Neighborhood Fit Trail

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‘Neighborhood Fit Trails’ help make everyone stays in shape

Alocal gym is shaking up the neighborhood.

Hill Country Memorial Wellness Center staff responded to the COVID-19 pandemic the only way they know how by making sure Fredericksburg stays in shape.

One way they’ve done this is by creating multiple “Neighborhood Fit Trails” in town.

Shannon Maenius, an ACE-certified personal trainer and AFFA-certified group instructor at the Wellness Center, says the responses have been positive.

“I have had lots of families who are using it as P.E. for their kids,” Maenius said. “Lots of people who exercise regularly, since the gyms have been closed, they’ve been looking for ways to work out and get more than just walking, biking or running. The strength training stations have given them the option for strength since they can’t get in the gym. Then, I’ve had people who’ve said they’ve just started exercising during this pandemic and they’ve been home.

“It’s been a perfect way to get out and have some instruction and some structure to their workout that they were doing for the first time. It’s kind of cool.”

The idea came when Wellness Center director John Phelps noticed a number of runners, walkers and cyclists out and about on the normal Wildflower Run route.

A handwritten sign of encouragement greets visitors on the Hill Country Memorial Wellness Center’s “Neighborhood Fit Trail” near Fredericksburg Middle School. — Submitted photo

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The Wellness Center has a fitness trail outside of the building, so the center’s trainers came up with an idea to bring it to the streets.

“I thought about what we could do at the Wellness Center to help them get a little more exercise in and a little more fitness during this time when everybody’s out,” Phelps said. “That’s where the root of the idea came in. Many years ago, we did the fit trail that’s by the hospital. So how could I get it out in the community? I worked with our group trainers and we came up with 10 exercises that will do the whole body, are pretty easy to execute and didn’t need any extra equipment and could be done on the sidewalk or using the curb.”

The first Neighborhood Fit Trails went up in mid-April.

Maenius designed a 10-station, strength training trail in the neighborhood behind Fredericksburg Middle School, which runs two miles and incorporates part of the normal Wildflower Run 5K route.

“That’s why it’s called the Wildflower Neighborhood Fit Trail,” Phelps said.

Exercises don’t have to be done in any order, so residents can start at any point and get a full body workout.

HCM’s marketing department pitched in by making plastic signs to post in yards throughout the trails.

Maenius said no one refused when asked if a sign could go in their yard and Fredericksburg Independent School District superintendent Jeffrey Brasher allowed Wellness Center staff to post signs at the middle school.

Phelps came up with a trail along Windcrest Street between Milam and Adams streets with hospital employees in mind.

“He put the 10 stations up and down the sidewalk at Windcrest,” Maenius said. “The CEO of the hospital (Jayne Pope) encouraged all the staff who are working during this time to take their break and go out and use that sidewalk to get some exercise.”

“What we found were that the Wellness Center employees like me, we were enjoying getting out and walking the block because we were cooped up inside and having to adjust to the COVID surge and the prep,” Phelps said. “We put one there. It was really for the hospital workers, to get them out and get them in the sun.”

Another, a one-mile route was made for a neighborhood near Cross Mountain, and a trail also went in at Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park.

Phelps is working with the City of Llano to install a Neighborhood Fit Trail at a riverside park Thursday, May 7.

More information

HCM Wellness Center has instruction videos corresponding with the routes and route maps available on its Facebook page (HCM Wellness Center) and at https://www.hillcountrymemorial.org/hcm-wellness-center-neighborhood-fit-trail/.

The Wellness Center also provides other exercise opportunities through social media.

Videos of other classes typically available at the Wellness Center are also available on the same Facebook page, free of charge.

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