Hacienda and the Tri-Valley Offer a Host of Health and Wellness Resources

By Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Balancing the demands of a successful career, family, and all the other elements of modern life can be one of the most difficult tasks we face every day. All too often, it's easy to put everyone else's needs ahead of our own and lose track of our own well being.

Fortunately, there is a growing recognition of the importance of health and wellness, and a surprising number of resources are available to help retain or recover our vitality. With a wide choice of health care professionals, exercise centers, and other organizations available, Hacienda and the Tri-Valley offer everything needed to perform at our best.

Less is More

Many of us have grown up hearing the admonition that we need to visit our doctors to get a physical every year, and then ignored it as our busy schedules crowded out the chance to do so. For those who have been feeling somewhat guilty about doing so, there is good news.

"The concept of the annual physical has really been discredited - the recommendation that people should get an annual physical under the age of 40 just makes no sense," says Dr. Stephen Nord, medical director of Hacienda's Premier COMP Medical Group. "Getting your cholesterol checked is good, getting a physical every five years is good, but the annual physical has been dead for a while. Regular chest x-rays don't save lives. Regular physicals on people under 40 don't save lives either, because there's not enough wrong with them. People should start getting annuals after the age of 50."

That doesn't mean that people under 40 get a free pass to ignore their bodies, though. Dr. Nord, who is Board certified in both occupational medicine and internal medicine, says that the easiest way for people to monitor their health is to keep track of a few key elements. "Blood pressure is important. Cholesterol and lipids in all their various guises are important. Body weight and exercise are important at all ages."

Getting Out and About

Getting enough exercise and maintaining a healthy weight are not always easy tasks, however. Fortunately, there are a number of options at hand, some just outside your office or home.

Many companies within the park offer wellness-oriented programs and activities in their benefits packages. Shaklee, for example, offers perks including discounted gym memberships, free chair massages during their busiest season, and a program where employees can cash in unused paid time off to purchase fitness equipment. Like many other Hacienda businesses, they also sponsor a company softball team and provide on-site facilities for basketball and other sports.

Hacienda itself provides a number of recreational areas as well. Six primary outdoor features here are available for use by all tenants and residents within the development, whether you're interested in taking a walk or shooting hoops after work:

A private greenbelt, or Linear Park, is available for Hacienda tenants and residents to use. The park is located adjacent to Owens Plaza Park and is best accessed through the Owens Plaza Park entrance at Rosewood Drive and Owens Drive. The park covers several acres and offers a basketball court, tennis court, picnic area, tot lot, and open lawn area.
Owens Plaza Park, which abuts the center portion of the Linear Park, spans over three acres. This park features picnic tables, benches and a tot lot and is accessible through a tree-lined entry off of Owens Drive.
Creekside Park is accessible from W. Las Positas Boulevard between Owens Drive and Stoneridge Drive as well as from the Linear Park via a footbridge over the Tassajara Creek. A large 6.6-acre open lawn space is the primary feature at this park. There are also courts for basketball and sand volleyball, and a play area with swings.
An 18-station outdoor parcourse has been installed for walkers or joggers. The course covers a 2.3-mile stretch within Hacienda. Maps of the parcourse route are available from the Hacienda web site at www.hacienda.org/pdf/parcourse.pdf.
Hart Middle School has a number of sporting facilities, including soccer fields, basketball courts, a full quarter mile track, and a gymnasium. Public use of the facilities are coordinated through Pleasanton's Parks and Recreation Department.
Hacienda also has several hiking trails available to tenants and residents, with more to come in the future. The Arroyo Mocho Trail currently runs from the Alamo Canal to the Chabot Canal. At Hopyard Road, the trail crosses over Arroyo Mocho to a path along Chabot Canal to W. Las Positas Boulevard. The Arroyo Mocho Trail will eventually link North Pleasanton and south Dublin under the I-580 freeway. The Iron Horse Trail extends 25 miles from Solano Way in Concord to the Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station bisecting the communities of Concord, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Alamo, Danville, San Ramon, and Dublin. This popular trail provides direct links to three other regional trails, including the Contra Costa Canal Trail, the Briones to Mt. Diablo Trail, and the Las Trampas to Mt. Diablo Trail.

Allies in Wellness

Hacienda and the Tri-Valley also offer a number of organizations which are devoted to health and wellness.

Perhaps the most specialized of these is LifeStyle Rx, a 70,000 square foot medical fitness center that is part of the ValleyCare Health System. "We want the community to see us as their destination for wellness and health in the Tri-Valley, and the type of programs that we offer will lend themselves to that," says Vicki McGrath, the facility's director. "It's a one-stop shop for everybody, from infants on up to seniors."

As a medical fitness center, LifeStyle Rx offers integrated medical offerings or programs which serve specific health-related goals. "In other words, in some cases we may be working with a member's physician to make sure that the programs that we are providing for them are specifically designed for them and fit within the physician's goal for the patient."

McGrath notes that the variety of activities offered at LifeStyle Rx is part of what makes it so popular. "People are looking for different things regarding their health, depending on their age. If they're younger, they're after that buff look. In middle age, they're looking to feel good, lose weight, and maybe they have some health considerations, and then as people age, health considerations tend to move to the forefront of why they would join this facility."

LifeStyle Rx offers a number of classes, including group exercise, pool, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation classes, and a Pilates program, among other things. McGrath is particularly proud of their broad slate of programs for children. "We have an extensive training program for young athletes called Sports Performance Training and our Kids FitZone won an award this year for exercise prescription in a children's setting, and those are sort of unique to the community. We also work with special needs - we have senior programs, walking classes, light and easy classes. We have a series of classes called Rx which addresses those who may have physical limitations or those who just want to get started."

Two fitness clubs may also be found within Hacienda. 24-Hour Fitness, located at 5860 W. Las Positas Boulevard, is a convenient place in Hacienda to lift weights, take fitness classes, and get qualified advice that can help you avoid injuring yourself while you get in shape. The facility has over 25 cardiovascular machines and over 100 resistance training machines.

Curves, located at 4555 Hopyard Road, is a fitness and weight loss facility dedicated to the needs of women. The Curves program is based on a 30-minute fitness and strength program using hydraulic resistance machines instead of weights along with weight loss guidance. Currently, over four million women have joined Curves fitness centers at one of their 10,000 worldwide locations.

Hacienda is also home to many health and wellness providers from ValleyCare to Kaiser Permanente, to a multitude of doctors, dentists, opticians, psychiatrists, and just about any other type of health service provider you can imagine. To locate a doctor, dentist or other provider, visit the Hacienda tenants directory at www.hacienda.org/tenants/tenants_directory.html. Here, you will find an alphabetical listing of all the businesses and health service providers within the park. A brief description of the business accompanies each tenant listing long with contact information.

The Hacienda web site also features a Service Locator which can be used to locate health and wellness professionals in the park. Go to www.hacienda.org and select "Services" from the main menu and "Service Locator" from the drop-down menu. Open the service locator map on the following page and then choose a service such as Fitness or Health. The map will respond with the location of all the services within the park. Highlighting the service icon will identify the business. Selecting the service icon will bring up details on the business including a description and contact information.

Resources

Other resources include:
24-Hour Fitness
4860 W. Las Positas Boulevard
(925) 463-1515
www.24hourfitness.com

Curves
4555 Hopyard Road
(925) 460-0404
www.curves.com

Hacienda Owners Association
4473 Willow Road
(925) 734-6500
www.hacienda.org

LifeStyle Rx
1119 Stanley Boulevard, Livermore
(925) 454-6342
www.lifestylerx.com

Listings for individual doctors, dentists, and other health care professionals may be found in the tenant directory at www.hacienda.org.

Photo: (Top) Members exercise at LifeStyle Rx. (Below) Kaiser Permanente offers health care at its Hopyard Road location.

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