaching kids, it's about core mechanics and confidence
By Richard Seven

TIMES HAVE SURE changed from when I was a kid so many years ago. That's what I'm thinking as I veer from a Redmond arterial one weekday afternoon and turn into a mall of warehouses inhabited by companies that teach kids dancing, martial arts and gymnastics.

Past those, I arrive at Velocity Sports Performance, where the kids make up about 80 percent of the clients working with personal trainers and learning competitive mechanical concepts like explosion and quickness.

Inside, I find four high-school lacrosse players warming up for their 90-minute training session with Sports Performance director Rick Huegli, who was strength and conditioning coach for the University of Washington football team for 18 years.

Kids from 8 to 18 begin showing up to work out in small groups and at the direction of coaches inside the 14,000-square-foot training facility. Two kids, perhaps 10 years old, trudge up an artificial-turf field while a coach restrains them in a harness. This drill helps them practice the proper running motion and build stabilizing muscles in the legs and core. Other kids move sideways up another part of the field, each focusing on pushing off the correct portion of the propelling foot.

Velocity's mantra of "Speed Balance Agility Power" is displayed prominently inside the gym. Coaches there don't spend time on skills specific to a sport, say kicking a soccer ball or dribbling a basketball with the off-hand. Instead, they work on mechanics such as how to quicken that first step, keep speed at a high level longer and move in ways that reduce the chance for injury. Velocity coaches work with athletes such as former UW sprinter Ja'Warren Hooker and recreational athletes, but the core business is kids who want to improve their ability, whether it's so they can make a team, move up on the depth chart, get a scholarship or improve self-confidence.

More intensive youth coaching is a growing trend, and the Redmond Velocity club, which opened just more than a year ago, is part of a national company that has dozens of franchises. While youth sports are bigger than ever, school programs are going through continued cuts. The concept of Velocity started with Loren Seagrave, a former Olympic track coach. He maintains that speed is a skill you can develop. Huegli agrees and follows a developmental pyramid in his approach to his young athletes.

"Between, say, 7 and 10 years old is about fundamentals, with FUN in capital letters," Huegli says. "Between 10 and 14, train them how to train. From 14 to 18, you train them to compete. And at 18-19, you train them to win."

As the after-school crowd rolls in, Huegli breaks down the mechanics of a stride to the lacrosse players and then sends them sprinting, two at a time, down a four-lane indoor track. Velocity guarantees that kids who go through at least 24 sessions (36 hours) will improve their scores in a series of athletic tests.

Clients usually employ packages in blocks of 12, 24 and 50 sessions. Prices range from $20 to 35 per hour; most sessions are 90 minutes. See www.velocitysp.com/redmond for details. The value I see in programs like Velocity is that they help give kids a better chance of sticking with sports by developing good habits and building confidence. I've read where three-quarters of youth baseball players quit by the time they are 13. And the American Obesity Association says about 30 percent of youths are overweight. Part of me wonders how necessary all this is, but the kids seem to be there because they want to be. So if Mom and Dad are willing to spend the money and drive them to and from another appointment, why not the gym?