FORSTER PHYSICAL THERAPY: WATERPOWER© POOL
FORSTER PHYSICAL THERAPY is the genesis of Robert Forster’s international best selling WaterPower Workout Book and home to professional and Olympic athletes including Pete
Sampras, Jackie Joyner Kersee, and Allyson Felix.
Forster Physical Therapy pool is multi-level. This enables the Physical Therapists to utilize Aqua Therapy as a resource for the rehabilitation process for all people. There is also a fully functional hydraulic chair that brings patients from the edge of the pool safely for those patients who cannot enter the pool under their own power.
While submerged, your body experiences pressure exerted by the water around you. This is called hydro-static pressure and it assists the return of blood from your muscles to the heart and lungs where waste products are expelled and oxygen is picked up to be delivered back to the muscles to make energy. In this way heart rates are lower in the pool than on land for the same level of intensity.
Aqua jogging can be done in the shallow end of the pool with water at chest level or deeper water with a flotation device around your waist.
WHY AQUA THERAPY
“WaterPower© running is the best cross-training workout for runners, injured or not. Because Aqua running is neuromuscular specific and replicates running, there is nothing better.”
-Robert Forster, PT and Dean Herbert running coach for 20 years.
Aqua jogging is a great form of cross training for runners as it most closely mimics the running movement while providing valuable improvements in fitness.
Since water offers six times the resistance of air, water running strengthens the muscles critical to proper running technique. The hip flexors, abdominals, gluts and upper body muscles all benefit from moving against the resistance provided by water. Most importantly, aqua jogging is impact free, which means your joints will love you for it and it can often be tolerated immediately after almost any injury.
For advanced conditioning, water workouts offer a forgiving environment to perform high intensity intervals and plyometrics with less resulting soreness and quicker recovery time.
Flotation devices can also be used in the shallow water to further reduce the load on the joints of the lower body to protect injured structures.
Studies have shown that aqua jogging can enable a well-trained runner to maintain running fitness for up to 4-6 weeks when injured.
WATERPOWER WORKOUT SESSIONS WITH A PHYSICAL THERAPIST
With five individualized 30 minute guided sessions with a physical therapist; you will work against water’s natural resistance, making for a healthier more balanced workout than is possible on land,
with virtually no risk of damage to the body.
Our personalized exercise programs as well as rehabilitation pool workouts build aerobic and anaerobic fitness, muscle strength and tone, flexibility, good body alignment and agility.
When running in deep or shallow water your mechanics need to be correct with high knee lifts and strong arm movements. Our Physical Therapists are running and walking mechanics experts, and will instruct you in improving your technique to become a more efficient runner, resistant to injury. Strength building exercise begins gradually; resistance is increased with various devices that can be worn to increase more drag on your limbs as they move through the water.
WATERPOWER WORKOUT SUPPLIES
Hydro Bells, Aqua Sprint Belt, Aqua Gloves all available in the PHASE IV STORE.
WATERPOWER© CROSS TRAINING FOR STRENGTH, SPEED, AND CONDITIONING
Olympic Gold Medalist Allyson Felix performs plyometric exercises, hip adduction/abduction, and is instructed in exercise by CEO Robert Forster, PT as part of her WaterPower Workout cross training program to maintain peak fitness as she rehabs her recent ankle injury to build strength, speed, and conditioning before posting the fastest 400m in the world just weeks after a traumatic ankle injury.
WATERPOWER PERFORMANCE© PROGRAM
Working against water’s natural resistance makes for a healthier more balanced workout than is possible on land, with virtually no risk of damage to the body. For both exercise programs as well as rehabilitation, active recovery, and cross training, pool workouts build aerobic and anaerobic fitness, muscle strength and tone, flexibility, speed, good body alignment and agility. The PHASE IV Waterpower Performance Program© can be conducted either in our private facility, your home, or other location.
THE COMPLETE WaterPower Workout Book
Working against water’s natural resistance makes for a healthier more balanced workout than is possible on land, with virtually no risk of damage to the body. For rehabilitation, x-training and sport specific training, pool workouts build aerobic and anaerobic fitness, core strength, balance, muscle endurance, power and agility. The Complete Waterpower Workout Book is a comprehensive best seller in its 9th addition and translated in four languages.