When Shelburne Health & Fitness purchased the Field House Athletic Club in October 2010, we went right to work with renovations and were thrilled with the result.  Now we’re on to phase II which includes enlarging the Men’s Locker Room (finally!), moving the front desk to the door, moving our offices, creating much needed storage space and creating a new private Pilates Studio.  This will be followed by the creation of a new Yoga studio and quiet stretching area.  We hope you’re as excited about the renovations as we are!

We had so much fun with the 2011 Holiday Rowing Challenge through Concept2, that we’ve been forming a new virtual rowing team.  The January 2012 Challenge is a team challenge to see how many meters a team can row in a month.  We’re well under way, and as of this writing, our team is placed 27th out of 255 teams!  We’d love to have YOU join the team!  None of our current team members were regular rowers prior to the Holiday challenge and that team came in 96th place out of 1470 affiliate teams with over 1.5 million meters rowed.  It’s THAT motivating to be on the team.

Being part of a rowing team has been GREAT FUN!  Even though there is no minimum requirement for how many meters any participant must row, you’re going to find that you will WANT to row far more than you may now think just by being on the team.  It is great motivation – just ask anyone who’s already on the team!

If you would like to join the team, just go to www.concept2.com and sign up for an online log (it’s free).  Once you have an online log, go to your online log page and click on the link for “Teams”.  On that new page, you’ll see a place where you can choose which team you’d like to be on.  Scroll down to find Shelburne Health & Fitness and select it.  You’ll be prompted to send an email to our Team Captain (Ute Talley).  There’s no need to put anything in the body of the email.  Concept2 will add the information that she needs to add you to the team, which she will then do.

The final step, once Ute has added you to the team will be for you to go back to the Teams page and click on the yellow highlighted link to indicate that you plan to be an active member of the team.  If you’re one of the next 5 to join the team, you’ll receive a free Concept2 logbook.  You can go ahead and start logging your meters right away and then enter them once you’re all set up online.

Consider joining us.  It really has been a blast and the enthusiasm in contagious!

As many of you know, we recently held a fund raiser to benefit the Mount Family Education Fund.  With the help of Sam Usen and Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots, and the generous donations of many of you, we were able to raise over $700 in a very short time!  Shelburne Health & Fitness and RaceVermont.com put all the names of those who contributed into a hat and drew out one lucky slip of paper.  Bob & Marcia Bristow of Shelburne, Vermont are the lucky winners of the calendar.  Thank you so much to everyone who donated.  Your donations will make a big difference in the lives of Stephen and Karen Mount’s children.

Want to exercise for a great cause – other than staying healthy?  Join Rayne, Ute and other SHF members in the 2011 Holiday Rowing Challenge.  Just row 100,000 or 200,000 meters between now and Christmas Eve and Concept2 will donate $.02 for every kilometer to a charity of your choice (The Vermont Disaster Relief Fund, The Red Cross, or Unicef).  100,000 meters isn’t as tough as you may think.  We’ll be posting results on the bulletin board.  It’s not too late to start! Click here for more details on the challenge, and then talk to anyone at the front desk to have your name put up on the poster where we’ll track the club’s progress.

You’ve probably walked by the Pilates Studio more times than you can count, but if you haven’t seen the equipment in use – or even tried it yourself, you have no idea what you’re missing!  Please drop in for our Pilates Open Studio on Thursday, November 3 at 5:30 pm to see what Pilates is all about.  If you’re tempted to give it a try after the Open Studio, take advantage of 3 introductory private lessons for only $99 offered only during our Open Studio!

New Ski Conditioning private/semi-private sessions are being offered at Shelburne Health & Fitness. Why take this class? This is your chance to prepare for the slopes without even setting foot on a resort until the trails are ready for you! Improve core strength, balance, agility, and cardio to prepare for the long, awesome days up on the mountain. Who’s teaching? Ren Collier, Certified Personal Trainer. Ren has been training at Shelburne Health & Fitness for the past year helping members out with sports and activities such as hockey, skiing, and mountain climbing. Come for one session or train all the way through the season!  Contact Ren for more details at Ren.Collier10@gmail.com or (802) 224-6676.

Congratulations to Charlene and Dan on their recent marriage!  We couldn’t be more happy for this incredibly special couple.  It’s wonderful to see dreams come true!

We are so pleased to have Peter O’Connor with us teaching Meditation on Sunday mornings at 8 in the Yoga studio.  What a wonderful way to begin a day!  So many of us do so much to strengthen our muscles and our cardiovascular systems when we’re at the club, but how many are taking care of the soul?  If you’ve never tried meditation before, please consider attending.  Your first class is free and after that, it’s only $20 for the month.  Click here for more details.  Hope to see you Sunday morning!

Oh!  And by the way, if you’d like to take meditation, but can’t make it on Sundays, please let us know what time would work for you.  We may add another class!

If you’re interested in learning more about Peter, check out this recent article from the Charlotte Citizen.

Join Ren for this ever-changing class to help you get ready for Summer!  This 5 week class meets on Mondays and Thursdays at 8:45 am, and will sometimes meet inside, and weather permitting, will sometimes meet outside.  Ren will show you how to use many forms of exercise to get fit.  With any luck, you’ll get turned on to a form of exercise that you’ll want to stick with!  No experience is needed, just the desire to have fun and get fit!  Click here for more information.

Shelburne Health & Fitness and Racevermont.com are extremely pleased to announce that we will be hosting two of the 2011 Vermont Senior Championships (State Senior Olympics) this summer.  Please read our press release for more details and go to www.racevermont.com to register.