This new year, resolve to get serious about health and fitness.
Don’t join a gym, and be out there on your own. Instead, join Slope Health and Fitness (808 Union Street, 718-783-4343), and learn how to be fit for life.
“We’re not a gym,” says General Manager Jason Daniels. “We provide serious health care.”
This includes educating people about health and fitness, healthy lifestyles, and nutritional counseling. It also means being part of an organization that has taken its members on outdoor field trips that include sky diving, hiking, and rock climbing. What a wonderful way to keep in shape and meet new people who share similar lifestyles.
Slope Health and Fitness is a community-minded organization that takes pride in helping others. They have donated computer equipment to neighborhood schools; provided fitness equipment to the fire department; and contributed to the local library.
The owners, the Kotsonis family, have been part of the neighborhood since the 1920s, says Jason, and they have a long history of “giving back.” “Our involvement in health and fitness extends from the local to the global,” says Jason. “We’ve saved two million square feet of rain forest,” explaining that many of the plants found in the rainforest are used for medicinal purposes.
In addition, they are a “green” company.
“Our electric services are supplied by wind power,” he says. “I’m pretty sure we’re the only club in the area that can say that.”
This scientific approach encompasses the way they promote fitness. Each member receives a lifestyle fitness assessment, so that a program is designed to meet individual needs and lifestyles. For example, some people may sit for extended periods of time during the day, while others spend most of the day standing. This impacts one’s muscular- skeletal system, and this will be analyzed, says Jason. After a period of eight weeks, it will be assessed again. In this way, each person’s needs are always being re-evaluated, and exercises can be adjusted accordingly.
The Medical Exercise Specialist on staff teaches techniques that deal with many issues, including posture, which can impact one’s entire body. For example, “Poor posture can affect circulation,” says Jason.
A number of classes, such as the Flexibility and Post-Rehabilitation class, focus on improving movement and lengthening muscles. Corrective exercises are an important part of the curriculum. Program Director Renee Daniels says that lifestyle training, such as Stretch Therapy classes, “help people to learn new disciplines and manage pain.”
Intriguing classes include pre- and post-natal classes; ‘Ballet-body/yoga-mind’ classes; Tai Chi; and Yoga.
“Programming is fused together to get the most out of the experience,” says Renee. It also provides members with variety so they stay motivated.
All trainers are nationally certified, then Slope Health and Fitness goes above and beyond to further educate and train them so that they can better meet the specific needs of members and the areas they look to target, be they weight reduction, strength training, or rehabilitative.
Group fitness classes are “the pulse” of Slope Health and Fitness, says Renee, and there have been “about 10 new classes in the last year or two,” to serve the desires of the community. No previous experience is required to participate. “Our instructors will modify techniques to meet your personal abilities,” she says. Boxing, Spinning, Pilates, and On the Ball classes are among those offered.
There’s no excuse not to get in shape and keep in shape this year. Slope Health and Fitness is open Mondays through Fridays, from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Fridays, from 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and on Saturdays and Sundays, from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
