Eric Kluft, VP Sports Administration at ATH, works with an adult athlete within our Forever Athlete adult-fitness space. Located directly next to the Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic.
Being healthy and staying healthy is the most important factor in an athlete’s ability to compete.
Athlete Training and Health has always believed that an elite training center should give its athletes a full-spectrum of care. From strength and conditioning programs geared toward injury prevention crafted by some of the most talented strength coaches in the country, to access to some of the best physical therapists from the most trusted healthcare systems in Texas on-site, ATH is a one-stop-shop for athletes and active adults at any age, in any sport.
“We collaborate with trusted healthcare systems to provide consistent, preventive care,” said Danny Cooper, Chief Operating Officer at ATH. “Our coaches are on the front lines, working daily with young athletes, professional athletes and active adults to keep them healthy and performing at their best.” He went on to explain that when it comes to being healthy, people are looking for a familiar face, a sense of community, and an easy, well-rounded experience: “Whether it’s the injury screenings, pre-training assessments, nutrition education or a variety of other services related to human performance, we’re not just limited to speed and strength development. By being proactive and being diligent about the health of our athletes, we are delivering on our promise that competition has never been healthier.”
Eric Kluft, VP Sports Administration at ATH, works with an adult athlete within our Forever Athlete adult-fitness space. Located directly next to the Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic.
By collaborating with Memorial Hermann and the Memorial Hermann Ironman Sports Medicine Institutes (ISMI) in the Houston area and Texas Health Sports Medicine in North Texas, we are able to reach a level of care that other gyms are not able to deliver. “We at ATH understand that there is a broad picture of human performance and that it’s not just about being big, fast and strong, but also staying injury-free,” said Blaine Schmidt, a performance coach at both ATH and the Memorial Hermann ISMI. “We also understand that our strengths are in the strength and conditioning and human performance side, so we use Memorial Hermann as an additional resource to perfect what we do as strength coaches to really benefit the athlete.” Schmidt, who previously started a strength and conditioning company in his home state of South Dakota, works with ACL rehab patients, a Houston-area SWAT group, as well as general strength and conditioning clients.
Chris Slocum, a senior performance coach at ATH working within the ISMI and whose most recent collegiate experience includes working as a strength coach at The Ohio State University and Houston Baptist University training male and female athletes from a variety of different sports, agrees with the one-stop-shop concept. “I have been to a lot of different colleges that have a lot of money to put into their training centers. ATH is probably one of the top in the country,” said Slocum.
Performance Coach, Eoin Ryan, works with an amateur athlete and helps with proper form.
On top of knowledgeable performance coaches and physical therapists, Slocum added, “You’ve got access to dietitians as well, so if an athlete is feeling like they’re not getting the most out of their workouts or they can’t sleep or they are having trouble gaining or losing weight, we have nutritionists on staff who can help out with that.”
Having access to all of these professionals in one place helps a great deal when athletes run into issues during the rehabilitation process. “There seems to be a gap between completing rehab and getting fully back to 100% play or work out status,” says Devin Moss, Texas Health Sports Medicine (THSM) physical therapy supervisor at the new human performance center in Arlington, Texas. “Having us (THSM) in such close proximity to ATH means that we are able to collaborate with their staff. We can communicate the safety concerns in certain types of workouts, and we can help monitor how patients are improving. Our goal is to get them back up to their full athletic goal.”
The new Texas Health Sports Medicine Clinic located the at the new human performance center in Arlington, Texas. Walk directly from PT into the ATH performance space.
As far as injury prevention goes, “The best way to treat an injury is to prevent it,” says Moss. “There’s a lot of understanding of the stresses your body endures in different sports and workout programs, but not many people are working towards protecting the athlete from the different injuries that can happen in each sport or workout.”
When a healthy client, like a college athlete or someone training for a marathon, walks in the doors at ATH, the number-one goal is to keep them injury free. “Usually what we do with healthy clients to keep them injury free is do an evaluation on them when they first come to us called the Functional Movement Screens (FMS). That helps us figure out if they are predisposed to injury anywhere,” says Slocum. “At ATH, we really focus on injury prevention drills, proper landing mechanics, and proper lifting techniques.”
Schmidt echoes this idea of going back to basics, adding, “A lot of people have glute weakness, which is a big factor in knee control. So, we teach them how to activate their glutes and strengthen their glutes, which is the key in keeping them safe when they jump and land.”
The Memorial Hermann Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic located at the Memorial Hermann Sports Park within the human performance center.
Another basic but incredibly important way for an athlete to stay healthy, Schmidt says, is simply taking care of your body and good nutrition: “Those are things a lot of people take for granted. You can train all you want, but if you don’t feed your body right and treat your body right, you won’t be able to take advantage of the gains you’re trying to make.”
Slocum believes that getting athletes as young as eight or nine into the gym will help them to build excellent muscle memory and develop good habits from the start. “ATH does a great job with their foundation training program for their younger athletes who are just starting out in weight lifting,” he said, while noting the goal with kids that age is not to gain a ton of muscle mass, but to train the neuromuscular functions of the body, which will help them understand how to lift and move properly.
Whether you’re an amateur athlete, college athlete, pro or active adult (one of our Forever Athletes), ATH has the best coaches and staff to help you achieve your goals. The full spectrum of care that is unique to our fitness and health operations in conjunction with Memorial Hermann and Texas Health Sports Medicine is designed to benefit an athlete at any stage of their athletic career. Interested in training with ATH? Contact us to schedule a visit to one of our training centers.