To be sure, it’s unusual to have a “punch” line at the beginning of a story. But when you interview a former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter, that’s only natural.
Sam Strayer, 45, is COO of the Newport Beach wellness and fitness clinic Nuzuna on Bristol Street in Newport Beach. He learned early that despite his enviable 25-3 record, frequent injuries and a meager income was not the kind of future that led to healthy living. His constant companions, namely bumps and bruises, sprains and strains, imprinted a strong message: Instead of always visiting physical therapists, why not become one.
It has been more than 20 years since Strayer, CEP (Clinical Exercise Physiologist) and MES (Medical Exercise Specialist), graduated from Cal State Long Beach with a BS degree in Exercise Physiology and Kinesiology. He’s had two decades of refining the techniques and technologies that help to make injured and health-afflicted patients as close to whole again as possible.
It’s hard to beat the basics of exercise and physical therapy, but Nuzuna has evolved a technology that is to fitness as the linear accelerator is to physics. In fact, Nuzuna calls it the “Re-engineering of Fitness,” through the use of a German-invented wetsuit-like garment called a Power Suit that coordinates programmable Electro Muscle Stimulation to those parts of one’s musculature that require special attention.
A trained therapist using a tablet-like communicator can wirelessly captain each client’s suit to maximize electro effects. Each client, however, indicates when the stimulation function is set at the right intensity for comfort and effect.
The suit can be worn while just sitting passively, or in coordination with an exercise regimen tailored to each individual. Strayer notes that two, 20-minute sessions of Power-Driven Training (PDT) are the equivalent to four-to-six hours in the gym. This, says Strayer, is why “we train quite a few corporate leaders, men and women who must look good, feel good and perform well” with too few hours in their work days. To a one, Strayer said, they all reported that they are more productive.
Sometimes the suit is actually smarter than the wearer, for it can sense when the wearer is dehydrated, muscle fatigued or suffering muscle imbalance. Simply put, the suit won’t “fire,” thereby markedly decreasing chances for injury or overwork.
“You can decrease the amount of time in the gym by increasing the stimulation of the muscles in a cohesive manner,” Strayer said, adding that “the major benefits are in the world of recovery and rehab.”
“This is a suit that changes people’s lives,” he stated. “Parkinson’s patients often can work more normally. Recently, a patient with cerebral palsy markedly increased his range of motion while he got stronger, the result being that he felt more normality.”
Another client, a retired Navy SEAL with more than a decade of service, commented that this suit would have been perfect in training, where these elite warriors suffered more injuries than in actual combat – testimony to the intensity of SEAL training and the preparation for their secret missions.
Scientific studies in Europe and the U.S. have shown that EMS oxygenates the blood, and stimulates red blood cell production, while it minimizes the need to strain the muscles with too heavy a load.
For example, if one were to normally lift 25 pounds, with the EMS suit on and “firing,” that weight could be markedly reduced, thereby lessening chances for injury.
“We don’t get sore from over training,” Strayer said. He emphasized that the suit is perfect for older people ages 45 and up.
“I have clients in their 80s and one who is 93, all of whom report that since starting EMS, they’ve been feeling stronger and sleeping better,” he noted.
Nuzuna’s PR rep is Kelly Bennett, who is first to admit that she doesn’t like to appear in the media, and she doesn’t particularly care for heavy exercise. She also confesses that she’s a little out of shape, despite the fact she walks her dog a couple of miles a day. She further reveals that learning about Nuzuna and EMS required that she at least try on the suit during a light session in their gym.
Now after six sessions, Bennett is well on her way to achieving the six-pack she has always admired, without the enervation most associate to the high-energy gym commercials saturating our TV screens.
This writer also tries to keep himself out of most articles, as well as in some kind of acceptable shape. However, because Bennett suggested that you can’t write about it ‘til you try it, I tried it. I thought that I would get to sit in a comfortable chair and sip a power drink, while the suit pulsed definition into my bod, although that modality is an option. Nope.
I squeezed into the suit, then trainer Joey O’Mara took it (me) from there. Into the well-equipped gym we marched, to start a 35-minute routine benefitting my age. Almost immediately, I felt the electrical inputs to the muscles that I was using, probably sparking tissue to move that I didn’t realize I had.
The time went by quickly, and I could immediately understand why Bennett enthused about this technique. I had been worked, but gently and clearly scientifically.
In a world of similarities and – in Newport – definite studio/gym redundancies, one must have that certain differentiation to survive and thrive. The unique, wire-free Electro Muscle Stimulation suit is one key difference between Nuzuna and the rest—in addition to former MMA champ Strayer, who knows really how to punch up the exercise heat if that’s what you want.
To learn more about and to experience EMS, contact Strayer or his very fit staff at www.nuzunafit.com.
