Judy Sproat of Buffalo Township is no stranger to working hard during the holiday season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked as a nurse all my life. I always worked holidays and the day after,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t take a day off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sproat, 75, brought the post-holiday habit into her retirement as she spent Friday morning in her Silver Sneakers workout class at the Allegheny Valley YMCA in Harrison. After three shoulder surgeries and decades of gym memberships, the holiday season doesn\u2019t slow her down.<\/p>\n
While many people were busy jump-starting their holiday shopping efforts, Sproat had different priorities for the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just like to be active,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been coming here for 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the intensity of her workouts changing over the years, Sproat said she still loves the community she experiences when she comes to class.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody likes it here,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n
A little exercise Friday morning was nothing out of the ordinary for Kevin O\u2019Toole of Greensburg.<\/p>\n
Burning the calories that he added from his Thanksgiving meal was not his motivation, O\u2019Toole said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sort of on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. It has nothing to do with Thanksgiving,\u201d O\u2019Toole, 72, told TribLive.<\/p>\n
He adds yoga to his weekly exercise routine on Tuesdays and Thursdays.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did have a nice Thanksgiving meal. I tried not to overeat,\u201d O\u2019Toole said.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Toole followed up on his weightlifting by walking on the treadmill.<\/p>\n
Crisie Svitek, 57, of Fawn has been teaching at the Allegheny Valley YMCA since 1999. She spent her Friday morning leading different workout classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really love the people, and I love teaching,\u201d Svitek said.<\/p>\n
She teaches lifting, band and cardio classes. Each class is geared toward people of all mobility levels and age groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s people lined up at our door at 6 o\u2019clock in the morning when we first open,\u201d Svitek said.<\/p>\n
Sproat\u2019s classmates Leslie Plazio, 70, of Ford City and Barb Chirafisi, 69, of Allegheny Township have been friends since second grade. They\u2019ve been attending Svitek\u2019s class together for five years.<\/p>\n
Plazio said her main motivation on Friday was the chance to socialize.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d just be sitting at home doing nothing, so I might as well be here,\u201d Plazio said.<\/p>\n
She also enjoys the physical benefits of the class.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got two new knees, so I try to keep them going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Chirafisi said the class has helped them make connections with other gym-goers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have friends here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a really good group.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plazio echoed the sentiment. While there are a number of gyms \u2014 YMCAs included \u2014 closer to her home, she drives to Natrona Heights each week to be with her friends.<\/p>\n
Chirafisi said the two women attend the class each Wednesday and Friday before doing an activity afterward.<\/p>\n
On Friday, they planned to hit the shops for a little afternoon shopping.<\/p>\n
Debby King, membership director at the Greensburg YMCA, said the facility tends to get a little busier around the holiday, with people coming home to visit family.<\/p>\n
The Greensburg YMCA offers reciprocity to members of other YMCAs.<\/p>\n
For Tom Reed of Columbus, Ohio, who was in Greensburg to spend the holiday with his wife\u2019s family, was maintaining his normal exercise schedule at the Greensburg YMCA.<\/p>\n
He was logging about 2.5 miles on the elliptical machine.<\/p>\n
Reed, 60, a member of the YMCA near his home in Ohio, said he likes to exercise at least six days a week. He does abdomen crunches and swims about two-thirds of a mile.<\/p>\n
His workout Friday morning will help to burn some the calories he packed on at Thanksgiving, when he admittedly ate \u201ca lot of food.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judy Sproat of Buffalo Township is no stranger to working hard during the holiday season. \u201cI worked as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97],"class_list":{"0":"post-319495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}