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efi Sports Medicine’s Total Gym PowerTower: Unsurpassed Athletic Training and Rehabilitation Benefits at the Touch of a Button
When injury strikes, a professional athlete must often place his or her career in the hands of an athletic trainer. That was the case when San Diego Chargers quarterback Drew Brees suffered a potentially career-ending shoulder dislocation that required immediate surgery. As the season ended, many questioned whether he could return to his original form.
The only people who didn’t question his comeback were Brees and his athletic trainer, Todd Durkin, M.A., C.S.C.S., owner of Fitness Quest 10, a health and human performance center located in San Diego, Calif. From rehab to high-level athletic training, Durkin relies on Total Gym PowerTowerTM—the electronic version of efi Sports Medicine’s flagship incline training apparatus, Total Gym®—for its unparalleled convenience and effectiveness.
“We put Drew on the PowerTower early in the reconditioning process,” says Durkin. “We needed to increase his range of motion before transitioning to higher-intensity activities. The PowerTower makes it easy to change positions or adjust the intensity with just the push of a button.”
Brees was able to start throwing again just four months after surgery and was back in top form for the start of the 2006–2007 season.
All-in-One Machine is Powerful Tool for Athletic Trainers
Ask Durkin about the PowerTower and he’ll give you a laundry list of benefits: improved strength, hypertrophy, flexibility, balance, power, endurance, joint integrity and core strength. And he’s just getting started.
“The PowerTower is the ultimate all-in-one machine,” explains Durkin. “It’s well-designed, space-efficient and extremely versatile. And it uses an exerciser’s own body weight and provides a wide range of intensities, which makes it ideal for everyone from high-level athletes to senior citizens.”
Durkin is one of countless athletic trainers who have discovered the advantages of training clients on the PowerTower. efi Sports Medicine, the trusted leader in functional exercise equipment for the physical therapy and athletic training market, has created the number one piece of equipment for athletic trainers and physical therapists across the country. Designed, engineered and manufactured to meet the rigorous needs of the most demanding clinical environments, the PowerTower was created for wellness centers, clinical therapeutic exercise, athletic training and high-performance, functional sports training.
Durkin knows a thing or two about the specific training requirements of athletes—along with Brees, he counts San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, 2005 Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, and some 25 other NFL superstars as clients. In addition to increasing total-body strength, he uses the PowerTower to train his athletes for a variety of skill sets, including power and balance, and to enhance range of motion and flexibility.
“There are so many different factors that can contribute to the success or failure of an athlete,” Durkin explains. “Rotation, for example, is a huge factor in just about every sport, including tennis, baseball and, of course, golf. I can put a client on the PowerTower and have them perform a variety of torso rotation exercises—incline or decline, while lying down, seated, kneeling or even standing. With so many exercises, we can really maximize muscle fatigue without having to transition between different machines.”
The PowerTower engages all muscle groups with more than 200 strength, flexibility and Pilates exercises on infinitely adjustable and calibrated levels of incline resistance. The PowerTower offers multi-plane upper and lower-body stretching and strengthening exercises. It offers a ground-breaking dynamic pulley system that adjusts to a client’s girth and height to allow for optimum force angles specific to each individual.
Core Strength: The Foundation of Athletic Training
When it comes to training athletes— or just about anybody, for that matter—you can’t overlook core training.
“If you want to be successful in sports or life, you have to train the core,” Durkin explains. “It is the powerhouse of the body. In fact, sixty percent of your power is generated from your core. It provides a strong pillar in which you can be a strong, fast, powerful and explosive athlete. One of the advantages of a piece of equipment like the PowerTower is the significant amount of core activity in most all exercises.”
The PowerTower’s rolling incline glideboard and cable pulley system provides an unstable, gravity-loaded environment that requires the client to recruit core muscles of the stomach and back to maintain stability. This occurs during most PowerTower exercises and is especially beneficial for athletic performance training. PowerTower provides unlimited incremental increases in resistance from 3% to 72% of the user’s body weight and 12 levels are pre-calibrated at 5 degree increments. At the press of a switch, an athletic trainer can increase or decrease the resistance load during an exercise in progress. This results in fewer transitions and a more cohesive exercise session.
The PowerTower’s Folding Platform and wide-based Telescoping Squat Stand fold compactly against the glideboard during storage. The Folding Foot Holder, used for hamstring curls, ab crunches and more, locks into place for use and then easily tucks away. It also adjusts accommodate larger foot sizes. The Squat Stand adjusts to three height settings, facilitating correct biomechanics for squats, bridges, calf raises and plyometric exercises.
“The PowerTower is an ideal way to safely increase fast-twitch muscle fibers with much less impact on the joints,” says Durkin. “We can do single- and dual-leg plyometric exercises using a variety of foot positions to efficiently increase an athlete’s power output.”
PowerTower’s Time-efficient Workouts Appeal to Athletes and Non-athletes Alike
Athletes aren’t the only ones who can appreciate the effectiveness and efficiency of a PowerTower workout. Durkin regularly surveys his clients about their use of the PowerTower. “My clients, both men and women, really enjoy the versatility of a PowerTower workout. They know that they can get a great workout in just 30 minutes because they can quickly flow from one exercise to the next.”
No matter what your clients are training for, whether it is for restored function and mobility, performance training, endurance, stability, muscle mass or a lean physique, PowerTower can offer the functional training you want.
Durkin agrees: “Whether your client is an older adult, a housewife, a young person or an athlete, you can challenge them equally using the PowerTower.”
About efi Sports Medicine After more than a quarter century at the forefront of innovation in athletic training, physical therapy and home fitness, efi Sports Medicine has become the most trusted brand in the world for functional exercise equipment.“Our goal,” says Tom Campanaro, efi’s founder and CEO, “is to provide quality products that help people achieve their health, fitness and rehabilitation goals. We deliver and guarantee results.” efi’s products are well established tools for physical therapy, athletic training, functional rehabilitation and a best seller in the home fitness market. To date efi products are in more than 14,000 rehab clinics, schools, hospitals, athletic training centers, health clubs and 2.5 million homes worldwide. Visit efi on the Web at www.efisportsmedicine.com or call 800.541.4900 for more information.
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