New WVU football training room meets space needs

New football training rooms in the Milan Puskar Center at West Virginia University are giving the team much needed operational space. The new training space alleviates cramped conditions for all aspects of training, from table space to hydrotherapy and storage. With an open floor plan, there are more taping stations, full length benches, as well as an array of equipment, from stationary bicycles to the latest in treatment and rehabilitation devices.

The most unique addition to the space? A hydrotherapy room featuring a room length waterfall against a coal-themed background and mood lighting.

From Blue Gold News:

“We now have incorporated pools that are 27 feet long and four feet wide,” Dave Kerns, West Virginia’s lead football athletic trainer, said. “We have a medium temperature pool, a cold pool and hot tub.”

Those varying temperature pools aren’t a trendy spa-themed item, however. Their presence and use is based on the ever-evolving science of the athletic training field.

“Recent research is doing some contrasting things with respect to not jumping into a cold pool right after activity,” said Kerns, who has 33 years in the field. Getting in the 64 degree water, then 50 degree water [gives better results. Then there’s contrast with a 100 degree temperature pool and going back and forth. It’s constantly evolving. The technology that goes into the approach has come a long way, and we have to see what evolves and keep up with it.”

The pools’ larger size also benefit in several practical ways.

“We had a three-foot by three-foot tub before, and you couldn’t put too many guys in there,” Kerns observed. “But with the new pools, we can get a lot of them in there at once. “We do see some more camaraderie [with more players in there at once] .”

Read more on this story at bluegoldnews.com.