By Cord Stasolla

Photo by Steve Tringali/ The Lafayette

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to work out in a hot tub? To never have to worry about a warm up and never having to worry about staying loose?

In the confines of the Bourger Varsity House, where the Lafayette football team works out, lay two small, 15-by-10 foot heated tank pools. At the bottom of one of the hot tub-like sanctuaries is a treadmill and an underwater camera, installed to observe running form.

By running in a pool, the buoyancy force unloads the athlete’s bodies by 90 percent. This provides a non-impact, non-weight bearing environment, unlike jogging on land where force is transferred from your feet into the ground and, according to Newton’s third law, right back into your body. This is vital for athletes attempting to recover from overuse injuries, such as stress fractures.

The heated pool is a great tool for those who are not yet cleared for impact and are unable to run outside. It’s also a great supplement to an otherwise dreary daily workout or a warm up before practice.

“I used it every single day during preseason, when soreness seemed to not want to go away,” tight end Kevin Doty ‘12 said.

On average, six or seven football players use the pool at a given period solely for rehab purposes. However, Assistant Trainer Tiffany Muir explained, “we use the pool for a plethora of other athletes as well.” Generally, it’s on a person-by-person, appointment basis.

“It’s designated for football, but because the pool is such a great tool, if we can get other people over here to use it, then we try and do that,” Muir said.

Athletes across all sports, including football, basketball and track, will also utilize the Ruef Natatorium, located in the Allan P. Kirby Sports Center. This can be used for more traditional aquatic exercises.

Track and Field’s Matt Piazza ‘12 said pool training has helped him stay in shape while he’s injured.

“It has helped me keep my fitness up so when I do get back, I am able to get back into the swing of things quicker,” Piazza said. “The pool is great for reducing impact on the body while still providing you with the aerobic fitness that is necessary for long distance running.”

During the season, Director of Sports Performance Brad Potts runs a regeneration workout in the pool with members of the football team. The athletes do body-weight exercises such as calf raises, squats, lunges, leaps and bounds or, in some cases, just simply kick around “in order to get moving,” Muir explained.

They will also do more traditional pool exercises. “We jog, shuffle, back paddle and freestyle swim,” Doty said. “Then we put flippers on and grab a kick board and do laps on our stomach and then on our back, followed by laps of dolphin dives.”

During the offseason, the pool tanks receive just as much use. “Since the team continues to work out on a daily basis in the off season,” Doty said, “the pool tanks in Bourger and the small whirlpool tanks in Kirby are used just about every day.”

A common use in the offseason is for a player to warm a tight or injured part of their body in one of the tanks. “Often, players would go into the hot tank for 5 minutes, then get out and do stretches while its warmed up,” Doty said.

Doty, who played his final game as a Leopard two weeks ago, suffered a wide array of injuries, while playing football for Lafayette.

“A broken big toe, a bad high ankle sprain, plantar fasciitis in my foot, shin splints, pulled quad, pulled hamstring, facet joint irritation in the lower back, general hip joint pain, broken and dislocated fingers, separated shoulders, strained abdominal muscle, sprained MCL and quad contusions,” Doty listed. “But despite all of those injuries, I only missed one game, largely due to consistent rehab involving pools.”