MIDDLEBURG - Local fitness icon Lynne Thode McWatters is one of those coaches who is deceivingly nice when she is pushing her customers into some thigh-burning leg thrusts or a plank that has a one-armed reach-out part.
"I try to incorporate the movements of the sport into the exercise," said McWatters, 43, a successful triathlete and local runner and mom of one of the more successful multi-sport athletes from Middleburg High School, Kayleigh, who just completed a national championship season of cross country with Florida State College-Jacksonville after being a cross country, soccer, swimmer and track standout as a Bronco and now entertains Olympic distance triathlons (mile swim, 25-mile bike, 6.2 mile run) with her mom, plus younger daughter Chloe who is presently a Middleburg volleyball and beach volleyball player."I kind of had to stay up with my very athletic children."
After nearly 20 years of athletic training after a stint in the U.S. Navy, McWatters has been kind of a Svengali of conditioning only because she pushes her victims of her searing muscle contractions with smiles and giggles and disco.
"It has to be fun," said McWatters, who has a monicker for her talents; ShipShapeStrong, obviously for the Navy connection. "There is a very different feel between a weight room with big weights, and things banging around and lots of grunting. My measure of success is that each session I have with these girls is getting more girls to do it. And they do it with a smile, most times."
"It", for McWatters is a mastery of Total Resistance Exercises (TRX), an elastic band of resistance tied to the fence posts of the Middleburg tennis courts that the Middleburg High state champion volleyball team wakes up to at 6 a.m. and arrives three times a week at 7 a.m. for an hour and 30 minutes of nearly non-stop movement, resistance and flexibility training.
"They could very easily be inside the air-conditioned gym with music and no hot sun, but they choose this setting and that makes the bond of the team," said Middleburg volleyball coach Meredith Forkum, who has known and been part of McWatters session as an adult and got McWatters to join the team with her last year.
"It's their own little niche being out here," said Forkum. "It might seem a little weird or odd to people driving by or walking into the gym, but it's very personal to them as a team to do it out here because they push each other, first, to be here early in the morning, and, second, to do the exercises correctly so they all improve in injury reduction. We do have conditioning days too and we have not had any serious injuries, I think, because of the TRX under Lynne."
McWatters uses the TRX concept of training because it's mostly slow movement resistance that emphasizes flexibility and it's mobile.
"It was designed by a Navy SEAL so that he could do his workout wherever he was," said McWatters, who ran Physical Training for the Navy for her seven-year stint, then got certified to teach it afterward. "I take it on vacations with me and connect to a tree or fence post and do a workout."
McWatters noted that most of her volleyball players come to her very stiff for minimum flexibility training and also from just playing volleyball all year.
"They tend to go right from high school ball to club ball to summer ball and they don't give the body a chance to prepare itself for the pounding, pivoting and jumping of the sport," said McWatters. "TRX and my program puts a lot of emphasis on sideways strengthening and flexibility."
One aspect of TRX that McWatters looks for is the proper speed and resistance of the exercises.
"It's important to understand how the muscles interact with each other during movement; laterally," said McWatters. "I call my sessions pre-hab because it readies the body for the impact and stress of their sport so that injuries are reduced."
After a series of pulls and returns individually off the tennis fences mainly for warmup and flexibility, McWatters amped up the movements of the session with a tandem leg squat routine and a lap run around the tennis courts followed by a set of planks with feet in TRX hanging from the fence for core work with pushups and another run around the courts. McWatters asked the entire squad if they wanted to do it with feet in the TRX. Really? All voted to do with feet in the TRX in a show of unity misery.
"They work as a team because if one is a slow runner, the other pays the price by having to do more squats against the TRX," said McWatters. "Same with the plank and run, and, as it gets further into the sets, they start feeling the burn and then they push each other."
McWatters ended the session with a circular round of alternating single-leg lunges with jumping burpees.
"They like those," said McWatters. "They can't stop and stand up until it is completely over."
For Forkum, the uniqueness of McWatters' regimen, though not to be a secret after this article, is that her athletes own it.
"They see the results very quickly," said Forkum. "And they are doing it as a team."