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Aerobics instructors from the Healthy Community Initiative lead a workout Thursday night during the second annual Aerobics Jam Session at the Spencer-Penn Centre. Pictured in front are Angela Naff (left) and Telisha Williams (right). In back (from left) are Diane Sawyer (partially hidden), Scott Hargett, Jerelle Carter and Deirdre Moyer (partially shown). (Bulletin photos by Kim Barto) |
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Monday, May 18, 2009
By KIM BARTO - Bulletin Staff Writer
About 90 people danced, drummed and kick-boxed their way to better fitness last week during the second annual Aerobics Jam Session at the Spencer-Penn Centre.
The event introduced participants to a smorgasbord of different workout techniques over the course of three hours, including yoga, step aerobics, ball exercises, muscle sculpting, belly-dancing and more.
The 15-minute segments were taught by aerobics instructors from the Martinsville-Henry County Coalition for Health and Wellness’ Healthy Community Initiative (HCI), which offers free family aerobics classes at locations throughout the county.
“We want as many people as possible working out and enjoying being active,” said HCI communications director Tara Martin.
The success of last year’s jam session led the initiative to repeat it this year.
“Last year was the first one, and we didn’t know what to expect, but the turnout was astronomical,” Martin said, estimating about 100 people participated.
Participant Sue Mounce, 50, had worked up a sweat but was still going strong one hour into the Thursday jam session.
“I’m ready for two more,” she said. “If I can do this, anybody can.”
Mounce has been attending HCI’s classes for almost a year after taking a long hiatus from working out.
“I was really fit for a long time, but then I was diagnosed with cancer and fell out of it,” she said.
Then her husband fell ill and passed away last year. Coming to aerobics class “was my saving grace. It gave me a place to go to kind of let it go,” Mounce said.
Since she got back into the fitness routine, Mounce said she has dropped “45 pounds, five sizes and still dropping.”
Her favorite classes are high-intensity workouts, and “I haven’t found one I haven’t liked,” she said.
The classes inspired Mounce to earn her certification to teach group aerobics recently, as well.
Though she had already tried many of the exercises presented at the jam session, Mounce said, “I had never done tai chi before. That was cool.”
Tai chi, led Thursday by instructor Scott Hargett, is a traditional Chinese form of exercise that works on balance and relaxation.
Along with some old standbys from the family aerobics classes, the jam session highlighted a new way to work out called Drums Alive. HCI aerobics instructors recently were certified in Drums Alive through the National Exercise Training Association, and classes are slated to start in the fall.
Drums Alive is a high-energy percussion workout that involves drumming on exercise balls to the beat of the music, said HCI program director Diane Ramey Sawyer.
“It’s a neat way of making exercise fun,” she said.
HCI’s free classes have expanded to the Martinsville YMCA, former Druid Hills School, Irisburg Ruritan Building, the Community Fellowship in Collinsville, Bassett Community Center and Spencer-Penn Centre.
Belly-dancing, taught by Eydie Clifton, was added to the regular schedule last fall due to popular demand. Pilates is one of the newest classes and works on abdominal and core strength.
The class schedule changes every month and can be viewed at www.healthycommunitymhc.org.
When Sarah France, 33, started taking classes in mid-February, she was an aerobics novice. She found out about the program through Martinsville City Schools, where she works as a teacher, and “got hooked” on exercise.
France takes two classes a day, three days a week, at Druid Hills and said she especially likes cardio and step aerobics. Since February, she has lost 28 pounds. “You see the results,” she said.
Lula Hairston, 57, has been taking HCI’s free water aerobics classes at the Martinsville YMCA, but it was her first time trying many of the exercises at the jam session. The step aerobics, yoga and weightlifting were new to her, “but I loved it,” Hairston said.
“I know I’m gonna feel it tomorrow,” she added, laughing.
Now, Hairston said, she has decided to start coming to aerobics classes three nights a week.
“I’m hoping to come off my cholesterol pills,” she said.
She added she has lost 20 pounds already from water aerobics, “so get moving,” she urged others.
These women were not alone in their weight loss. In a quarterly survey of HCI aerobics participants, 33 people reported losing a collective 626 pounds since they began the program, Sawyer said.
Also, in a survey given to jam session participants, at least half reported health improvements since they started working out. These included reducing blood pressure and cholesterol, coming off medications, losing weight, gaining energy, feeling better and sleeping better.
Though the jam session was planned as part of National Women’s Health Week from May 10 to 16, there were some men and even children participating in the workouts Thursday.
The week’s events were meant to “encourage women to take steps to live a longer, happier, healthier life,” Martin said.
“Unfortunately, women do not put themselves first ... so it’s important for them to realize they need to take care of themselves,” Martin said. “Research has shown that if women take care of themselves, the health of the family is going to improve as well.” |
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