Performance training for the not-exactly-elite athlete

Performance training has traditionally been pursued by elite athletes or those who seek to be. But with its $5 million "Performance Center" in Redmond, the Pro Sports Club is applying the concepts to the weekend warrior and even the stressed-out cubicle worker.

The 39,000-square-foot facility is stocked with cutting-edge exercise gizmos and adorned with giant posters of accomplished athletes. It has a sprint track with an infrared timer, a 35-yard turf field, air-resistance training equipment, Versa climbers and vibration platforms used to engage muscles and promote flexibility through fast-paced oscillations.

Yet Corey Weathers, general manager of the center, says everyone can benefit by training smarter and learning how to move.

"Ninety-five percent of our participants are weekend warriors at best, and possibly more like office warriors for the majority of their lives," he says. "The major goal of performance training is to educate the individual on how to move more efficiently — which results in being prepared for the unpredictability of everyday life, injury prevention and the ability to enjoy an active lifestyle into the later years of life."

The facility is a satellite to the Pro Sports Club in Bellevue and open only to its members. But it also signals the continued rethinking of the treadmill-and-weights exercise program. The emphasis is now more on symmetry than big muscles, and understanding that all body parts must perform in sync.

Members work with personal trainers, sometimes one-on-one but often in groups. During one recent session, performance coach Jacque Crockford led 12 participants through a carefully organized 55-minute class based on a program Arizona fitness expert Mark Verstegen uses with pro athletes. Crockford's group included a triathlete and a track competitor but also a stay-at-home mom, office workers and a man working through health problems.

They started by warming up in what they call "prehab" movements. These are essentially ways to stretch and strengthen the glutes, abs and scapular muscles and prepare their bodies for the movements to come.

The "movement skills" portion changes from class to class, but it is always about getting the muscles to fire a bit faster and with proper form. Crockford had participants use both their hands to slam a fitness ball from behind one hip and into a wall. She exhorted them to generate the power from their hips and glutes instead of their arms. The exercise is more about developing muscle-memory — learning to visualize and recall the proper body parts to activate — than it is about thumping a ball.

With most serious athletic training, the focus is mainly on the body's core, which serves as the axis for the body's movement.

Next, the class spent 20 minutes on quick-tempo weight training and 10 minutes of short-burst cardio work.

"We don't do a lot of cardio because we figure if they're doing their exercises correctly, they will get their heart rates elevated," Crockford says. "We tend to work in shorter durations and higher intensity, like interval training."

The class ends with cooling down and targeted stretching considered "regeneration."

Before members can participate in a class like this, they must go through a series of simple movement tests so a coach can assess whether they have any limitations or special weaknesses. The classes are mainly sold in sessions of 12, 24 or 36 and cost $22-$28 per class. That's higher than a circuit-training class but less than working with a personal trainer, says Shane Flagstad, a Microsoft employee who works out at the center not to train for a sport but to keep his 6-foot-3, 250-pound frame in better shape.

"I lift weights on my own during the week, but here I get the agility and overall strength training, the fundamental activities I wouldn't do on my own, stuff like balance and form," says Flagstad, 31. "I feel I am getting the benefit of working with a personal trainer without paying the higher cost."

Business at the center, which opened in January, is building incrementally and mostly by word-of-mouth among the 38,000 members eligible to use it. The Bellevue club, which also has a location in Seattle, bills itself as the world's largest health club. Still, the performance center, with its sprint track and giant banners of elite athletes on the wall, might intimidate some who feel they are not "athletic enough" to use it.

Woody Cox, a world-class cyclist who directs the center, says those are the people the center wants to reach. He went through Verstegen's program and improved his cycling by learning a more efficient way to pedal. He believes the same sort of training can help a person unload a dishwasher, carry groceries or tie his kid's shoes without pain or risk of tweaking a muscle. Everyone who moves through life, he says, is an athlete.

Richard Seven: 206-464-2241

or rseven@seattletimes.com