Fairmont Turnberry Isle has created the ultimate golf and sports performance training facility at the resort’s Willow Stream Spa.
When something goes wrong with the human body—a shoulder dislocates, a back starts spasming, a hip won’t rotate properly—surgeons are typically the only ones able to repair the problem.
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Until now.
Fairmont Turnberry Isle, in Aventura, Fla., has teamed up with Pete Bommarito, of Bommarito Performance Systems, and USA Sports Therapy’s Dr. Matthew Cooper to create one of the country’s leading golf and sports performance training facilities.
“What I’ve learned from working with so many professional athletes,” Bommarito says, “is that surgery to repair injuries should always be the last option. Check the mechanics to get to the root of why the pain is happening in the first place.”
The collaboration brings together skilled professionals from a wide range of disciplines, including physical therapists, bio-mechanical specialists, fitness trainers, nutritionists, rehabilitation therapists, and muscle activation specialists. By using dozens of state-of-the-art diagnostic techniques, repairs, and forms of therapy, these miracle workers can open up joints, increase flexibility, and reduce—and in some cases even eliminate—chronic pain.
“The body needs to move fluidly through a sequence of motions during a golf or tennis swing. But if your body can’t do it, all the practice in the world won’t help,” says Bommarito, who worked directly under David Donatucci, the Director of Fitness and Performance for PGA of America, to provide programs for the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. “Most of the golfers we see are average players who are eager to improve, but are being held back by physical limitations.”
Whether the goal is to lose weight, increase strength or improve range of motion for golf, tennis or another sport, Turnberry Isle’s team of professionals can create customized programs for club members and resort guests.
“This partnership transforms The Fairmont Turnberry Isle’s already acclaimed reputation as a premier golf destination into the ultimate performance training center for fitness enthusiasts and athletes of all levels and sports interests,” says David Feder, Managing Director.
Located inside the resort’s 25,000 sq.-ft. Willow Stream Spa, the fitness center houses everything—and everyone—needed to offer members and guests a superior level of training, rehabilitation and nutritional services.
Where The Spa Helps Your Swing
Turnberry Isle’s full blend of health and wellness offerings includes two championship Raymond Floyd-redesigned golf courses, a state-of-the-art tennis center, rejuvenating spa treatments, a 2.9-mile jogging trail that circles the resort and its golf courses, plus new lifestyle cuisine, which is a variety of well-balanced, nutritious dishes designed around select dietary needs (see “Menus With Health Appeal,” C&RB, December 2010).
Turnberry Isle’s exercise facilities include a wide variety of state-of-the-art cardio equipment and weight machines.
Fairmont recently spent $150,000 upgrading the fitness center at the Willow Stream Spa, frequented by frequented by guests and members of the Turnberry Isle Resort & Golf Club. The upgrades were primarily geared toward golfers with the addition of an Advanced Motion Measurement 3-D Golf System, to help enhance golf performance and decrease injury, and an AlterG anti-gravity treadmill, which allows users to run at full speed without putting undue stress on knees and joints.
The exercise facilities also include a wide variety of state-of-the-art cardio equipment and weight machines, as well as a complete assortment of ab rollers, exercise balls and free weights. The cardio theater includes treadmills, cross-trainers, elliptical machines and bikes, and a variety of exercise classes are available in the resort’s unique sky-lit aerobics studio.
The spa’s grand spiral staircase showcases a soothing fountain accented by a glass dome skylight and connects the fitness center to the spa, where there are 23 treatment rooms that lend themselves to more than 75 experiences. Massages, facials, baths, sound therapy, aromatherapy, and vichy are available, as are some “Just for Men” treatments.
Keeping with the golf theme, a list of “Sports-Inspired Experiences” rounds out the spa menu, including skin treatments as well as a massage endorsed by professional golfer Charles Howell III.
Workouts To Go
Pete Bommarito conducts an intensive one-on-one biomechanical assessment (at a cost of $200) to pinpoint deficiencies and help formulate a treatment program.
Since opening the Performance Center at Turnberry Isle, Bommarito and his team have helped golfers and athletes of all skill levels improve their games.
“In a lot of cases, it comes downs to simple strength and flexibility,” says Bommarito. “Some of our core muscles, located between the knees and the neck, are often never activated, so the body finds ways to compensate for those weaknesses, thus creating injuries. We start every program with an in-depth biomechanical assessment to determine the client’s physical limitations.”
The philosophy behind the biomechanics is simple: A sound body with a full range of motion will result in a better golf swing. The assessment looks at the client’s posture, squat motion, leg rotation, joint function, muscular strength and back alignment.
“This information is vital for us to develop exercise solutions unique for each individual,” says Bommarito.
Once the assessment is complete, the team will work together to develop short- and long-term solutions based on each person’s goals. And because the programs are multi-disciplinary, they can be customized as needed, with one- to four-day packages available. “Our certified experts have a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience working with people of all ages and fitness levels,” adds Bommarito.
Upon completion, the client is armed with detailed training, rehabilitation, and nutrition programs supplemented with phone or e-mail support counseling as needed.
Holistic Approach
Launched in tandem with the new golf fitness program and fitness center is a renewed golf academy that offers a wide variety of instruction from private lessons to group clinics.
Led by Bob Coman, Director of Golf, the academy’s instructors work closely with Bommarito and Cooper to help individual golfers improve their games.
“This new holistic approach to golf fitness and instruction is definitely the wave of the future,” says Coman, who came to the resort in 2008 after having worked at such prestigious resorts as PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., as well as the Boca Raton Resort & Club.
Gary Knapp, a former South Florida PGA teacher of the year, also helps to oversee daily operations. Other instructors include Christina Trammell and Hiro Suzuki, Turnberry Isle’s resident professional.
Bommarito and the revamped Willow Stream Spa contribute to Fairmont Turnberry Isle’s effort to enhance the golf-instruction experience at the resort, as part of THEGolf Academy.
Fine-Tuning the Body
To further expand its comprehensive wellness program, Turnberry Isle has teamed with one of the top Pilates center in the Southeast, Pure Pilates. As part of this new partnership, the resort added a Romana Pilates® studio—one of only a handful found in the United States—filled with top-of-the-line equipment.
Classes and private sessions are led by certified instructors Karen Winselmann and Jaclyn Bachor, who both trained under Romana Kryzanowska, a protégé of Joseph Pilates, and teach the same system of exercises and philosophies originally developed and taught by the renowned inventor and his wife, Clara Pilates.
“When we were first approached by the Fairmont Turnberry Isle about this unique partnership, we knew right away it would be an excellent fit,” said Winselmann. “The addition of a Pilates program to the resort’s array of amenities provides a great draw.”
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