On Friday, February 21, the La Porte County Family YMCA hosted another one of its Fitness Friday events. The theme for this Friday was cycling, and exercise-lovers at both the Y and The Crossing engaged in an hour of hard yet enjoyable indoor cycling.
This Fitness Friday is just one in a series of many Fitness Fridays the Y holds throughout the year. Joy Zigler, Marketing Assistant at the La Porte YMCA, explained, “Fitness Fridays are usually every Friday in the summertime, and in the winter we just pick some select Fridays to try to keep people involved and thinking healthy all through the wintertime.”
Staying active in the winter can be challenging, but the Y does a great job offering fun and rewarding activities for all determined to keep in shape. Cindy Berchem, Executive Director at the Y, elaborated on the importance of the Y’s winter fitness programs. She stated, “It’s very important. It’s good for your body, your mind, and your soul. It’s not only for health reasons, but it’s good for family-togetherness time. It’s good for your entire well-being.”
Indoor cycling, the chosen exercise for this Fitness Friday, had everyone sweating and smiling as they tried to follow their energetic instructor. At the Y, the instructor was Billy Nickrand, a volunteer who also is the pastor at Door Village United Methodist Church. He led the cyclists through several series of exercises which included cycling at various speeds for various amounts of time with different resistances.
Nickrand explained the origins of his passion for bicycling, “I love bicycling. When I was a kid and I was about to get my license, I made a vow that I would never give up my bicycle. I’ve been bicycling all my life, and I absolutely love it. Lance Armstrong helped with that; he was a great cyclist and I wanted to be like him.”
If cycling is not the exercise for you, other Fitness Fridays throughout the year offer different exercises. Zigler said, “We have swimming, we had Zumbathon, running track, treadmills, different aerobics classes; it can vary from time to time. In the summertime, it’s basically biking and walking outside every week.”
Although this is the last Fitness Friday for a while, they are expected to start back up at the end of March or early April. These upcoming events will be the start of the outdoor Fitness Fridays.
The YMCA would also like to acknowledge its fellow sponsors for these events. The City of La Porte, General Insurance Services, IU Health, and the La Porte Savings Bank all play a part in making the Fitness Fridays a success and in promoting healthy living throughout La Porte.