YouFit Gyms is launching a walking club for seniors as a part of their Senior Fit-izens program. The interactive program “Globetrotters” gives seniors a way to stay physically active while providing a healthy, fun experience and social interaction with others that can help improve their mental health.
The dangers of a sedentary lifestyle are increasingly being recognized as a public health issue. In fact, second to smoking, inactivity is a leading cause of death. For this reason, it is essential to keep your body moving, and Youfit aims to help with its challenge to “globetrot” the world.
Participants in the program are called “Globetrotters.” The objective is to “tour the globe” by walking the equivalent of the distance between well-known landmarks.
Marketing Operations Manager Tara Woodley described YouFit’s new six-week program to The Dallas Express.
She explained that Senior Fit-izen Globetrotters “will try to walk about 3 miles a week in each class. After six weeks, that equals about 18 miles. Eighteen miles is the distance of their first ‘Globetrot,'” which is the approximate distance from Versailles, France, to the Eiffel Tower.
During the next six weeks, Woodley said, the program will take the Globetrotters “somewhere else in the world. Maybe across the width of the Grand Canyon or from Cairo to the Egyptian pyramids. Those are all about 18 miles.”
Each participant will receive a YouFit pedometer to keep and track their miles throughout the “summer travel” journey.
In addition, participating YouFit Gym locations will have “passports” that allow members to log their miles on the six-week trek. To add an element of challenge to the fun, participants can also see others’ progress.
The Globetrotters program starts on Monday, June 20, and will run through August 31.
“Every launch location has their designated times and day when their class is taking place,” Woodley added. “Not all clubs have the same schedule, but it is just once a week.”
Being involved in a walking program can help improve one’s health. Brisk walking may result in greater cognitive gains and less memory decline over an extended period than gentle stretching, according to Rong Zhang, who spoke to The New York Times.
Zhang is a neurology professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Zhang oversaw a one-year study detailing how aerobic exercise reduced carotid arterial stiffness and increased cerebral blood flow in people with mild cognitive impairment.
To get more steps in, Zhang suggests “parking farther away” when you shop or commute and trying to raise your heart rate by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Zhang believes doing so may help preserve your long-term memory and thinking abilities.
YouFit’s Globetrotters are invited to attend a themed “celebratory social” at the end of the first journey, commemorating their fitness and globetrotting achievement. Each YouFit location will offer guests refreshments, vendors, and prizes.
For those seeking guidance in attaining their fitness goals, YouFit offers personal training, HIIT+, and YouFit On-Demand classes with workouts that can be done at home or while traveling. YouFit gym memberships start at $4.99 a month.
To join the Senior Fit-izens program, visit one of these metroplex YouFit Gym locations or youfit.com.
YouFit Gym locations:
- Dallas — 7989 Belt Line Road, Suite #200.
- Garland — 3265 Broadway Boulevard, Suite #102.
- Mesquite — 2524 N. Galloway Avenue.
- Richardson — 1301 E. Belt Line Road.
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