Functional fitness room offers more exercise opportunities

The Tuscarawas County YMCA in Dover recently opened a functional fitness room, an area of the facility’s basement, to serve those looking for more opportunities to work out. One of the features is a large television that continuously runs a slate of Les Mills video exercise classes. Most classes are 15-30 minutes in length.

Ryan Hursey, a longtime employee and aquatics instructor who has worked at several YMCAs since 1995, is spearheading the transition of the space. He currently serves as the health and wellness director.

The videos are aimed at attracting Millennials, Gen-Zers, businesspeople or anyone who wants to come in for a quick workout and then get back to their lives. It’s also for anyone who wants to try a class on their own terms.

“We have several different class formats, like the body pump and a body balance, which is a yoga-type format. We try to do different ones to get people interested,” Hursey said. “People can just drop in.”

Other classes include body combat, body attack, core and dance. The schedule is available on the YMCA website.

There are some in-person classes scheduled in the early morning in the room, but it is available most of the time. Les Mills classes follow the same schedule for seven weeks, and then Hursey is able to change them. He would like suggestions if people would like to see the schedule modified to fit the classes they want with the time they have available.

The room is equipped with body pump equipment like bars, dumbbells, medicine balls, barrel ropes, step benches, mats and more. The area is open to others who want to follow their own exercise programs as well. The functional fitness room is available for members age 15 and over and children age 8 and up with a parent.

“The floor is set up kind of like astro turf,” Hursey said.

The room even facilitates agility drills.

“We do have equipment where they can do small hurdles or equipment if they want to do agility,” Hursey said.

He would love to hear some suggestions as to other types of equipment members would like.

“One of my goals in the next few years is add a partial climbing wall so it’s more upper body. That’s the stuff I really get into. One of our goals is we really want to add, if possible, and we’ve actually had staff ask about it, is what’s called bungee fitness where it’d be actually hanging from the ceiling,” Hursey said.

One hurdle to putting these classes in place is getting instructors. If people are interested in teaching, they can contact Hursey.

“If that’s something you want to do, we will help you and work with you,” Hursey said.

They also can do a team approach where new instructors can lead a couple of songs and not an entire class. Hursey also is willing to work with high school or college students who want to get into the fitness industry.

There are two flights of steps down to the functional fitness room, but Hursey is looking to provide more exercise opportunities to members of all abilities. He wants to provide space, opportunity and equipment so they can be as active as possible.

“We want to meet what your needs are. If we aren’t meeting them, tell me and we can try to figure something out,” Hursey said.

With the Les Mills video exercise program subscription, the YMCA is able to run classes on more than one television at a time, and they are looking to provide these activities on the main floor in the near future. They also would like to include them in the 24/7 fitness area for members to use anytime. They also are looking at the ability for members to select a class on demand.

The Les Mills program also provides classes for children that could be incorporated into the preschool program or the day camps in the summer in the future.

Hursey said those members who hadn’t heard about the functional fitness room before are impressed when he shows it to them. Others are excited about the virtual classes as they are not comfortable doing group classes. The area also provides an alternative to the large fitness room with an indoor walking track area that can sometimes get congested.

“One older gentleman came down, and when he saw the virtual classes, he was so excited,” Hursey said. “He said this is the greatest thing.”

Visit www.tuscymca.org/schedules.