In This Issue:
NEW PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT: Titan Series Athletic Training Arms
FEATURED INSTALLATION: Nolan Catholic High School - Fort Worth, Tx
FEATURED ARTICLE: Safety, Space and Functionality - 3 Critical Concerns When Planning Your Weight Room
Dynamic Announces Launch of Our Smoothest, Easy-To-Adjust Athletic Training Arms
An exciting new attachment for our Titan Series racks are these athletic training arms, which offer easy height adjustment and Dynamic's smoothest, tightest operation in this attachment line.
The key feature of these training arms are the industrial shaft bearings, which make for super-smooth motion with minimal lateral movement. They offer an easy-to-use rolling adjustment system for a more accurate fit and tighter operation. Get ready to jam with these babies!
Dynamic’s Titan Series Athletic Training Arms offer a lot of versatility through multiple settings to accommodate
almost any size and level of athlete with little position handles further customize performance and experience to provide almost infinite training movements.
Add J-cups to these arms and in no time you’re ready to bench or squat. Custom color options, along with laser-cut numbering and Dynamic’s attention-grabbing style, make these a winning addition to your weight room and program.
Dynamic offers these arms as part of our combo sets of Titan G2 9’ racks in our half, double half and power options. These arms are also available separately for use on any new 40023x series Titan rack or properly-configured Titan rigs. Contact your territory manager or Dynamic’s customer service to learn more about application requirements and options.
Made from 3” x 3” 11-gauge American steel sent through our intensive multi-stage pre-treatment and powder-coating process to provide a long-lasting color-coat. These training arms feature A36 steel housings and each arm weighs in at 73 pounds (146 LBs for pair).
FEATURED INSTALLATION
Nolan Catholic High School - Forth Worth, Texas
Nolan Catholic High School is a private, coeducational, college preparatory school and is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas. Founded in 1961, Nolan has a rich history, both in academics—where 99% of graduates go on to college—and athletics, where they have 26 state titles. Just this year, 25 graduates will go on to participate in collegiate athletics.
“Nolan has a ton of school spirit,” Head Football Coach Dave Beaudin said, explaining how the school body has a culture of working hard. And considering that the majority of Nolan students are involved in at least one sport, they’re working hard in the weight room as well.
Their weight room, however, needed to be updated. Nolan Catholic High School had recently seen a lot of construction. Their old weight room space became an engineering and robotics area, and a new building would include what would become their new weight room.
K.J. Williams, strength & conditioning coordinator for Nolan, said when they were given the go-ahead to update the weight room, he jumped on the opportunity.
While they started investigating options, Dynamic’s Texas Territory Manager Kevin “Yox” Yoxall reached out to Dave and K.J. “Coach Yox is a legend,” K.J. said. “I have so much respect for him.”
Dave added, “Coach Yox is one-of-a-kind—he’s awesome. He was amazing throughout the process.” Which was one reason why Dave and K.J. started working with Dynamic on Nolan’s new weight room. Dynamic’s reputation and product also stood out to Dave.
K.J. has been coaching for a long time and he usually inherited the weight rooms, so he would have to work around whatever he had available. For this new weight room, he wanted it to be unique to Nolan and to his training style. That was another strong selling point for him going with Dynamic—the customization of equipment and options available.
Most important to Dave was functionality and efficiency, though how it looked was also important to inspire and drive students, parents and alumni.
Throughout the process, K.J. appreciated the quick and continual communications our Dynamic team maintained with him. Coach Yox was personable and super attentive: “He made us feel like we were his only customers,” K.J. said.
“The Nolan Catholic Weight Room project was special for me on many levels,” Yox said. “Not only was it the biggest project that I’ve had installed for Dynamic Fitness and Strength so far, but it was at a school that I competed against as an athlete long ago.”
One dramatic feature they took advantage of was the customized upright wraps. Most schools will call out their team or school name on the rack uprights. Not Nolan. They wanted to put different affirmations of character and athleticism on each rack to inspire and motivate their students. “Leadership,” “Passion,” Respect,” “Toughness,” and “Family” are just some of the words cut into the steel of their equipment. For Dave, any chance to reinforce Nolan’s core values and put those in front of their students is worth it. Plus, it's become a unique way for them to assign zones instead of just numbering the racks.
“I appreciate having the privilege to bring the Dynamic Fitness and Strength Brand to Nolan Catholic High School,” Yox said. “I felt my experience as a strength and conditioning coach on the high school, college and professional levels brought a different perspective to the selection process for Coach Beaudin and Coach Williams.”
Dave said the weight room exceeded their expectations, and that the look of the equipment is amazing. The response from students and alumni have been great, K.J. said. They were recently able to see their first students work out on the equipment. “We wanted this weight room to be special—we really wanted it to be ‘dynamic,’ so the name speaks for itself!” K.J. said.
Dynamic Is All Over the Country This Summer
As the summer ramps up, we'll be hitting a lot of fantastic conferences and clinics this summer. If you plan to attend any of these, make sure to stop by and meet some of our team.
Campus Rec Leadership Summit, Scottsdale, AZ - June 16-18 The Campus Rec Leadership Summit is an exclusive peer collaboration event that brings together 40 top campus rec executives for two days of roundtable discussions, networking and unique experiences. We'll be there to bring customized solutions to these campuses.
Angelo Football Clinic, San Angelo, TX – June 17-19
It’s a star-studded lineup at eh 2021 Angelo Football Clinic and we’ll have a table there. Stop by our table and check it out.
NHSSCA National Conference, Plymouth, MN - June 24-26 In late June, this conference will be hosted in our neighbor state of Minnesota! We’re a proud sponsor, so check out our area. We can’t wait to meet up with all the high school strength coaches!
NHSSCA Texas State Clinic, New Braunfels, TX - July 17
We’ll be stopping by this regional NHSSCA clinic on our way to the THSCA Conference to check out a great lineup of presenters.
THSCA Conference, San Antonio, TX - July 18-20 You bet we’ll be at the July Texas High School Strength Coaches Association conference. Among our team will be our very own Coach Kevin “Yox” Yoxall, so make sure to stop by and meet the legend!
NCADA Summer Leadership Academy & Summit, Greensboro, NC - July 18-19
Our East Coast Territory Manager Kevin Mattocks will be attending to promote Dynamic to Athletic Administrators across the state while celebrating the achievements of North Carolina athletic directors.
SCACA Sports Clinic, Greenville, SC - July 25-28
We'll be presenting the quality and performance of Dynamic equipment to the 7,098 members of the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association who represent every high school, most of the junior high and middle schools, as well as 21 colleges and universities in South Carolina.
NSCA TSAC, Norfolk, Virginia - August 3-6
We’re looking forward to connecting with tactical strength and conditioning coaches to offer them solutions for maximizing the effectiveness and outcomes of their training programs so they can be the absolute best they can be while doing the amazing work they do!
FEATURED ARTICLE
Safety, Space and Functionality
Three Critical Concerns When Planning Your Weight Room
By Kevin Mattocks
Territory Manager, Dynamic Fitness & Strength
Whether planning the layout of your strength and conditioning equipment in a school, commercial gym, university rec area or health club, three key factors will influence the choice and placement of equipment: the safety of those using it, the space available to place it, and the functionality and flow of the room to serve your program or population.
With so many options available to support every area of a strength and conditioning program, working with a knowledgeable representative can be a significant asset to planning a weight room or gym. As an east coast territory manager for Dynamic Fitness & Strength, I am not just a sales representative, but a consultant who will listen to and understand the needs and goals of a program, then help find the optimum balance of safety and functionality within a space.
An easy mistake that can be made is to focus too much on the aesthetics of a layout when planning a weight room or fitness center. Although the wow-factor of a room is important to motivate your students, athletes or fitness customers, the size, shape and features of a room will often dictate certain decisions.
MAKING ROOM FOR RACKS
Most often in a modern weight room, the layout is built around the racks, and where the racks go will depend on the room’s specifications. The number of racks will be primarily determined by what the room will accommodate, allowing for proper spacing to ensure safety. Distance between racks will depend on the specific program, but a general suggestion is to leave six feet between racks.
For square rooms, racks are often placed along walls with no windows, especially when large enough to accommodate central room activity. However, another option would be to go with double half racks down the middle of the room to avoid blocking windows or other structural elements. Controlling room flow may also be a deciding factor.
For rectangular rooms, racks often run down the middle, which helps to create two lanes of activity (avoiding central congestion) and promote better flow. However, one recent install I was involved with has an L-shaped room. The large, long space has no windows, so racks run along both walls. At the 90-degree turn, that space has windows on the left wall, so it was the best place to locate dumbbell racks and annex storage while not impeding the view. On the back wall across from the 90 degree are lat pulldowns, low rows and GHDs.
Health Clubs in particular can face the challenge of limited space verses specific needs. Often, focusing on combo units and equipment with multiple attachment features are the best solutions to maximize space and functionality. Unique storage solutions may also be applied to avoid clutter and optimize space.
VISUALIZING THE ROOM – AND THE PROGRAM
The advantage of state-of-the-art 3D room renders dramatically improves the planning process. As long as accurate and detailed room specifications can be provided, a coach or facility owner or trainer can view photo-realistic and spatially-accurate representations of a room layout from any vantage point.
For me, however, it’s not enough to know what coaches or trainers tell me they want and need, or how the room looks. If possible, I love to sit in on workouts and observe the programs or activities in action. What I observe gives me a much deeper understanding of each location’s needs based on how the training programs are run and can drastically affect how I work with them to plan their facility.
GOING WITH THE FLOW
I’ve referenced flow several times. Here’s a great example of how a particular program’s flow can affect a room’s layout. Back in 2017, Dynamic Fitness & Strength installed a weight room at a university on the east coast. The layout worked fantastic for the strength coach at the time, whose program was more Olympic in structure.
In 2019, a new coach arrived with an updated program and found he needed to adjust the layout to accommodate his program. One change, for example, was removing the annex storage from between the racks, since athletes were spending more active time in that space. The annex storage was relocated off to the side.
When you see or hear us mention the phrase, “More Strength Per Square Foot,” this is really what we’re talking about. It’s not just a promise to our schools and gyms; it’s a prime objective as we work closely with each location to determine the equipment and layout that maximizes both safety and functionality.