Energy Lab expands testing and coaching facilities through collaboration with Bakala Academy at KU Leuven
Testing & Coaching
The country's two main sports testing centres are going to work together. The collaboration responds to the increasing demand for guidance, both on a physical level, bike fitting and nutrition. A logical consequence of the fact that more and more people have started exercising in the past period. The collaboration with KU Leuven makes it possible to translate the latest scientific insights into healthy exercise and performance into guidance.
Energy Lab will move into the buildings of the Bakala Academy in Leuven from 1 November. In addition to the two existing Energy Lab testing centres in Ghent and Paal, an additional location, centrally located in the country and close to Brussels, is ideal. A better geographic spread offers both those who live centrally in the country and companies that are often concentrated in or around Brussels easier access to a lab.
Kristof de Smet, CEO of Energy Lab: “Our test capacity is limited, especially since we can only do about 60% of the consultations with the corona measures compared to before. In the meantime, the demand for testing and guidance has only increased as people (since corona) are exercising more. This new location provides more space in the agenda and a better spread. Due to its focus on top sports, the Bakala Academy attracted fewer recreational users for exercise tests and bike fittings, which we will now tackle together. Energy Lab will also support scientific research at the Bakala Academy so that we can always respond to the most recent scientific insights and further improve the quality of our services.”
Energy Lab was founded more than 10 years ago by sports coach Paul Van Den Bosch, within the Golazo Group. From the outset, it focused on guiding the individual recreationist and top athlete. In Leuven, Energy Lab will focus entirely on the recreationist and on companies. The Bakala Academy was founded in 2012 and originated from a collaboration between Zdenek Bakala and KU Leuven under the impetus of Patrick Lefevere and Professor Peter Hespel. The centre is internationally renowned for its research into optimisation of sports performance and sports nutrition, and has been sharing this knowledge with numerous top athletes including the Deceuninck-Quick Step cycling team, the KBWB and the Borlées for years. The supervision of the various top athletes and top sports teams will continue to be completely independent of each other in the future. Professor Peter Hespel explains: “Let us say that both partners will autonomously continue to use their own expertise, up-to-date insights and philosophy in the guidance of their own top athletes. So in that area we actually remain "competitive". Independently of that effect, you can offer the recreationist or a company an excellent test location and guide them individually or in groups based on the latest scientific insights into healthy sports and performance.” Energy Lab has been guiding the Lotto-Soudal, Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise and Telenet-Baloise cycling teams for years, as well as sailor Emma Plasschaert.
The lab of the Bakala Academy and Energy Lab is located at Tervuursevest in Leuven.
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