SCOOTER GIRL: Balance, strength, agility

Balance, strength and agility are all attributes that benefit good motorcycle riding. Riding any type of bike takes balance; when that bike weighs more than 700 pounds, it takes balance and strength. Getting that bike to take curves or to lay it down to avoid an accident takes all three: balance, strength and agility.

Last week I was privileged to watch my good friend Stephanie Jallen at her workout with Ernie Baul at Danko’s All American Fitness in Plains Twp. As you may know, Stephanie is a Paralympics skiing champion who is looking to go to the 2014 Paralympics. Ernie has been working with Stephanie for about three years now. Stephanie has CHILDS, which is an acronym for Congenital Hemidysplasia with Ichthyosis and Limb Defects Syndrome. Her chosen sport for the Paralympics is skiing. Like motorcycle riding skiing involves balance, strength, agility and the added attribute of speed.

Watching Stephanie, or as Ernie calls her, “Spanky,” work out in the training room of Danko’s, you can see the end result of years of training. Stephanie is able to balance on a ball made of half a balance ball with a small platform on it and catch balls that are thrown to her. She is able to hold a 15-lb. weight and lift, jump and spin on the floor. She also hops nimbly through a shot obstacle course. Each of these exercises helps her to build agility. Then Ernie tells her, “We’re going to start kicking this up a notch.” Just watching makes me realize how out of shape I am. Stephaine’s mom Deb Jallen points out that there are a lot of bikers who ride with prosthetics and that this type of training would be very helpful to them as well.

Ernie has been training athletes for more than 25 years. He got started just by staying in shape himself. Then he met Paul Makarey who told him to get certified in training. Ernie is certified by the Academy of Sports Medicine.

He says that now there are a lot of kids who are interested in training, many of whom are interested in sports-specific training. For those 7 and up, he works with balance, core, stability and speed drills. “It’s not all about lifting weights,” as many people imagine, he says.

Ernie met Stephanie at the annual NEPA Body Building Expo. Bob Wineman introduced them and told Ernie about Stephanie’s plan for the Paralympics. Ernie asked her who her trainer was, and when Stephanie told him she didn’t have one, Ernie told her, “You do now.”

“With CHILDS, there is no balance factor,” Erine says. Stephanie has an underdeveloped left side. “What she can do now, there were a lot of falls in between. It’s twice as hard for her but we work at it.”

Currently, Stephanie is off-season and is now in strength training.

Ernie explained his strategy this way: “She is off-season, and so we work next on endurance, super sets and circuit training.” The idea is to shape the strength and then make it usable. Maintaining strength helps prevent injuries. Ernie believes that fitness today is “in its embryo phase.”

Stephanie is now training to compete in the adult level. This past year, she took a silver medal against a woman who was 25 years old and had both arms but only one leg. This was really an important win.

Athleticism is very important for motorcyclists as well, Ernie added. “Motocross guys are in tremendous shape,” he says. “If you are a social rider, the more you train the better your sense of balance and strength will be.

“A basic strength core and balance will help with reflexes, too. There’s a lot of balance in your upper body.”

The photographs on Ernie’s wall are of people that he’s had in training and include top fuel dragster Joe Amato, former NFL player and current Lackawanna College coach Mark Duda and the Polish Olympic bobsled team. He said, “There’s nothing you can’t use exercise for.”

You can have a chance to ask Stephanie about her training routine this Sunday, July 11 at her annual 4th Annual Motorcycle Run for the Stephanie Jallen Paralympic Fund. The ride starts at the Diamond Manufacturing Parking Lot (243 W. 8th St., Wyoming). Registration starts at 9:30 a.m., and the ride starts at noon. It ends at Holy Child Fairgrounds in Nanticoke. For more information, check out www.stephaniejallen.org.

If you’re one of those couch potato Sunday bikers, you might seriously consider finding yourself a good training program. As Ernie says, “You should be in top condition before starting your sport,” and motorcycle riding is a sport. Be balanced, be strong, be agile and be safe.

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