The Future of Fitness at the Preble County YMCA

By Elizabeth Saunders
Eaton Register Herald

The Preble county YMCA has recently brought exercise into the 21st century with the addition of two innovative pieces of equipment.

One, the SportWall, is geared toward helping kids and adults stay fit while having fun.

The other, MobileFit, is designed to keep adults on track with an interactive computer program which personalizes their workout and gives t hem one-on-one training, according to Ben Davis, director of the YMCA.

The SportWall is a new fitness station that uses lights, sounds and dozens of programmable games to provide a multi-sensory exercise session.

By using balls, pool noodles, beanbags or hands and feet to strike the targets and incorporating different individual exercises or team relays, both kids and adults can get a complete workout and have lots of fun at the same time, according to Davis.

The exercise involves a cardiovascular workout and develops hand, feet ear and eye coordination. The wall can be played in teams or individually and is for both adults and children.

“In the world of fitness and exercise, especially when working with kids, there is this trend toward computers and televisions and everything interactive. So companies have begun to research and develop and integrate things like that into fitness and exercise,” he added.

According to Davis, though the technology is relatively new, some elementary schools, rec centers and YMCAs have begun to get on board with this new trend in children’s fitness; however, it is only now beginning to gain momentum and grow in popularity.

“We’re the only YMCA in a pretty broad radius that has one, the closest one I know if other than ours is in Pennsylvania,” Davis said.

As of Dec. 15, a YMCA staff member will lead family SportWall games on Friday from 6-8 p.m. and group/individual SportWall games on Saturdays from 2-4 p.m. These programs will be free to members.

According to Davis, SportWall will soon be integrated into some of the YMCA’s existing programs. Exercise programs such as Cardio Blast, Toning and others may occasionally move into the gymnasium to incorporate SportWall activities into their routines.

Youth sports leagues at the YMCA such as basketball, soccer, volleyball and other will soon be utilizing SportWall during practice time to help children improve passing, kicking, throwing accuracy, hand-eye coordination and agility.

MobileFit is designed to help members who often struggle with the fundamentals of using a fitness facility. As a result, they become frustrated, complacent, and eventually quit, according to MobileFit’s CEO Lance Perkins, who was recently at the YMCA installing the new equipment.

“Every workout begins at the MobileFit kiosk. Members initially sign up using the MobileFit “workout wizard.” Every member is assigned to a YMCA fitness director or fitness counselor who monitors their progress. “Now the fitness counselors can focus on the key people who need the most help,” Perkins said.

According to Perkins, once members are registered in the MobileFit system, they can log into the kiosk at any time, receive a customized printed workout for that day and track their progress. Members can even download their workouts, as well as the 12-week fitness program, into their MP3 player.

“The MobileFit workout log provides a workout reflective of each member’s unique preferences and physical goals. The workouts adapt and change every day, keeping your members ‘guessing’ and anticipating their next workout,” Perkins said.

“This exciting new addition is specifically designed to challenge people and keep them moving forward toward their goals,” Davis said.

“And, it’s not just limited to the strength training machines,” he added. “They can enter their cardio workout or the number of laps they swam in the pool, and it captures all of our group exercise classes.”

The workout logs show a picture of every exercise, as well as how many sets, reps and how much weight to use. It also has a place for members to record their weight and reps to input back into the MobileFit system.

Not only can members access this information at the kiosk in the YMCA’s fitness center, but because it’s web-based, members can access all of their information from their home computer, viewing their results and progress, according to Davis.

MobileFit is free to members and was tentatively scheduled to be available for member use on December 18.