Winter Wonderland in Studio X

Talk about the winter of our discontent.

It seems that our newest Group Exercise space was running at record low temperatures, no matter what we did to the thermostats in the room. This amazing tree house, Studio X, was extremely uncomfortable during this unusually long cold snap Florida’s been enjoying. And since the classes programmed in here are two-thirds Yoga/Pilates/Stretch, this made classes that much more uncomfortable.

It became obvious after several complaints from instructors and members alike that the best efforts of our facilities staff and other directors were going to be for naught. The HVAC system was not operating as expected. This weekend became so cold that we had to switch several classes between the Fitnasium and Studio X for safety.

But we can all gather round the drum circle and celebrate because as of this morning (Monday, January 11, 2010) our new construction team located and repaired the trouble. The room will now become nice and toasty with toggle of a key! In addition, we’ve also determined that the room can be cooled down very quickly for those classes requiring lower temperatures. All classes can now go back to business as usual without the necessity of five or six layers.

And with that, on to the apologies. To all staff and members who’ve been uncomfortable and extremely patient, we’re sorry and thanks for hanging in there.

Things will go wrong again, believe it. Please continue to keep us informed on your thoughts on all matters related to the operation of your Family Center. We will never be able to make every single suggested change or equip the facility with every piece of suggested equipment or make your favorite instructor teach every class at every one of your available times. But if you don’t let us know what you’re thinking, we can’t count your vote when the time comes to review our systems/staff/facilities.

There are lots of ways to let us know what you’re thinking. The best way to let us know what’s on your mind is to grab any of our Directors when you’re in the building. We’re also happy to speak with you by phone at (407)896-6901. E-mail is another way to let us know what’s what. Comment cards work as well, but are really most effective when you give us your name and a way to contact you. We occasionally get the “the showers are too hot”, “you should offer fried chicken at your café”, “you should only let Barabara teach cycle”, “you should never let Barabara teach cycle”, “we need another pool”, or “give us Aerial Yoga” comment cards without any contact info. Each of these definitely require our response, but not necessarily to the membership at large, and without at least a name and number, we can’t have that conversation. A last way to post your ideas are by commenting on these blog entries or going to http://www.centralfloridaymca.net and clicking the ‘FEEDBACK’ tab at the left of the home page. But please remember that we reserve the right to censor inappropriate language, explicit or implicit. We are the Y, after all. And anonymity in your posts has less impact, so let us know who you are.

OK. Enough for now. Look for more soon. There’s lots for us to talk about!

Thrill the World - 2009

One week before Halloween, October 25th at 12:30AM GMT (October 24th, 8:30PM local time), 41 persons at the Downtown Orlando YMCA danced Michael Jackson's Thriller for 5 minutes & 58 seconds at the same time as 22,882 other persons in 32 countries around the world.

This is the first year we've participated in this event, so it was a kind of a test run. Next year, we'll be looking for two to three hundred! BTW, next year's is Sunday, October 24, 2010, 04:30am GMT/UTC. That's probably 12:30AM our time (just after the witching hour). I will need a team of volunteers for that crowd, including volunteers responsible for recruiting sponsorship and raising funds for charity.
Things I learned from this experience:

ANYONE can learn to dance.

ANYONE can learn this dance in less than two hours.

Dancing IS a workout.

Practice dancing in the performance shoes before showtime.

Even for a smaller event, one man cannot run the show alone. (Thanks again, volunteers!)

Always have a plan 'B'.

Faux leather does not breathe well.
Ginormous thanks to Penny & Ray who did not participate, but effectively handled all the admin stuff before and during the event and to Hayley, Nancy B, and Kathleen for helping before and/or after as well as dancing and to my dance captains on alert, Nancy G & Yvonne.
If you want to peruse some of the photos, go here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/31395434@N06/sets/72157622538761613/). If you want to see the 'official' video, go here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uuSJk26hds). If you want to see a better version of the video, go here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4gkbPY-b5Y).

Hope to see hundreds of you next year

BODYPUMP 71 Release Celebration

This last weekend was the release celebration of BODYPUMP71 at the Downtown YMCA. As part of the celebration, we incorporated a fun little contest called “So You Think You Can Lift?” where participants had to match Tim for males and Kelsi for females, pound for pound, rep for rep, and all with perfect form and control. This release was so strong that we celebrated over two days, Friday & Sunday, with four instructors each day! One male and one female participant in each celebration walked away with two thirty-minute personal training sessions just for being the best at hanging with our team. While no one successfully matched or beat our instructor team, Jason and Katherine took home the prizes on Friday and Allison and JC walked away with free PT on Sunday, but only barely edging out our other competitors. Congratulations to Jennifer, Karen, Nancy, James, Chirag, Hayley, Danielle, Mary, Anne, Travis, & Josh for standing toe to toe with our team in the spirit of competition.

Nancy & Bari led the bulk of the tracks through which all celebrators, competitors and non alike, hurt so good. Loud & proud, no one walked away without feeling a little stronger and a little healthier. A handful of Friday’s pics are available here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/31395434@N06/sets/72157622451759674/). Next time we’ll have to bring out our resident photographer, Beth, to capture the memories.

Next release will be around the New Year, so keep an eye out in three months! Until then, train, train, train!

Fall 2009 Group Exercise Schedules

The Fall 2009 schedules start one week from today!!!! They can be downloaded here. Make sure you look at the last page on the schedule without names for bullet points of the changes and the thoughts behind.

See you in the Family Center!!!

Labor Day Group Exercise Schedule

You can grab the Labor Day Group Exercise schedule in the Family Center or check it out here (http://www.centralfloridaymca.net/LaborDay2009.php).

We're going with a dance theme, but there will be other options as well. Even the Cycling music will be themed various dance decades or genres.

Don't forget the Family Center opens at 7AM and closes at 4PM. Group Programming starts at 7:15AM and the last class starts at 12:30PM, but finishes at 2PM.

Group Exercise Survey

Our recently assembled voluntary Group Exercise committee would love your feedback on a survey about schedules. If you didn't already get the invitation e-mail, please click here to participate.

Dance Trance

Dance Trance exploded last Wednesday night with over 50 folks packed into Studio X. We're looking for more this Wednesday. 5:30. 55 minutes. Fitnasium. Be there!