Bloomingdale offers taste of fitness at open house
A new Bloomingdale Park District event held Saturday morning gave residents a taste of something healthy — fitness.
The first Fitness Open House featured free trials of exercise classes including Beginner Bootcamp, Zumba, Zumba Gold and Pi-Yo Fusion.
“It’s nice to give everyone a taste of the classes,” said Rebecca Chudik, recreation supervisor.
The park district opened up the aerobics studio at Johnston Recreation Center, 172 S. Circle Ave., for anyone with a New Year’s resolution to get in shape, or anyone simply wanting a morning of exercise.
“We’re definitely trying to promote getting active, getting healthy — especially for the new year,” Chudik said. “We want people to stick with it.”
More than a dozen people, most of them women, attended the two-hour event and participated in 20-minute versions of usually hourlong classes that involved dancing, stretching, stomping, clapping and working the abs.
“What’s nice is it’s all new people,” Josh Hendricks, park district spokesman, said about the Fitness Open House attendees. “None of these are our regular participants.”
Rosanna Catapano of Bloomingdale said she came to try out the park district’s fitness classes because she feels “ready to get back in shape” this new year. With two young children, she said she’s looking for an exercise program that can fit into her schedule, and she may have found one Saturday morning.
“I really liked Bootcamp. It was a good workout,” Catapano said about the class involving strength training and cardiovascular exercises with hand weights, resistance bands and stability balls. “I just thought I’d try it out to see what I’d like.”
For those who missed the open house, some classes are offering a free session in the coming months, Chudik said. Hot yoga will be free from 7:15 to 8:30 p.m. Monday and March 18 at the Johnston Recreation Center, and Tai Chi for Health will be free from 1 to 2 p.m. April 24 also at the Johnston Recreation Center.
Many adult fitness classes begin in the coming week, and registration is available at online, by fax to (630) 529-9184 or at the Johnston Recreation Center.