Arena Fitness: Yoga at the Arena – a conversation

As construction progresses and we get closer to unveiling the new fitness spaces at The Arena, we are excited to feature a series of video interviews of key fitness personnel at the Wembley talking about their impressions of the new fitness space and what they are most excited about.

This week, our Fitness Director, Colleen Ryan, shares her take on the new Yoga studio in the Arena!

Stay tuned for more vides from other familiar faces at Wembley coming soon!

The Cleveland Challenge is here!

Do you consider yourself one of the best doubles players in Cleveland? Come on out and prove yourself at the Cleveland Challenge this weekend! Or cheer the teams that play!

The following divisions will be played:

Women’s Flights – 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0
Men’s Flights – 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5
Mixed – 9.0

Wembley plays two matches, at home on Friday, April 22 with the women starting us off at 6:30 PM and at Western Reserve on Sunday, April 24 at 3 PM.

Come out to play or to cheer the club players on!

Wembley Waves summer swim team registration at the Wembley Club

Can you hear the birds? Can you feel the warmth in the air? Hopefully this is not yet another “False Spring” followed by “3rd Winter” that North East Ohio is famous for.

We are about 86 days from Memorial day and for those of you who like to plan out the whole summer; Wembley is recruiting for its summer swim team! The Wembley Waves is a fun experience for swimmers of all ages and skills levels. We have daily swim team practices with morning and afternoon options to choose from. Swimmers can attend swim team practice during or after summer camp hours. The fee includes access to all practices and swim meets. The swim meets are scheduled every week and include home and away meets at local neighborhoods and clubs.

Come join the Wembley Waves team! It is more fun here!

You can get more info and register online on the website or email swim@wembleyclub.com for more information!

Personal trainer, Erin

Our own Erin Hagen repping at Arnold Festival this weekend!

We are wishing great success and the best of luck to Erin Hagen who is off to the Arnold Sports Festival this weekend in Columbus Ohio! She is participating in the Pro bench bash starting at 2 PM on Saturday! You can also view the whole event on Pay-per-view on Fanmio.

She will be competing in the 56kg division. Erin will go up against 25 of the best powerlifters who have been invited to compete. These include powerlifters across all weight divisions, ages and genders. She will be attempting to build on her success from winning at Nationals last June!

Did you know that in between competing in powerlifting tournaments and driving her kids around to various soccer and baseball practices and games; Erin also teaches fitness classes at Wembley and runs a successful personal training program!   Come join one of her sessions to experience getting trained by a National Champion!

Wembley tennis teams repping at State Championships this weekend!

This weekend, the NEO district hosts the 2021 Combo Ohio State Championships.

NEO will be represented by two Wembley teams: The 6.5 Women’s team captained by Andrea Ayyappan and the 6.5 Men’s team captained by JP Ayyappan.

Please drop by to cheer the teams on at Western Reserve Racquet and Fitness club at 11013 Aurora Hudson Rd, Streetsboro, OH 44241

The men’s team is scheduled to play on Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 AM, while the women’s team is scheduled to play on Saturday and Sunday at Noon. Please note that matches can be called up to 30 minutes ahead of the scheduled time.

Go Wembley! We hope to see you there!

Presidents’ day at the Wembley Club!


If your kids have Friday and Monday off for the Presidents Day holiday; make the most of your extended holiday weekend with visit to the Wembley Club.

We are excited to announce special presidents’ day weekend hours for the Wembley Club pool! The pool will be open from 7AM to 8PM on Friday and 11AM – 8PM on Monday!

Bring the kids, bring a friend (guest charges apply) and make some time to also check out some group fitness classes or book a court for a round of tennis or pickleball while you are here!

See you here soon!

Our Commitment to Health

As the number of coronavirus infections surge across the country, we would like to remind all of our members and visitors about actions we are taking to ensure the safety of everyone who visits our facilities, and our efforts to better the community health in the area. 

This post is just highlighting club guidelines that were published earlier; please refer to the guidelines for more detailed information. 

Self assessment

We request all of our members and visitors to continue checking their temperature every day. Please stay home if you or anyone in your immediate social circle does not feel well or has tested positive for COVID-19.  

Face covering requirements

A face covering that meets or exceeds CDC guidelines is required to be worn when visiting the Wembley Club. All employees and instructors will be adhering with this requirement. 

Swimming Pool

A face covering is to be worn at all times when you are not in the water. For safety reasons, face coverings should not be worn by anyone who is in the water.  Lifeguards are required to keep their face uncovered for safety reasons when they are on duty around the pool or in the lifeguard chair. 

Fitness

A face covering is to be worn at all times when you are not actively working out. Please be sure to wipe down all surfaces you touch after completing your workout.

Tennis, Pickleball, and Paddle

A face covering is to be worn until you are on the court.  Effectively immediately, for all USTA League matches, spectators from the opposing team are not allowed to watch the match. Members can still watch tennis matches as long as they follow all face covering and distancing protocols.

Child care

While children are not required to wear face coverings, we recommend it if your child is comfortable with it. Please remember that childcare must be reserved in advance. This helps us control the number of children in the room at any given time.

Taverne

A face covering is required to be worn unless you are actively drinking of eating in the Taverne area. Please be mindful of other patrons already seated at the Taverne and choose seating  options that allow for safe distancing.

Regular cleaning

We have contracted with Your Healthy Spaces for a deep cleaning of all our common spaces. You can read more about this partnership on an earlier blog post.  Your Healthy Spaces completed their last cleaning at the club on November 4 and will return approximately every 4 weeks. 

Indoor spaces

As the temperature drops and we move more of our activity indoors, we are taking additional steps to ensure everyone’s safety. We are installing air purifiers with H13 HEPA filters in fitness locations.

We would also like to share an excerpt from this recent post by the Farley Group:

  1. The Air Quality In a Dome Resembles Outdoor Conditions.
    A typical dome contains 500,000 to 5,000,000 cubic feet of air; for a topical comparison, a typical classroom contains just 6,000 cubic feet of air.
  2. Dome Ventilation Is Remarkably Better Than In Most Buildings.
    Under ASHRAE standards, a normal classroom’s ventilation is designed to move 222 cubic feet of air per minute; domes have a minimum of 50 times more outside fresh air!
  3. There’s Tons of Room To Breathe In a Dome.
    At 6-foot social distance, a dome provides about 800 cubic feet of ventilation air per person per minute; a typical classroom with 20 students would provide 11 cubic feet. 

We hope you will join us in ensuring the health and safety of our whole community by reviewing these guidelines and adhering to them as closely as possible!

community health

Thank you!

The Importance of Stretching

Often when someone thinks of stretching, they think of superstar athletes. A lot of office workers, or people who sit for long periods of time have tight muscles in their legs and hips, which could easily be prevented with stretching. Tight muscles make you prone to injury, and can lead to joint issues. There are many great benefits to stretching. It can also be very simple, and take little time out of your day that will help you in the long run.

If you are not very active, do not assume that stretching will not help you. As I said before, you are more prone to injuries, and joint pain (which is not fun at all!). If you think about it, you could get hurt by doing simple household tasks just because you are not flexible. Something as simple as putting socks on can be difficult! An easy thing to put into your daily routine is to stretch right before bed. You have spent all day moving around; it is a great way to finish your day. Doing a few stretches, for example, a seated hamstring stretch, a standing quad stretch, and a standing hamstring stretch will help your overall range of motion. Try not to stretch right when you wake up. Your muscles need to be warm when you stretch, not cold. If you stretch right you wake up, you are running the risk of tearing your muscle fibers, which is counterproductive. Also, always remember not to “bounce,” when stretching, this is another way of causing an injury. Here are a few examples of some simple exercises you can do right at home:

Image result for simple stretching exercises

Athletes should take stretching very seriously, yet they often don’t. Warm ups, cool downs, and stretching in general are crucial to being a good athlete and preventing injury. As important as it is to stretch, it is even more important to know what kind of stretches to do, and when. The two basic forms of stretching are dynamic and static. Static Stretching is what is pictured above. Typically you are stretching one specific muscle group for about 10-30 second while staying still. On the contrary, Dynamic Stretching is when you are doing movements specifically designed to warm up certain muscle groups without tearing the muscle fibers. Dynamic Stretching should always be done before working out/exercising. Then Static Stretching should be the final thing you do in your workout. Whether you are lifting weights, or doing an activity, a dynamic warm-up prepares your body for the task at hand. For example, if you are doing a lifting regiment, and it is “leg day,” it would be good to do some lunges for your warm-up. They are a great way to warm your legs up, so when you begin your workout, you are not putting unnecessary stress on your muscles (other than what you would be doing for your workout). Taking time to Static stretch after your workout is just as important. Stretching helps reduce the risk of cramping, reduces the risk of injury, and increases blood flow which helps prevent soreness.

Many professional athletes openly talk about how much stretching helps in their sport. Kevin Love, Power Forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, speaks highly about how yoga has changed his life. Also, Novak Djokovic, arguably one of the greatest tennis players in history, is know all over the tour for how much time he spends stretching (as pictured below).

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Image result for novak djokovic stretch

Finding the time to stretch is so important when it comes to daily life. If you worked out for two hours, what’s 10 more minutes? If you get into the mindset of, “it’s only 10 minutes of my day,” instead of, “I’m not going to waste 10 minutes just to stretch,” you will find an overall increase in your well-being.

An Outline of Scoring in Tennis

Usually when someone picks up tennis as a new hobby/sport, they get frustrated with the scoring, understandably so. There are so many different terms, and ways to score, that it seems impossible. In this post, I’ll try to break it down as simply as possible so you can get a basic understanding!

Firstly, lets talk about a match. The match is the whole entire competition. When you go out to play competitive tennis, you are going to play a match. In every match, there are sets. A set is compiled of games. Each game has multiple points in it. To win a set, you have to win 6 games, and you have to win by two games. The scoring in a game is a little more difficult because it is not scored as “1, 2, 3, 4, Game” Games are scored as “LOVE (0), 15, 30, 40, Game.” The server always announces their score first, and the serve always begins on the Deuce (right) side of the court. After the first point, it is either LOVE-15 (0-15), or 15- LOVE(15-0), depending on who won the point. The second point is played on the Ad (Left) side. This continues until the game is completed. If the score gets to 40-40, this is called Deuce. Either player has to win the next two points in a row to win the game. If the server wins the Deuce point, the score is announced AD IN. If the returner wins the Deuce point, the score is announced AD OUT. For example, if the sever wins the Deuce point, but loses the Ad point, the score goes back to Deuce. This can happen many times. Another thing to remember, players switch ends of the court every odd game (after the first game, then every two games). You have a 90 second break starting with the change of sides at the third game. This is also when you change the set score on your score cards.

After many games are played, you may find yourself at a set score of 6-5. At this point, even though you have gotten 6 games, you have not won the set because you have not won by two games. So you will either have to win one more game to make the set score 7-5, or the score will go to 6-6, and a set tie-breaker must be played. In a tie-breaker, the first server serves one point from the Deuce side. After that point, the opposite server serves the next two points starting on the Ad side, then Deuce This two-point serving pattern continues until someone wins the tie-breaker. The tie-breaker is scored in intervals of 1 (1, 2, 3… so on) until someone reaches 7 points (again by two). In USTA play, players switch ends after the first point, then after every four points (or the score will show every five points when both scores are added together). In all other competitive play other than USTA, players switch ends every 6 points.

A match is always best two sets out of three (unless you are a man playing in one of the grand slams). If you are playing USTA, the third set is replaced with a match tie-breaker. Don’t freak out! It is played exactly the same way as a set tie-breaker, only the score goes to 10 points (by two of course) because it is played in place of a set. When you are playing in tournaments, the director has the choice of whether you will play a full set, or a match tie-breaker.

If you feel like I have completely melted you brain at this point, do not feel bad, it is a lot of information. After reading this, it is good to grab a friend who knows how to play, go out, and walk through the scoring point by point. Sometimes it is easier to learn by actually playing the points out. I have also attached a great video that explains step by step how to score!