Jessie Graff Learns to Relax … Her Way!

This article originally appeared on endlesspools.com.

Why the American Ninja Warrior star calls our pool the “perfect solution.”

A professional stunt performer best known as a top competitor on NBC’s hit show, American Ninja Warrior, Jessie Graff trains hard. “Your body can only take so much impact a week, so I can’t do any of my cardio with any impact.”

That’s where her new Endless Pools® Performance pool comes in. Her backyard pool creates convenient opportunities for low-impact aquatic workouts. “This is kind of the perfect solution,” she says gratefully.

When she first dipped into an Endless Pools Original Series model, Jessie says that it felt right “immediately. I only ran on it two minutes” before she saw the possibilities. “I’m going to become a faster runner and have better cardio,” she told herself. As a money-saving bonus, “this will be more energy-efficient.”

The path seemed clear to her: “We need this now,” she recalls thinking.

MAKING THE DECISION

“I’ve wanted a pool since I bought my house,” Jessie states. That was 4 years ago. “The more I thought about it,” she says of our Performance pool, “the more it became the ultimate solution.”

For a busy professional like Jessie, the public pool no longer worked. Besides the hassle of the commute, “it has too much chlorine, so my hair gets destroyed. Sometimes it’s too crowded, and I’m sharing a lane.”

Another advantage she saw: “We do get earthquakes, and so many people have to repair cracks on their in-ground pools.” Yes, our Original Series pools’ steel panels and vinyl liner are more flexible than concrete. On October 15, 2006, our High Performance pool at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, withstood a 6.7 quake with no damage!

PLANNING HER POOL

The modular design of our Original Series pools allows for custom sizing. As Jessie sometimes swims with “a really wide frog kick,” she opted for an 8′ pool width (the standard is 7′).

She also made it slightly deeper. In 45″ of water, the 5’9″ Graff gets more core resistance on the Endless Pools Underwater Treadmill, another must-have option for the fitness die-hard.

Jessie never considered putting it indoors, even in the dessert heat of Los Angeles County. “I love the sun. We can’t spend that much time outside in summer, but in the pool, we can now turn the temperature down and be outside.”

JESSIE’S ENDLESS POOLS TRAINING “SCHEDULE”

“There will never be anything regular in my training,” the versatile stunt performer asserts. “It’s constant chaos.”

“A lot is very high impact,” she says of her kicking, running, and jumping routines. For any given routine, “I have to do one day on, two days off for recovery. I’m also really bad at relaxing, so it’s very helpful for my recovery.”

This fall, she used the Performance pool to help recover from a partially torn ACL. Aquatic therapy, she says, “is one of the first things I got permission to do. I’m really excited when I heal from my knee injury; I think I’m going to come back even stronger.”

When water-running in her Performance pool, “My calves start burning after only two minutes, and my hip flexors have to lift my legs against the current.

“I don’t need to do any swimming [for professional training]. I just like it. We go after dark.”

POOL PARTIES

For the future, she’s planning an outdoor television with a projector to enjoy movie night from her Endless Pools performance model. “Eventually I want to start paddle boarding in the pool,” she adds.

“So far all my ninja and stunt friends think it’s amazing!” And that’s an audience we don’t hear from often enough.