By Joel Keller
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Let’s face it: as much as you would like to keep to your fitness plan during the holiday season, there are dozens of reasons why you can be thrown off track.

Kelly Fieldhouse understands. She is in charge of Cedar Crest’s fitness centers, and she sees the same thing every year.

The people who live there, according to Fieldhouse, tend to let their fitness  regimens  fall to the wayside during the holidays, mainly because they just don’t have the time. “But afterwards, the residents will come back to the gym and  say, ‘I realized I ate too much,’ or ‘I haven’t been in because I’ve been busy,’” she says.

Help getting back on the ball
To that end, Fieldhouse and her fitness staff are experts in designing programs to help people get back to where they left off before the revelry began in November.

“We’ll sit with them to find out why they were out and restructure them back into the system,” she says. Even after a week or two of inactivity, many  residents “go back a couple of notches,” as far as strength and conditioning are concerned, from where they were before the holidays.

In addition to the cardio and weight training machines, the fitness staff is also offering some new classes for 2008. Three yoga classes are being offered: Floor Yoga, Chair Yoga, and Yoga Afloat, all of which can accommodate  people of various fitness and flexibility levels. Fieldhouse feels yoga is helpful because “it’s a gentle movement; it strengthens the muscles and increases flexibility, which helps with balance. It’s also a stress reducer.”

As the name would indicate, Yoga Afloat is held in the community’s pool. “The water offers a resistance which is a little harder, so you get twice the benefit,” says Fieldhouse.