Jumping Into Better Health - Feet First

By Harry Jackson Jr.
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Monday, Apr. 23 2007

Last July, Dave Mai's typical bachelor's night out was to take his niece and

nephews to the SkyZone Recreational Center.

SkyZone is a mammoth facility in Chesterfield where children and adults bounce around on connected trampolines, but not just several trampolines. Each room is a big trampoline, several thousand square feet wide, sectioned off into  warehouse-size checkerboards.

Mai, 41, took a tour while the children got in the act. He tried it. "It just looked like a really fun workout," he says. "What attracted me was their aerobics classes." He was hooked.

The old life Mai sells sportswear, works from his home and drives around the region pitching to store owners. "Which means most of my life is sitting down," he says. In the past, when he wasn't hanging out with his brother's family, he was at his desk until midnight or in a reclining chair channel-surfing while snacking
on Pringles and soda. Distances to clients often ate up three hours in travel time.

Even when he was playing with his niece and nephews, the recreation was video games.  Winter only made things worse," Mai says.

Throughout his life, he'd never played much organized athletics, mostly intramural sports and church softball teams.  So his weight inched up over the years. Recognizing himself in the mirror became increasingly difficult. At 5 feet 9 inches tall, 225 pounds was too much to carry. With a body mass index of 33.5, he was 3 points over the line for being obese.  "Not only was I overweight, I felt overweight," Mai says.

His exercise regimen consisted of playing with his brother's children on weekends. He hated jogging; he tolerated walking. And he needed to have fun in his recreation. Boredom produced many a failed experiment.  But most of all, he didn't walk much because he prefers being around people, which probably accounts for his success in sales.

"I don't like to work out alone," he says. "That was something else: I was there with people working for the same goal in the same way.  "I expected it to be a fun workout," he says of the trampoline. "I jumped with the kids, and I was worn out in 10 minutes."  He hung in for more than two hours.

The center had been open only a couple of weeks. Mai joined the first ...

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Chesterfield Commons to get nation's second SkyZone trampoline sports complex in June

St. Louis Business Journal - May 19, 2006

The nation's second all-trampoline SkyZone Recreational Center is scheduled to open in Chesterfield Commons in June.

The SkyZone features trampoline-walled fields, the largest of which is 6,000 square feet, or about the size of a hockey rink. A series of more than 100 trampolines are connected with side walls to ensure no one leaves the playing field.

The Chesterfield facility will be operated by SkyZone LLC, which opened its first such center in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas facility hosted more that 100,000 visitors and more than 700 events in its first year, according to the company.

Richard Platt, formerly of St. Louis, is SkyZone LLC's chief executive.

SkyZone's trampoline fields allow 3-D versions of dodge ball, as well as other traditional games.

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St. Louis Daily Record

Why run when you can fly?

This summer St. Louisans will have an opportunity to test that new exercise maxim when a first-of-its-kind sports and recreation facility opens in Chesterfield Valley.

The SkyZone Recreational Center at Chesterfield Commons - with its three all-trampoline walled playing fields - will introduce the next dimension in sports, fun and fitness. It will be operated by SKYZONE, LLC, which opened its first recreational center in Las Vegas, Nev. In its first year, the Las Vegas facility had more that 100,000 visitors and hosted more than 700 birthday parties and events. When the Chesterfield center debuts in June 2006, it will become the second SkyZone in the nation.

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Get Hooked on Health

Check out SkyZone

In June of this year, a completely new kind of activity moved into St. Louis…SkyZone.  St. Louis was selected as the 2nd location in the nation for a SkyZone facility since the first complex opened in Las Vegas a couple of years ago.  What is it?  In short, lots and lots of trampolines all bound together to create an entire playing field of trampolines.

The sky is the limit on the fun physical activities and games the SkyZone playing fields offer.  One of the more popular games is SkyZone three-dimensional dodge ball that adds a soaring vertical element and unpredictable ricochets off hyper-resilient trampoline walls. It also introduces the first new original team sport in more than 100 years - SkyZone. SkyZone combines the running and passing of football, the athleticism of basketball, the fast pace of hockey, the touch passing of volleyball, the kicking of soccer, the teamwork of lacrosse, and the grace and elegance of gymnastics - all in three dimensions. SkyZone pits two teams in a highly energized game of scoring goals through hoops that continuously rotate 360 degrees.

The new sports and physical fitness concept has already earned high marks in the battle to combat childhood obesity.   In a time when kids are tempted by so many activities that promote unhealthy lifestyles, SkyZone presents a choice that is both fun and very active.

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