TRAZER / Kids Interactive Fitness - Photo Credits: Fitness for Health, Rockville, MD

Fitness Centers are finally beginning to focus on the 7 to 14 kids market. The childhood obesity problem and teenage inactivity have put this age group in the center of the stage. Kids specific fitness centers are popping up around the state…At last the industry is waking up to the importance of keeping our youth “active” and teaching them fitness at an early age so it becomes a natural part of their daily activity as they grow to become adults.

Making fitness fun is the key to keeping kids involved…REMEMBER THE NAME TRAZER! TRAZER is a body movement game that you “play” with a computer screen as the opponent. TRAZER’s patent covering educational programming has been approved by the PTO (Patent & Trademark Office) and is centered around kinesthetic learning. The technology blends academic and cognitive challenges with movement and simulation. “TRAZER is a lot like life – you have to be ready to move in any direction at any time.” In short, TRAZER is an exercise video activity plus a performance assessment tool.

TRAZER encompasses: (1) an optically based system for tracking core body movement. (2) A computer-based method for creating graphical simulations based on body movement. (3) a data acquisition and analysis engine that measures movement performance. Inventor, Barry French, says “TRAZER was conceived to combine the training effectiveness of a flight simulator and the challenging fun of video games with the proven benefits of exercise.

How does TRAZER work? Any computer compatible display will work but bigger is better….The selection of the exact screen will be up to the individual facility and depend on budget specifications. TRAZER only needs 10’ x 10’ of non-dedicated space….

TRAZER / Kids Interactive Fitness - Photo Credits: Fitness for Health, Rockville, MD

The user wears a small infrared beacon on a belt about the waist at the body’s center of gravity and two specially designed lenses track the position of the beacon. Processing hardware triangulates absolute beacon position within less than 1/16” in X,Y, and Z planes of movement. This data is sent to the Simulation Core that further processes the information to produce the virtually real-time simulation seen on the display. Simulations can be games, testing protocols for medical, functional or sports performance measurements, or combined physiological and cognitive challenges designed to enhance learning.

Where can you expect to see the TRAZER in the next few years? Fitness centers of all kinds; private practice and institutional rehabilitation settings; schools; sports training facilities; and high-end consumer homes are a few of the obvious areas. Is the TRAZER for children only? NO! It can be used by seniors with balance problems, exercisers who are bored with conventional cardio vascular equipment, athletes who want to improve their sports moves and for functional rehab for patients and injured athletes. TRAZER has compelling applications for each of these areas.

That’s because in the process of helping her rehab from her injury, the staff at Alfred I. duPont Hospital’s Center for Sports Medicine discovered she also had problems with her hips and knees, conditions not helped by her back-to-back workouts. She’s been getting twice-weekly physical therapy sessions at duPont Hospital, which recently opened a 7,200 square-foot facility dedicated to performance enhancement, rehab and injury prevention.

By making changes to the frequency and type of her workouts, Savannah already is noticing an improvement in her stroke. Practicing individualized exercises at the sports center, like running a sprint while senior physical therapist Tim Duer pulls on a resistance band looped around her waist, have helped her to work her core muscles. Now that she’s at the end of her therapy program, she’s planning on staying to improve her overall physical performance.

“I learned all the things I’ve been doing wrong,” said Quinn, 14, of Brandywine Hundred. “I feel like I’ll be faster and better than I was before I got hurt.”

Helping kids recover from injury and prevent future ones is the goal of duPont Hospital’s sports medicine center, one of a growing number of clinics nationwide focusing on helping young athletes, said Dr. Kathleen O’Brien. The center uses one-on- one physical therapy and training as well as hightech sports equipment to get patients physically and mentally ready to compete.

“We talk about right way to train and how much is too much when it comes to exercise. For somebody who was injured and has finished their rehab but is not quite where they want to be, we can help them with functional training,” said O’Brien, a sports medicine physician in the department of orthopedics at the hospital.”The biggest thing we provide is a perspective coming from a large children’s hospital.”

Growing bodies

When it comes to injuries, pediatric patients have different needs than adults, said Ken Rogers, an athletic trainer with the sports medicine center. The biggest difference is that body parts are still growing in young athletes, so the treatment for an injury may be different for a teen than an adult.

Younger players also can be predisposed to getting injured because of their growth plates, cartilage like structures that are often the weakest part of a child’s musculoskeletal system. Sometimes, injuries around the growth plates occur because the body can’t withstand the stresses caused by repetitive motion, such as pitching. The result can be small breaks in the bone called microfractures, which can cause swelling and pain.

“With a growth plate injury, this requires relatively prolonged periods of rest,” O’Brien said. “You just want to give the growth plate time to heal.”

With more kids playing organized sports than ever before it’s estimated more than 30 million children and adolescents participate annually the number of injuries nationwide also has risen. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, up to 50 percent of all injuries seen in pediatric sports medicine are related to overuse. About half of those are preventable.

DuPont Hospital’s sports medicine program started last year, but only recently moved into the center, which includes 2,000 feet of open floor space, a 25-meter pool and two 30-yard indoor track lanes. Physical therapy and performance enhancement are the focus, O’Brien said, although eventually the goal is to expand the offerings to include nutritional counseling and sports psychology.

‘The stuff here is cool’

The sports medicine center looks like a hightech wonderland. It includes a Wii-like sports simulator known as a TRAZER, which adjusts to whatever sport the user is playing, while offering real-time information about speed, reaction time and how quickly the participant can shift. There’s also a 12 foot high moving treadwall that allows athletes to make an electronic climb. Even the exercise bikes are equipped so riders can race against another person, even someone in another gym across the country.

Andrew Snyder, 18, of Newport, came to the program after a skateboarding injury in May led to surgery on his right knee. He began physical therapy with the hope of improving his knee strength and hopefully returning to full duty as a volunteer fire fighter.

While at the sports medicine center, he works on lunges and uses the treadwall to improve his climbing ability, important for a firefighter. Since beginning therapy, his knee feels better and his calf muscle, which had previously drooped to his ankle, has returned to its anatomically correct location.

“It’s not really hard, but it’s physically exhausting on my knee,” he said of the workouts.

Although health insurance covered the cost of a couple months of physical therapy, his mother, Lisa Snyder, said the family is pay- ing out of pocket for the cost of the twice weekly sessions. At a price rivaling a monthly gym membership, it’s more than worth it for the improvements he’s seen, she added.

William Spruance, of Wilmington, started going to duPont’s sports medicine center after tearing ligaments in his leg, his third injury playing football. He’s now in the performance enhancement program in preparation for the upcoming lacrosse season. His program includes sprints, jumping and working out on the iJoy balance trainer, which resembles a motorized skateboard.

“The stuff here is cool,” said William, who prefers duPont’s offerings because they are more goaloriented. “I feel like I’m here to get better.”

Contact Kelly Bothum at 324-2962 or kbothum@delawareonline.com.
By KELLY BOTHUM • The News Journal • November 16, 2010

TRAZER Interactive Fitness

TRAZER®2 Sport Simulator:Patented sports simulation and exercise science for superlative Athlete-Testing, Training & Injury-Prevention Program by Barry J. French, Inventor.

Sports physicians, therapists, trainers and coaches agree that it is the athlete with superior abilities to REACT, START, STOP and CUT who excels in competition and is less likely to be injured.

Fundamental to these abilities is the STANCE the athlete maintains during game play. NFL.com Senior Analyst Pat Kirwan phrased it as:

“Superb quickness and change of direction can trump the lack of ideal speed…a lack of great speed can easily be offset by the ability to explode out of a stance, change direction…explode again…all while keeping your weight down.”

The reality is that the ability to REACT, START, STOP, CUT and maintain an effective STANCE is crucial to success in competition. Yet until TRAZER, the technology to measure these critical components didn’t exist in modern athlete development programs. With TRAZER®, the coach and athlete now have the ability to measure the previously immeasurable in the training environment.

CONVENTIONAL TESTS OF AGILITY, SPEED AND ALIKE RELY ON THE MEASUREMENT OF ELAPSED TIME TO COMPLETE A PRE-PLANNED COURSE. THE COURSE CAN BE LINEAR, AS WITH THE 40 YARD

RUN, OR A TEST OF AGILITY DEFINED BY STRATEGICALLY PLACED CONES.

Cone drills and similar prescribe a movement path known to the athlete in advance. While helpful for initial training stages, pre-planned training activities are less challenging than spontaneous cues that train the athlete’s ability to sense –process – react – execute while maintaining proper body mechanics.

Elapsed time can serve to compare one athlete to another, or compare performance over time, but more than a global summary is needed to manage effective athlete development programs. As British scientist Lord Kelvin stated, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it!”

To maximize the athlete’s ability to REACT, you must be able to measure reaction time. The same is true for the ability to START, STOP, CUT and maintain an effective STANCE.

Compare the sum total of information generated by the NFL Shuttle Drill – 7.06 seconds – to the information provided by a TRAZER® Assessment:

• REACT/Reaction Time – The elapsed time from the presentation of a visual cue to the initiation of the correct movement response
• START – The measurement of the athlete’s ability to accelerate (1st step quickness)
• STOP – The measurement of the athlete’s ability to decelerate (braking)
• CUT – By continuously tracking the athlete’s body core, TRAZER measures movement velocity and decelerations during rapid changes-in-direction
• STANCE/Dynamic Posture – Simultaneously tracking the depth of the athlete’s body core and horizontal movement speed enables determination of the stance/posture that maximizes agility and stamina

This is why we say, “It takes more than time to build the athlete of the future.”

MOVE. MEASURE. MOTIVATE.Three simple words define the difference between conventional training and sports simulation. TRAZER’s high-speed, 3-dimensional tracking of the athlete’s body core enablesdelivery of game-like, interactive simulations controlled by the athlete’s sport-specific movement.

Research has shown that “training the brain to respond to unexpected stimuli… is more beneficial than performing rote training exercises…”1By simulating the ever-changing, unpredictable interaction between offensive and defensive opponents and the ball, sports simulation better prepares the athlete to anticipate and react during game play.

• MOVE –TRAZER delivers both planned and unplanned sport-specific cues, as game play creates different neuromuscular or musculoskeletal stresses than pre-planned drills do.
• MEASURE – TRAZER measures the previously immeasurable in a training environment to report reaction time, movement speed, power, acceleration and deceleration and core elevations. These measures provide a sensitive gauge of performance capabilities and perhaps even the propensity for future injury.
• MOTIVATE – TRAZER play stirs the competitive juices. TRAZER motivates by making rigorous training fun and competitive for improved motivation and accelerated results.

It is more about fast hips than fast feet. Dr. Michael Yessis, Professor Emeritus at California State University in the fields of biomechanics (technique analysis), kinesiology (muscle and joint movements) and exercise science has written, ”Most drills that are commonly used to improve agility require lifting the knees up high or making very short changes in direction with the feet… the agility drill may require lifting the leg (more specifically the knee) in order to step over a cone or hurdle as quickly as possible.

Such drills, however, do not imitate or come close to duplicating what occurs in true cutting actions. The main reason for this is that they do not involve cutting actions. Your client may be excellent at performing the drills but if they do not have the ability to execute a correct cutting action the drill will be of little value. As a result, the common hurdle, cone and ladder drills do not appreciably improve the athlete’s quickness. The athlete may develop faster feet, but not the ability to change direction very sharply and powerfully.”

Unlike the tools employed in conventional athlete development programs, TRAZER actually tracks the movement of the athlete’s hips (body core). TRAZER was developed with the belief that agility and effective play is more about fast hips than fast feet.

TRAZER’S POWERTRAQ PROGRAM ENABLES CONTROL OF THE FORCES ASSOCIATED WITH SPORT-SPECIFIC MOVEMENT TO MAXIMIZE RESULTS AND REDUCE THE INCIDENCE OF INJURY.

TRAZER gives the coach or trainer user-friendly protocols to control the direction, distance and rate the athlete travels in response to TRAZER’s interactive games and protocols. In addition to this control of the athlete’s movement responses, the physiological and musculoskeletal demands placed on the athlete can also be varied via the use of TRAZER’s multi-directional progressive resistance training program called “PowerTRAQ.”

Elastic cables have been valuable tools for rehabilitation and sports enhancement programs. However, before TRAZER, there was no practical way to integrate resistive cables during realistic, interactive training. Nor were there practical means of providing objective feedback to the athlete and coach regarding the immediate effects of the resistance on the athlete’s performance in each vector of movement.

With PowerTRAQ, specially calibrated elastic cables are attached to TRAZER’s Beacon belt worn around the athlete’s waist. The opposite ends are secured to the floor at the edges of the TRAZER playing field. Predicated on cable placement and resistance level, the coach can resist the athlete’s movement in the preliminary phase of a movement leg, which concurrently serves to assist the athlete’s movements in the second phase of the movement leg. In other words, resistance to movement in the acceleration phase acts to dampen the forces in the deceleration phase. In contrast, assistance in the acceleration phase acts to over-speed in the acceleration phase and amplify the deceleration phase.

Cable placement and training objectives determine whether forces associated with the athlete’s acceleration and deceleration phases are increased or decreased. The cables can be applied in 4 vectors – 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees – with 0 degrees being the front edge of the TRAZER simulator under the display screen.

For example, for training Linear (forward) 1st step quickness (measured as acceleration), one of PowerTRAQ’s 6 levels of resistive cables is attached at 180 degrees (directly behind the athlete). Assuming proper loading to ensure that the athlete maintains correct mechanics, the drill provides numerous benefits. It builds strength, power and sport-specific stamina during the initial acceleration phase, while simultaneously dampening the braking forces.

And by reversing the cable placement – for example, moving the band to the 0 degree position from the previous 180 degree position the athlete’s movement is assisted in the acceleration phase and amplified in the braking position.

Athletes’ joints experience the largest resultant forces during braking and abrupt directional changes. PowerTRAQ builds functional movement capability and cardiovascular conditioning while effectively reducing such stress on the joints. Athletes are able to work harder (and therefore get better faster) with reduced risk of injury and joint and muscle soreness.

Summary of TRAZER’s PowerTRAQ Protocol:

• Periodically test the athlete’s unloaded (sans PowerTRAQ) performance to document current status and progress.
• Increase cable resistance while monitoring the athlete’s heart rate response, reaction time and movement speed. Monitor CG height for objective measurement of the athlete’s stance.
• Upon completion of each protocol, review the TRAZER Performance Report to ensure quality repetitions and athlete motivation.
• Adjust resistance according to tolerance and to ensure sufficient training time at a given resistance for physiological changes.
• Continue progression until maximum functional improvement or other specific training goals are achieved.

Fighter pilots train on flight simulators to prepare for combat at Mach II; with TRAZER®, athletes train on sports simulators to excel on the field or court.

References:

1. McLean, S., Samorezov, J. (2009). FatigueInduced ACL Injury Risk Stems from a Degradation in Central Control. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 41 (8), 1662–1673. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e31819ca07b

TRAZER 2 @ USF

The TRAZER 2 was featured on FOX TV Tampa Bay this morning at the University of South Florida Lab with Dr. Lisa Hansen. Children are supposed to get 60 minutes of exercise a day, and that’s often not happening. With child obesity rates rising and kids interest in physical education dropping, educators are constantly trying to craft new and exciting ways to get kids pumped about fitness. Click the video to see the report!

Video games and physical fitness: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Playing basketball with your buddies

Does this sound familiar?

- You are carrying groceries into your kitchen when suddenly your cat appears underfoot. What do you do?

- You are walking to your car early one winter morning, unaware that you are about to step on a patch of ice. How do you handle it?

- You are playing basketball with your buddies. Your opponent comes at you, seemingly from nowhere. How do you react?

For all these examples and many more in the real world, you must react and move adeptly in response to unpredictable cues in your environment. Your success and safety depend on your ability to move effectively to all points of the compass.

The mental calculations you must make from moment-to-moment in order to navigate your three dimensional space successfully would overwhelm the most powerful computer, yet your brain makes these calculations all the time. The good news is that with training, it can help you to even more adeptly negotiate your interactive, 3D world.

Recent medical discoveries are most provocative…

• Your simple reaction time measured at 45 years of age is a predictor of future physical disability and perhaps even an early death.
• How adeptly you move at 70 years of age is a predictor of Alzheimer’s and cognitive dementia in the next 5 years, regardless of the apparent current state of your brain.
• Your movement ability in your 60s and 70s is a strong predictor of a future disabling fall.
• One particular type of movement is far more effective for improving your health, fitness, safety, and performance than any other.

That movement is interactive 3D movement.

Navigating 3D Space is Mentally and Physically Challenging

Sports may be the most obvious example of the complexity of interactive 3D movement, but it’s important to remember that this model applies at some level to most other daily activities as well, such as the cat under the table or the patch of ice. In all these situations, we must perceive, react, and move instantly.

In basketball, for example, you defend your goal by using your body to block your opponent’s drive to the basket. Your opponent’s challenge, in contrast, is to create a moment, perhaps only a few tenths of a second, where you are out of position, and so your center of gravity and momentum are out of sync with your opponent’s new path. For that brief moment, your balance and position inhibit your ability to respond effectively. The continual abrupt, unplanned changes in direction necessitate that you maintain control over your center of gravity. These interactions are characterized by a continual barrage of purposely misleading visual cues by the offensive player and the constant reaction of the defensive player. Sounds a little like that game of tag, doesn’t it?

The athletes in this game may be healthy and strong, but in sports—as in life—it takes more than aerobics and strength training to learn to adeptly navigate your world.

Interactive 3D Play is the Best Answer

Until now, there have been many one-dimensional activity options, but this type of exercise, provided by treadmills, bikes, and ellipticals, is, by definition, limited. To learn to navigate your 3D world successfully takes interactive 3D play, the ideal form of exercise that trains all your movement options.

So what can this kind of exercise/play do for you?

It can introduce you to the joys of interactive gaming. It can create almost limitless possibilities for play and self-improvement. It can burn more calories and engage your whole body, your senses, and your strategic reasoning. It can develop a lean, agile, symmetrical, athletic body.

We all know that movement is vital to our health and well-being. Physicians, physical therapists, and coaches have long known that the type of exercise which emulates how you move when facing your real-world challenges is the most beneficial and most readily transfers to your real-world tasks.

And guess what? It is the type of movement we all did as children, as natural as playing tag, a game that actually challenges all our performance systems: the cognitive, the neuromuscular and the musculoskeletal

To learn to successfully navigate your 3D world, interactive 3D play is the only way. And there is only one way to enhance and objectively measure your 3D movement, and that is via computer-based simulation.

Shh . . . Don’t Tell the Kids They’re Learning

In school-based programs and other children’s health and fitness settings, TRAZER tests, trains and motivates kids with exciting games and virtual sports drills. Leading physical educators and therapists have stated that TRAZER is a powerful tool in the battle against inactivity, obesity, and Type II diabetes in children. It can also be used to enhance learning and cognitive skills for all children, even those with learning disabilities.

Computer-Based Learning

Educational computer programs are widely employed for teaching academic skills to children. Because these programs are interactive and engage children’s visual and auditory senses, learning is often more enjoyable and productive than it would be from a book. Real-time positive feedback is essential for optimal learning, and it is a major benefit of computer learning games. In sharp contrast to the discouragement many children experience with challenging school work, most children seem to relish the greater challenges imposed on them by video games.

Recent research indicates that video games can be powerful educational tools that develop valuable graphical and motor skills relevant in our digital world. Regular video game players develop the ability to process large amounts of visual information along with fine motor and cognitive skills.

Blending Movement and Learning is Well Supported

“The take-home message is simple: Active learning has significant advantages over sedentary learning. The advantages include learning in a way that is longer lasting, better remembered, more fun, age appropriate, and intelligence independent and that reaches more kinds of learners. Active learning is not just for physical education teachers; that notion is outdated. Active learning is for educators who understand the science behind the learning. Let’s support a stronger blend of sitting and moving.” - Eric Jensen, Teaching with the Brain in Mind

TRAQ 3D Creates a Whole New Learning Modality

TRAZER offers learning games that challenge both your child’s mind and body to create totally absorbing educational experiences. The result is that learning becomes more dynamic, stimulating, and memorable while also enhancing fitness, health, and physical performance.

How does TRAZER actually teach? It tracks your child’s interactive body movement and enables her to manipulate virtual objects and symbols representing learning concepts located within TRAZER’s virtual game environment.

TRAZER educational games involve not only your child’s eyes and ears, but also his entire being so that his mind works in concert with his body to vividly recall what his body actually experienced.

Unlike educational computer games that provide nothing more than finger exercise, with TRAZER, your child controls the action with his actual body movement. TRAZER programs do not confine him to a chair, but encourage unconstrained free movement that further enhances the learning experience for him with “E-Cubed” games. TRAZER captures the benefits of video game play for unprecedented gains in compliance, motivation and outcomes.

“E-Cubed” Programs – Play Harder, Get Smarter!

E-Cubed (Exercise & Education through Entertainment) learning games synergistically mix physical challenges and academic material to give new meaning to the term “physical education.”

E-Cubed programs are essentially part gym class and part computer learning lab. They challenge both mind and body to create totally absorbing educational experiences, making learning more dynamic, stimulating and memorable. For example, your child could participate in daily periods of TRAZER play to assist in mastering early math and language skills while she improves her health risk factors as well as her physical performance.

Raise the Heart Rate, Raise the IQ

E-Cubed programs deliver visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning challenges. A valuable byproduct of your child’s physical navigation of the virtual learning environment is an elevated metabolic rate which further heightens her learning state.

E-Cubed programs have your child interact with, and become immersed in, virtual learning environments through purposeful movement (movement that elevates her metabolic rate/heart rate) to create a powerful synergistic learning effect.

A growing body of research indicates that aerobic exercise enhances our cognitive function. It seems that motivation and receptivity to learning are further enhanced by physical activity that elevates the metabolism during primary learning tasks. We believe that learning is optimized when the metabolic increase is the direct result of your child’s physical actions in response to the virtual, interactive learning task.

Activities that engage your child in interactive physical tasks requiring strategic thought will improve compliance and motivation, and a fully engaged child does better. By contrast, simultaneously riding a stationary bicycle while playing a video game will increase the student’s metabolic rate; however, because the act of riding is inconsequential to the learning task, it may actually be distracting to the learning experience.

TRAZER educational learning tasks will be progressive. Initially, your child will be presented with problems that are easily solved through movement. Repetitively solving these challenges will cause your child to move more frequently and with confidence, which will lead to an elevated metabolic rate. Over time, this progression becomes self-perpetuating.

Children with Special Needs have a Friend In TRAZER

One of the company’s customers has written, “We have found that the TRAZER has helped children . . . with sensory deprivation issues, developmental delays, and attention deficit disorders . . . increase their visual and spatial awareness, resulting in more coordinated movement and improved reaction times. Additionally, we have seen it motivate autistic children who otherwise tend to resist organized activities and exercise.” - Marc Sickel, Fitness for Health in Rockville, MD

As one of the side effects of autism is a very sedentary lifestyle, these children not only face weight problems, but they also fail to develop the basic coordination skills that they need for healthy play as they age. After a study using TRAZER with a group of autistic children, we were told that the test subjects’ parents were “thrilled” that as a result of TRAZER, their children were learning to move more confidently and adeptly while burning calories. One parent told us that while her eleven-year-old son did not refer to his siblings by name, he knew “Physbot,” TRAZER’s avatar.

“David was eight years old when he was referred to our Sports Advantage Clinic by his pediatrician. He had been slow to develop his movement skills and was often the last to be picked for team activities. He’d become increasingly withdrawn and inactive, was having difficulty reading, displayed symptoms of ADD, and was quickly becoming obese. He desperately needed exercise. We started him on a TRAZER regimen right away. The TRAZER interface was very simple for David; he began with Level 2 Trap Attack and worked up to Level 6. We tested his movement skills after the second session in order to baseline him. We tested him every 6 weeks thereafter for the 12 months he was with us, each test indicating a steady improvement. Dave quickly lost 20 pounds of excess weight, and his focus and coordination improved to the point that by the time he left us, he was playing soccer, basketball, and baseball. His teacher reported that his ADD issues were much improved, and she actually sent a copy of his reading comprehension test to the therapist to show how he’d improved. Perhaps most important, David had become a confident and more pleasant child who was able to willingly participate in activities and make friends.”

- Cara Bonney, director, Miami Valley Hospital Sports Advantage Program, Dayton, OH

“… one of our clients is a young girl with a rare form of dwarfism and a permanent tracheotomy. She is afraid to do anything that causes her to breathe heavily because of the tracheotomy. However, she is fascinated by TRAZER, and her desire to play is helping her to overcome her fear. The goal is to improve her cardiovascular endurance and lung capacity to the point that the trach can be removed.”

- Marc Sickel, Fitness for Health, Rockville, MD

For health, physical fitness, and educational improvements, TRAZER and TRAQ 3D are the best solution for your children, no matter their abilities or disabilities.

http://www.traqperformance.com

http://www.traq3d.com

TRAQ 300/Calorie Burn 4

The TRAQ 300 (also called CARDIO 4)

The best recorded time for this Challenge is 11:26, set by a former Nationally Ranked Female Lacrosse player and mother of 4 on her 42^nd birthday! This 20 minute workout will test your mettle as you race against the clock to beat your club’s best time. 300 movements – test your endurance – your focus – your fitness!

To Accept This Challenge, click on FITNESS – CARDIO – SELECT – DRILL 4.

You will run through 50 Squats – 25 Lateral Speed Runs – 50 Jumps – 10 L-Shuttles – 50 Forward Lunges – 10 Reaction Sets – 25 Left Lunges – 25 Right Lunges – 5 Cutting Sets – 50 Jumps

TRAZER @ The Fontainebleau Gym Miami Beach, FL

January’s facility of the Month is the Fontainebleau Lapis Gym. This facility did over 300 personal training Powered by TRAZER 2 sessions in December alone, averaging $85 per session. The Fontainebleau has 3 TRAZER 2 units in a gorgeous 5500 square foot facility, serving mainly visitors to this #2 ranked resort in the country.

“The addition of TRAZER 2 to our Gym has added a dimension of excitement for our guests and significantly increased the sales of personal training sessions at our facility.

TRAZER 2 has revolutionized how we train at our Gym…. An interactive, fast paced and motivating fitness tool, TRAZER 2 successfully engages the client mentally and physically as it accelerates the achievement of quantifiable fitness results. TRAZER 2 clients burn more fat, more quickly as they increase endurance and build muscle.” Michele Peterman, Assistant Spa Director

“If I’d had TRAZER2 in my days operating and managing traditional health clubs, with their captive audiences, the success would’ve been legendary.TRAZER2 has become a moving force for our gym.“ Val Connor, Owner and Operator

Where do you take your technology-obsessed teenager who has had ACL reconstruction and is looking for a fun, high-tech facility for rehab? To Lakewood Hospital’s outpatient physical therapy department, which is situated off-site in the Westlake Medical Campus in Westlake, OH.

At the Westlake Medical Campus, Lakewood Hospital PTs have access to the only life-size video game used for rehabilitation. Standing before a gigantic wall-mounted video screen, the patient dons a belt with an infrared signal connected to a computer. Each move the patient makes controls where and how the character on the screen moves.

One of the patients, a fourth-grade boy with cerebral palsy, loves the high energy of the game because it prevents him from getting bored. “Our pediatric patients ask their parents when they can come to their therapy,” said Ian Stephens, a PT at Lakewood Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic hospital. “It’s great when kids are excited about therapy.”

The game appeals to today’s children because they have grown up in front of computers and televisions. But instead of passively participating in these activities, they have to keep moving or else the game will end. In terms of physical therapy, the payoffs are endless.

The Machine Behind the Marvel
This new sensation is called Traq 3D. Lakewood Hospital PTs use the technology to augment the programs they offer in their outpatient clinic but only add it to a treatment plan if it’s appropriate for the patient. The patient population ranges from a teenager with a sports injury to an adult following total joint replacement to a geriatric patient with balance issues.

Traq is an acronym for training reaction, agility and quickness and 3D refers to improving a patient’s three-dimensional movement capabilities. The founders developed Traq 3D to fill a void in the industry—a lack of reliable medical data to measure function, compliance and outcomes for patients with neuromuscular and musculoskeletal disorders.

“With this new virtual reality technology, we can analyze the patient’s movement quality while they exercise and determine what needs to be improved,” Stephens told ADVANCE. The technology’s testing and training protocols document a patient’s performance.

The tests quantify a patient’s specific functional movement deficits and limitations. To complement the progress monitoring that the therapists do, patients receive a “score card” that measures their accomplishments.

Wide Range of Patients
Traq 3D works well for patients with disorders that degrade functional capabilities—such as injury and stroke—or where movement is essential to the full restoration of health, such as with obesity, heart disease and diabetes.

Beyond the physical gains, pairing Traq 3D with a patient’s normal routine can speed the recovery time. Stephens recently worked with a female high school soccer player who had sprained her ankle. She visited Lakewood Hospital twice a week for several weeks, mixing Traq 3D into her regular therapy regimen. She is now fully recovered and has returned to the soccer field.

In addition to developing a patient’s aerobic cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength, Traq 3D can measure progress in balance, coordination and speed. If 90 seconds at the top level is not difficult enough, a patient can add resistance bands to arms or legs to increase the effort and stimulate the core. Up to four bands can be added, but the use of two bands is most common. The resistance of the bands can be changed to increase or decrease the level.

PTs praise Traq 3D as a boredom blaster for patients, especially for children. “Attendance and compliance are huge issues in this field,” Stephens related. “An important part of our job is to develop an appropriate home exercise program. Patients are more likely to continue with their programs if it’s incorporated into something fun.”

Furthermore, Lakewood’s therapists tout the interactive, three-dimensional aspect of the game. In contrast to riding a bicycle, which is a linear activity, the movements with the virtual reality technology are spontaneous. A good portion of physical therapy is prescribed behavior but Traq 3D forces unplanned movements that reflect what patients will encounter in the real world.

Never Too Old for Games
The therapists can change the level of the game to accommodate the various patient populations that visit the clinic. For geriatric patients who are typically unsteady, the therapists can slow the pace of the game. Accordingly, the game can accommodate patients on walkers or who use canes.

A 75-year-old man was referred to Lakewood Hospital to overcome balance issues and unsteadiness in crowds. He worked toward reconditioning during the first two weeks before his therapist built Traq 3D into his plan. The patient loves his sessions on Traq 3D and has made great gains.

An important part of movement training in older individuals is prevention of falls. Exercises that include movement retraining, environmental awareness, postural control, low-level cardiovascular and muscular strengthening, and visual/cognitive processing may be the best prevention to falling. Traq 3D is an ideal avenue for recovering confidence in movement skills and postural control.

“Seniors who are steady at home may have balance issues in crowds and out in public,” Stephens said. “The game teaches them to react to the unexpected.

In addition to balance disorders, the game is a great solution for older patients who are having difficulty ambulating or who are seeking neurological rehabilitation or stroke recovery.

Traq 3D works well for patients rehabbing from a stroke as it addresses key functional areas—weight shifting, postural control in sitting and standing postures, balance activities, visual-spatial neglect and cognitive-attention deficits.

Older individuals exhibit certain movement skills and characteristics that differentiate them from a younger population. For instance, information processing, movement speed and reaction time are generally slower. Their visual skills and interpretation of sensory data are usually reduced and environmental awareness and cognitive processes may be negatively affected.

Additionally, co-morbidity of multiple factors may lead to sudden decreases in physical capacity and present special challenges to improvement of movement capacity and adaptability. These co-morbidity factors include psychosocial status, cardiovascular condition, nutrition and pharmacological influences.

A Range of Options at Lakewood
Patients generally go to Lakewood Hospital’s outpatient physical therapy department for therapy two to three times per week for 45-minute sessions. The patients supplementing their traditional therapy spend about 15 to 30 minutes using Traq 3D and return to the general rehabilitation gym, which is conveniently located down the hall, for the remainder of each session.

In Lakewood Hospital’s outpatient clinic at the Westlake Medical Campus, there are three full-time therapists who treat a high percentage of orthopedic patients. The hospital has recently built an additional off-site, state-of-the-art center in the Lakewood YMCA that offers Trazer, the technology Traq 3D is based on, but the screen is the size of a typical television. Unlike Traq 3D, there are other locations in the United States that have Trazer. While the end result with the patient is virtually the same, the experience with Traq 3D is unparalleled. Lakewood’s therapists feel fortunate to have access to the technology and be able to use it to improve the health of their patients.

“Our goal is to have patients continue these habits for the rest of their lives,” Stephens stated. “Patients are more likely to be compliant when the program is fun.”

Rebecca Mayer is regional editor at ADVANCE. She can be reached at rmayer@merion.com