UFIT exercise program a hit

Nov-16-08

Losing weight and staying healthy are only a few of the benefits of the exersice program UFIT, says a long-time member.
Anne MacArthur has been attending UFIT classes with a group of co-workers since its early days in 2002 when it was a small lunch-time exercise class.
The upbeat exercise program is now spread over three different areas across the province, has six one-hour classes a week and brings in hundreds of people.
“It’s a laugh and everybody’s a lot of fun. You just have a lot of fun. It seems that everyone is there just to laugh and have a good time,” said MacArthur.
UFIT started small at the old Charlottetown recreation centre with about 10 to 15 people taking part. As more people joined, it moved to UPEI after for about six months and continued there for about four years. After continuously growing, the program had to relocate again. The main base now is Queen Charlotte Elementary.
“Over the course of those years it really started to grow and be part of the culture,” said instructor Gord McNeilly.
McNeilly has been with UFIT since the start and has taught over 1,000 classes so far.
With his degree in kinesiology and background as a military fitness instructor, McNeilly is able to lead UFIT with experience. He said he liked the military but needed a change of pace.
“The military did good things, but they were really boring, so I just said, 'Hey if you could do this and be boring, what could you do if you could add music and excitement to it?” he said.
And as a result McNeilly recruited hundreds of people to join, old and young.
“It's not really an age group, it's more of a mentality and lifestyle. And I think that if you start young, you realize that exercise can be exciting and young, you'll stick with it until your old. So it’s a continuum of life really,” he said.
UFIT gave McNeilly the outlet to do what he wanted.
“I've always been active and wanted to help others and I really didn't think it was possible to do it to this magnitude. It’s grown so much so that it’s become my life. It’s become really exciting to help other people.”
McNeilly’s plan to make exercise fun was a success, said MacArthur, who attends class at Queen Charlotte four times a week.
Going to the gym is great, but UFIT allows you to get out of the continuous regime, she said.
“At UFIT you’re doing it all and you can do it all within an hour.”
The atmosphere is also more encouraging, she said.
“It doesn’t matter that you can’t do all the moves perfectly. It’s the high that you get because you get all this encouragement.”
Many people refer to UFIT as an addiction, said McNeilly. He is happy to hear the word used as a positive rather than negative.
McArthur agrees.
“People say they have an addiction, I’m addicted to UFIT.”