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Where To Keep Your Resolution To Get Fit on the Far Northwest Side

By Heather Cherone | January 19, 2015 8:38am
  With more than a half-dozen new places to work out on the Far Northwest Side, there is no reason for your New Year's resolution to die a slow death on a treadmill.
New Places to Work Out in the New Year
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NORWOOD PARK — With more than a half-dozen new places to work out on the Far Northwest Side, there is no reason for your New Year's resolution to die a slow death on a treadmill.

With Fly Girl Dance & Fitness, 6126 N. Northwest Hwy., a new CorePower Yoga studio, 4126 N. Peterson Ave., and two new Crossfit gyms, there are more places than ever to feel the burn — and more options means you have a better chance of finding a community to support you, and sticking with it, fitness experts say.

After teaching aerobics for 20 years, Kymberlee Raya opened Fly Girl Dance four months ago after a dance studio closed in downtown Norwood Park.

And for Raya, getting — and staying fit — means forgetting that exercise is work entirely, and letting your inner Jennifer Lopez shine.

"It's a party, and it makes it fun," said Raya, who offers "Hip Hop Hustle" and "Booty Bootcamp" to her studio's nearly 200 members. "We try silly things, and that puts everyone at ease."

Much like a neighborhood bar, Raya wants everyone to know your name — and makes a point of welcoming new members that way.

"We want to be a spot for the community to come and feel good," Raya said. "All ages, all sizes, all abilities. We work to every level."

And while it might seem that Fly Girl Dance has very little in common with CrossFit Chisel, which opened in March in the Six Corners Shopping District, the two workout places have a similar philosophy.

"The lone wolves are going to drop off," said Ailime Durante, head coach and owner of CrossFit Chisel, 4862-64 W. Irving Park Road. "The secret sauce is developing a good group dynamic."

And while CrossFit — which participants sometimes joke is all about picking heavy things up and putting them down — can be intimidating for the novice exerciser, Durante offers a three-week introductory class to help people learn the basics in CrossFit's three categories — cardio, weightlifting and gymnastic movements.

"It is always a small group, with beginners, and they are all out of shape," Durante said. "That makes them feel better and relax. Then they make friends."

While at a regular gym people might work out near the same people day after day, CrossFit buddies become friends outside of the gym and tend to hold each other accountable and cheer each other's big accomplishments, Durante said.

"The key is to plug into the community," Durante said.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans make a New Year's Resolution, and 10 percent of those promises are workout-related, according to Forbes magazine.

But as any gym regular knows, the wait time for a favorite elliptical machine will be back down to normal by Valentine's Day, as people get discouraged or bored and quit.

Greg Chertok, a sports psychologist and personal trainer, said most resolutions are "catastrophically grand" and doomed to fail from the very beginning.

"We tend to ramp up the intensity in January," Chertok said, adding that many people choose activities that they don't have the skills or aptitude to maintain over the long term.

"That's why I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions," Chertok said.

But if you are going to make a resolution, pick something you are eager to do and develop a plan, he said.

"Good intentions aren't enough," Chertok said. "You have to plan to overcome those obstacles." 

People who set goals and achieve them are motivated by internal goals that stem from their owns desires and needs, while those who fail often are motivated by external goals, often to lose weight, Chertok said.

And the choices people make about how to work out also can get scrambled by societal expectations, Chertok said, such as a woman vowing to go to a dance class that all of her friends love, despite the fact that she knows she has two left feet.

"If you don't like something, don't pick it up," Chertok said. "It sounds simple, but it can be tough to figure out where your inherent interests lie."

And once you find something you like, it is important not to sabotage yourself with poor food choices and mindless eating, said Cathy Karnuth, fitness director of the Irving Park YMCA, which draws people from Jefferson Park and Portage Park.

"I've found that it is not hard for people to start exercising, but it is very hard for people to own what they eat," Karnuth said, adding that she recommends that everyone keep a food journal when starting a fitness regimen.

Even someone who is working out diligently won't see any results if they are still snacking without thinking about how many calories they are consuming, Karnuth said.

"It can turn into a negative feedback loop," Karnuth said. "They don't see changes, so they stop, and start the cycle all over again."

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