Feature Article April 3, 2002
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Training gym opens on Road 38by David BrisonWorkout centres are a common feature of the urban scene. However, rural residents dont usually have access to gym equipment for personalized training sessions.
Michelle Greenstreet, who recently graduated from Algonquin Colleges Recreation Facility Management program, has decided that many of the urban transplants to the area miss their gym workouts. She also is counting on the fact that many long-term residents, who have tight schedules and dont have time for the traditional kinds of rural exercise, like chopping and stacking firewood, could adapt quite well to gym workouts.
Her
Fit Plus Training Gym, at the corner of Clement road and Road 38, was
officially opened by Mayor Bill MacDonald on Sunday.
There is a full range of exercise machines: toning tables,
treadmills, bikes, free weight, and a personal trainer.
The toning tables were new to this reporter.
There are several toning tables each one mechanically puts
an individual through a different range of motion.
The idea is to lie on the table and be moved not to produce
that motion on ones own.
The Sharbot Lake Medical Centre has already referred people to the gym.
Michelle shows newcomers how to use the equipment and makes suggestions, but does not design specific training programs.
The response so far has been good. There are about 55 people using the gym right now. Most are women, and there are about 11 men. Michelle expected that more men would want to work out, and that probably still will happen.
Two very fit women; Cathy MacMunn and Barb Hopper were on the treadmill when I visited. Cathy, one of the group of walkers frequently seen on the streets of Sharbot Lake, is using the gym to supplement her regular walks. Regular exercise is one of the most essential elements of good health, and women seem to have caught on to that before men.
