You are important. At No Peak Gym, we want to help you reach the athletic performance you never knew you were capable of. Our staff and medical professionals are dedicated to keeping you and your family safe while you surpass your peak athletic performance.

Supplies

Fusion 360

Step 1: James Develin's Goals

Problem Statement: The problem posed in this design challenge is to propose a financially sustainable athletic rehabilitation center and gym that complements the natural landscape.

James Develin is a former fullback who studied engineering at Brown University while playing the defensive line position. After graduating in 2009, he began his professional career with the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz of the AFL in 2010 and later joined the Florida Tuskers as a fullback with the UFL later that year. He debuted his NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals on November 30, 2010, and spent his 2011 season with the Bengals practice squad. Waived in 2012 during final roster cuts, Devilin joined the New England Patriots in 2012 and helped his team win Super Bowl LI. He retired in April 2020 after concerns of his neck injury that stemmed in his 2019 season during a game against the Miami Dolphins. He also broke his right tibia in 2015 after a preseason game with the Carolina Panthers. With a positive outlook and an urge to help his athletic community, he combined the creativity developed during his undergraduate degree and used the analytical skills he gained on the field to design a gym committed to rehabilitate athletes and provide his community with an exceptional recreational and training facility.

Step 2: Injuries and Rehabilitation

Macro-traumatic injuries: injuries due to a strong force like a fall, accident, collision, or laceration that cause direct tissue damage (primary) or transmission of forces or release of inflammatory mediators and other cytokines (secondary). Common for rugby and football.
Micro-traumatic injuries: chronic injuries that result from overuse of a muscle, joint, ligament, or tendon. Common for cycling, rowing, swimming.
The goal of rehabilitation is to get the patient back to regular performance or better by reducing or eliminating the injury or functional loss and preventing the injury from recurring.
The patient’s progress is managed by a multidisciplinary team led by a physician. Team also includes sports physician’s rehabilitation medicine practitioners, physiotherapists, orthopedists, coaches, trainers, psychologists, nutritionists, physical educators.
The rehabilitation team establishes goals with the patient and evaluate progress.

Rehabilitation Planning

Pain management: medicine, massage therapy
Flexibility and Joint ROM: Post-injury flexibility of the affected area is often reduced because of surgery or injury because of spasms, inflammation, and overall pain. Stretching is necessary
Strength and Endurance: musculoskeletal injuries can cause loss of aerobic capacity for affected muscles. Endurance must be established by muscle exercises such as circuit weights and bicycling.
Proprioception and Coordination: Loss of sensitivity to sensations of deep organs and between muscles and joints must be restored. Treatment is unique to everyone, the type of injury, and sport they are participating in. Coordination must be improved by repeating the same motions constantly, so they become automatic
Psychology: when an athlete is injured in any capacity, they must continue to be motivated to get better. They are often in shock that they cannot continue their daily activities as normal, this could be career affecting and their income during their injury may be affected.

Source: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Rehabilitation_in_Sp...

Step 3: Rehabilition Steps and Relevant Equipment

Stages of Rehabilitation

Initial Stage (4-6 days): pain relief, control of the inflammatory response to injury, accessing functional loss (such as inability to lift objects or jump to regular vertical)
Control pain and swelling: RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) 24-48 hours after injury, prescription of medicine, the patient needs to understand the reasoning of treatment before they and their team continues. Training despite an injury causes fatigue then the athlete stops exercising, if the athlete overtrains it results in further injury
Intermediate Stage or Rehabilitation: Starts at day 5 and continues for 8-10 wks. After the inflammatory phase, the body starts to repair damaged tissue. New tissue is less resilient, time must be taken to allow the tissue to restore itself.
Joint ROM and Muscle Condition: The goal is to limit further injury while training while strengthening the affected area. Isometric exercise at low intensity causes the athlete to improve strength and movements while not injuring new collagen fibers. Isokinetic exercise: use resistance to movement at a given speed. Isotonic exercise is a movement with constant resistance including gravity (no equipment) and weights (dumbbells, barbells, and weight stacking machines). Movement speed is controlled by the athlete and injury management team. Advanced Stage begins at 21 days and takes 6-12 months, body remodels collagen fibers and transitions the athlete to full performance. Functional Training: cross-training between sports is encouraged as well as general and sport-specific exercises. Unrestricted sports activity is prohibited until the athlete is at full capacity. Return to sport: when the range of motion, strength, and flexibility is regained, return to sport is beneficial to continue strength training.
Monitoring athletes: heart rate, speed, biochemical/hormonal/immunological assessments, neurological function tests are repeatedly conducted to track athlete’s risk of re-injury. These tests can help the athlete’s team target specific areas that need to be strengthened.

Source: https://www.physio-pedia.com/Rehabilitation_in_Spo...

Step 4: Property

Pittsburg has three major professional sports teams: Pittsburg Pirates (MLB), Pittsburg Penguins (NHL), and the Pittsburg Steelers (NFL). The University of Pittsburg is an NCAA Division I and their football team, the Panthers compete in the Power Five. Local Universities, Robert Morris University and Duquesne University also have D1 athletics in basketball, football, and hockey. Pittsburg is well-known for sports and has multiple titles, earning it the name of the City of Champions. I believe Pittsburg is an excellent location for the sports facility because its sports notoriety draws athletes from around the world to play for title-winning teams.

When I was researching locations, many of the empty lots are wooded. It was important to me to preserve some of the natural hilly landscape by selecting a property that was undeveloped with a combination of wooden and cleared fields. I chose a somewhat rural area because many professional sports players and their families live away from the city. Bedford is a suburb of Pittsburg, so it is accessible to students and athletes who live in the city and families and athletes who live in the suburbs and rural areas.

Location: 1228 Imlertown Rd, Bedford, PA, 15522 List Price: $28,000, Lot Size: 3.13 Acres

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1228-Imlertown-Rd_Bedford_PA_15522_M42225-19122

The sports facility will increase the surrounding property values, so it is unnecessary to overpay for a sufficient piece of land. The area of the facility is just under 2 acres, so I wanted to choose a property a little over 3 acres to allow for expansions and the building of outdoor facilities.

Step 5: COVID-19 Regulations and Solutions

CDC Guidelines for Gym & Fitness Center Employers: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communit...

Hierarchy of Controls: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hierarchy/default...

The CDC has several recommendations for Gym Owners to keep their Patrons safe and limit the Spread of COVID-19 within their facility

The CDC recommends that patrons wear masks because COVID-19 spreads through droplets when people cough, sneeze, or talk. It also can be picked up on surfaces if the person touches their nose, mouth, or eyes. Covid-19 is both symptomatic and asymptomatic so it's important to take precautions even if the customers don't have any symptoms.
COVID-19 is especially dangerous for older adults, and people with underlying medical conditions such as heart disease, asthma, cancer, obesity, and pregnancy. Gyms serve all demographics and age groups so it is important to protect all patrons by limiting the spread of COVID-19.
Closely spaced machines are a hazard because of the patron's close proximity and the frequency that people use the machines.
To protect both the employees and patrons, temperature checks at the door, and flexible time off for employees feeling sick is necessary. Consistent and accurate health checks for employees adds an extra sense of security for athletes, families, and adults attending the facility.
To prevent the facility from being shut down, a square-footage-based capacity is mandated by several states. Many people rely on the gym for emotional and physical support. The gym owner and employees rely on the gym for financial security, so taking COVID-19 precautions seriously is universally beneficial.
Controls such as plastic barriers between desk staff and patrons recommended to further prevent the spread. Handwashing and sanitation stations, free masks, and wipes are important for patrons who want to take extra steps to keep themselves and their gym buddies safe.

Safety is the first priority.

Safety Precautions

Temperature Checks:

An employee wearing a mask, gloves, and a face shield takes the temperature of each patron when they check-in. Masks for patrons are recommended but not mandatory: Some people have trouble working out with masks as it limits their respiration. Machines are placed 8 ft apart
RGB LED Sneeze Guards are placed between machines.
All areas of the gym, (excluding the sauna) is well-ventilated. Humidity is maintained from 40-60%, HVAC is operated at its highest functional level (as recommended by the CDC). Free-standing fans are not used whenever possible (to not direct one patron's air droplets to another). HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) filters are used in every room. Air particles are forced to mesh which traps harmful airborne particles.IQAir filters are highly reviewed for consumer and commercial use: https://www.iqair.com/us/room-air-purifiers/healt...

Fitness Class Size is limited by the size of the room

Contact Tracing

Individual pods display a QR code next to each machine that members have to scan to operate the equipment. Multiple sets of weights line are present; each patron has exclusive access to their own set of weights for the duration of their exercise. The case is unlocked when a patron scans the QR code displayed on the Pod The pod automatically recognizes their account and daily temperature that the employee logged at the start of their workout. When the patron leaves the machine, they must sign out of the machine by pressing the button on the pod. Once the patron leaves, a 10 min timer starts, the employee cleaning crew in full PPE (personal protective equipment) is notified, and they clean the machine thoroughly before the timer ends and the machine reopens for the next patron to scan.

Positive Diagnosis

If a patron or employee has a positive COVID diagnosis, everyone who was in the same room for longer than 15 minutes is notified via the gym app.

High-Traffic Areas

Basketball/Tennis/Squash Courts are outside under a tent to make use of natural ventilation (wind) weather-permitting. Patrons must check-in when they enter the facility.

Nutrition

Patrons and employees can enjoy delicious, healthy smoothies. In-person smoothie and juice bars are replaced with Fresh and Easy and TropiFrutus Smoothie Vending Machines. Patrons can choose fresh and frozen ingredients and watch them be blended into a delicious smoothie. While the vending machine's person-to-person contact is eliminated, flavors such as Mango Passion, Tropical Berry, and Strawberry delight can still be enjoyed!
- Tropifrutus Smoothie Machine Website: https://www.iqair.com/us/room-air-purifiers/healt...

Step 6: Brainstorm

First Picture

I modeled a simple design for a 1-floor version of the gym. The tiny boxes represent a socially distanced pod that each patron would work out in. Halfway through this design, I noticed that it was not architecturally stimulative and it was very tedious to model each socially distanced pod and aisles.

Second Picture

Hand drawing of the front-facing see-through building layout. The diagonal lines represent the glass walls. I wanted to create a more architecturally exciting design, so I made the gym in the shape of a backward "P". Since the gym's name is No Peak, I thought this would be a cool feature. Since the current COVID-19 regulations for Pennsylvania allows gyms to have more people in outdoor facilities, I thought it was important to add a green space on the top floor that can be used to host classes. I included plans for a large-format Football dome that has tennis and basketball courts on a small section of the dome.

Step 7: Model Explanation

4 Stories

Lobby/Financial Offices/Group Fitness: First Floor
- Ceiling Height: 36ft
- Width x Depth: 500ft x 600ft
- Flooring: Bamboo
- Machines and Training Equipment is placed 6 ft apart (8 ft apart in some situations). The lobby includes the Temperature Check Line for the Employees and Patrons. The Offices are for member registration and for doctor's injury assessments.
Pool/Hottub Room, Locker Room (Female and Male): Second Floor
- Ceiling Height:18ft
- Width x Depth: 1000ft x 600ft
- Flooring: Bamboo, Marble, Glass
- Locker Rooms are divided into two levels (Male 1st floor, Female 2nd Floor). The cafeteria is next to the Pool/Jacuzzi area and is separated by a fogged glass wall. Each table is enclosed in plexiglass to ensure that droplets travel to other tables. Healthy vending machines and vendors are surrounded by plexiglass barriers to protect the employees and patrons.
Indoor Football Training Field: Third Floor
- Ceiling Height: 18ft
- Width x Depth: 1000ft x 600ft
- Flooring: Turf
- Training fields can be scheduled for individual training sessions or group training. This area can only be occupied by members who've had an injury assessment. The equipment in this room is changed frequently but permanent fixtures include one field goal and pull up bars.
Corporate Office/Meeting Rooms: Fourth Floor
- Ceiling Height: 18ft
- Width x Depth: 1000ft x 600ft
- Flooring: Bamboo
- Corporate office meetings and meetings between the athlete, medical staff, and coaches are held here.
Greenspace/Outdoor Group Fitness: Roof
- Flooring: Turf
- Green space can be used for outdoor classes (weather permitting). When classes aren't in session, members can use the outdoor area for personal fitness routines.

Step 8: Possible Design Changes

The lot is significantly larger than the architectural footprint so the building size can be expanded
More green-space can be integrated into the Gym's design via the installation of balconies
The office buildings can be concentrated on the lower floors
In the future, an athletics hospital can be an adjunct to the main building
More cafeteria seating would be beneficial to the guests
Privately rented athletic courts and facilities can be made available to sports teams or organizations
A partnership with a professional sports organization via a sponsorship would draw more athletes to the facility