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| - I've been a member of this YMCA since I was 8yrs old. Back in the day, a light blue conversion van would pull up to the neighborhood stop where a group of me and my friends were waiting eagerly to be collected and it would bus us to the downtown Y. You see back then we didn't know we were poor and we certainly didn't know we were part of a program to keep at-risk kids off the streets and out of gangs. We just knew we would get a free breakfast, free lunch, possibly a nap on a cool mat and a full day of Foosball, bumberball, checkers, indoor volleyball and god's eye craft time. Those sure were some fun times!
Fast forward thirty years and I am still a member, this time a paying member. Not much has changed about the Y. They still have programs for the kinds, the elderly, the homeless and they have a great work out facility with some awesome group exercise programs.
I've been taking Marco's cardio kickboxing class for a couple of years and he is a great instructor. I could barely make it through half his class when I first started but I stuck with it and picked up some great shadow boxing moves and I now have endurance to sustain for a full hour of swinging, kicking and bending. I think He's kind of a rock star but I won't tell him that. Most recently I've taken up Zumba and I have to admit, I made fun of it at first. From the outside looking in, it looks silly, however, I gave it a try for two weeks and I am hooked. It's been two months now and I've dropped eight extra pounds by adding Zumba to my cardio workout. Yes people, I am hip-hopping, samba-ing, mambo cha cha-ing my way to fit and I don't care how silly it looks. I feel great! I've got my eye on an early morning yoga class, that trial period starts next week.
With all my time in the gym and in group exercise classes I guess the overall at-risk program has proven successful. It's keeping me out of the bars (at least on weeknights) and off the streets . Yay-Y!
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