On certain days of the week, Fit365 isn't your typical gym.
"I really just wanted to bring a program to the community that not only helped fight childhood obesity, which is on the rise right now greatly, but also to improve children's flexibility, endurance, strength, just overall health in general. So I decided to create the group fitness programs," explained Shannon Harris.
Harris runs a kid's fitness class at Fit365 in New Port Richey. It's an opportunity for kids to be active, encouraged and confident.
"So we do all different types of workouts. All the kids are super encouraging of each other, which as a coach, is probably my favorite part. I have some kids that come in, and they tell me they're being teased and bullied in school for their size, their shape. And as a coach, I really hate that. I don't like when they have to come in and tell me that. But they know that when they come in here, it's a safe space. The parents all know that it's a safe space for them. No kids are ever teased or bullied in our classes. They're all cheering each other on. They're all super encouraging of each other, which as a coach, that's probably the most rewarding part," said Harris.
We sat in on a class at Fit365. The kids cheered each other on and had smiles on their faces just about the entire time.
"I do have a lot of kids; they range anywhere from 5 to 17. So I have everywhere from little kindergarteners all the way up to kids in high school, they're getting ready for college. So a lot of them they come in and they want to do specific sports themselves. So we do private lessons as well to help get them ready with specific strength and endurance flexibility for the sport they're already playing, in addition to just becoming healthier. We also do nutrition classes for teens and adults, where we go over how to read food labels. We go over meal planning food groups, basically, anything nutrition related, they're going to get to learn in those classes," explained Harris.
Fit365 is also at the forefront of a new type of technology. They have one of only five EMS suits in the country.
EMS stands for Electric Muscle Stimulation. It's designed to engage all your muscles at once during an exercise. It breaks down a 60-minute exercise into just 15 minutes.
"It's very great for people who have injuries, wherever limited range of motion for those that don't want to put a lot of like load on their spine, and bones and joints in that nature," explained Coach James Suriano. "It's very intense; it'll get your heart rate going, it will get you, you know, pumping, your blood pumping and get you sweating. And when you walk away from it, you definitely feel fatigued, like you had a full workout."
You can read more about their kid and adult programs by clicking here.
