For Ellie Snyder, a working mother of two young children, staying active is not only a fact of life, it’s a necessity. Constantly on the move with her six year old daughter and two year old son in tow, Snyder is a certified personal trainer through ACE (American Council on Exercise) and manages the corporate fitness center for Chemtura Corporation in West Virginia and her household. But Snyder is managing much, much more.
Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1995 Snyder insists, “I have many challenges in my every day life but it's important that I keep my body moving,” stated Snyder, who resides in Fairmont, West Virginia. “When people with MS give up, the disease takes over. Yoga and working out are an important part of my life and the CYBEX Arc Trainer is part of my regular routine.”
Snyder was chosen as the Grand Prize winner in the “Share Your CYBEX Fitness Story” web contest and will be awarded a Home Arc Trainer for herself and a commercial 630A Arc Trainer to the fitness club or charitable organization of her choice. Ms. Snyder has chosen to donate the commercial 630A Arc Trainer to Fairmont Fitness, Fairmont, West Virginia.
”The CYBEX Total Body Arc Trainer is versatile enough to accommodate any and every workout need,” wrote Snyder in her contest entry. “I have found no other piece of equipment to do that. On days when fatigue sets in, I can keep my routine moderate like a slow stroll in the park and on days when I feel great, I can really crank it up and I often compare the workout to rock climbing Mt. Everest!”
The CYBEX Fitness story contest, co-launched with the company’s new website, www.cybexintl.com, generated entries from around the globe from places like the UK, Dubai and Australia to consumers residing next door to CYBEX corporate headquarters in Massachusetts.
CYBEX awarded a runner-up prize and will deliver a Home Arc Trainer to Angela Willis of Watkinsville, Georgia.
“A lot of people work out to lose weight. I didn’t have weight to lose but using the Arc Trainer has truly changed my body composition,” said Willis, a single mom who works out at Body Plex, a local facility in Athens, GA. “I am 40 years old and feel and look better than I did at 20. College girls stop me in the gym and ask me about the Arc Trainer, how to use it and how they can get the same results as me.”
Willis also mentioned, “I was accustomed to going for an hour on the elliptical machine, but was amazed that I could only last 30 minutes on the Arc Trainer. I could see a huge difference in my endurance, my muscles were more toned, especially my glutes.”
Trends in the fitness industry come and go, but one has captured the attention and stayed with the public like no other; functional training. Exercises promoting benefits to specific functions have exploded in our gyms with a seemingly endless myriad of methods and exercises being offered. The functional training movement continues to grow at a rapid pace gathering new converts daily. However, the movement itself may be based more on opinions and beliefs rather than on empirical scientific evidence.
Dr. Paul Juris, Executive Director of the CYBEX Institute, asks the question “What is functional exercise?” Click here for his full article: The Truth on Fitness…Functional Training.
CYBEX has become a media darling and continues to capture the national spotlight. The Discovery Channel recently visited CYBEX’s Owatonna facility to chronicle the making of the Arc Trainer for a HOW IT’S MADE television segment. The air date is slated for later this year. National Geographic will showcase CYBEX on its show, WHO KNEW, again featuring the manufacturing prowess of the company. The air date for this show is expected to be this summer.
"CYBEX is a benchmark in manufacturing and has a great story to show and tell," stated Lynn Luczkowski of L2 Communications, who handles public relations for CYBEX. "It seemed natural to reach out to the top tier broadcast outlets like Discovery Channel, National Geographic, CNBC and others. The in depth coverage from these national outlets clearly illustrates to consumers, customers and partners around the world what is truly unique about CYBEX."
Please stay tuned to our website for the airing dates of these shows which we expect to have soon.
On May 21-22, 2008, over 100 IHRSA fitness professionals gathered in Washington, DC lobbying for support of two health promotion bills pending in Congress. The Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act and the Workforce Health Improvement Program (WHIP) Act. These pieces of legislation are important solutions to our nation’s effort to reverse the obesity, physical inactivity, and the resultant health care crises. Three representatives from CYBEX were on hand supporting the legislation: Pat Consedine, Heather Corbitt, and Dean Bowrosen.
The PHIT Act would eliminate a federal policy barrier and create a financial incentive for Americans to engage in physical fitness and exercise. Under the legislation, Americans could utilize up to $1,000 annually from their tax-favored accounts (such as FSAs and HSAs) to make expenditures related to organized individual and team sports, fitness and exercise, recreation and other physical activities. The PHIT Act would not increase the total contribution limits to those pre-tax accounts.
Under current tax law, businesses are permitted to deduct the cost of on-site exercise facilities and employees are not taxed on the benefit. However, if an employer provides this same benefit at an off-site facility, employees who take advantage of the benefit must pay income tax on the value of the subsidy. The WHIP Act would eliminate this inequity, reaffirming employers’ right to deduct the cost of providing off-site health club or gym benefits and preventing this wellness benefit from being considered additional income for employees.
It did not take long for IHRSA advocates to start winning support. Congressmen Ramstad and Culberson signed on to the PHIT Act, while Congressman Culberson along with Congressmen Tancredo and Davis signed on to the WHIP Act. IHRSA advocates have responded to the call to action and taken part in an email writing campaign targeting Congressional and district offices.
All members of the fitness community are urged to join the call to action to support healthy lifestyles and write emails to their Senators and Representatives about the PHIT and WHIP Acts. Take action today and click here to voice your support of these important pieces of legislation.
Since 1995, the Lexus Club in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has utilized CYBEX equipment in their fitness area of 650 square meters. This premier, elegant club boasts 500 members and is a jewel in Jeddah city. CYBEX is proud of our long-standing relationship with the Lexus Club.
Mike Radvansky, Director of Sales, Midwest and Jeff Levitt of CommFit, Texas, a premier CYBEX dealer, attended and played in the Pro-Am tournament at the La Loma Golf Club in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The course was designed by legendary Jack Nicklaus, who was also in attendance. Mike and Jeff came in second place golf tournament. Adriana Romero of CYBEX also took part in the facility grand opening.
The La Loma Golf Club is a Jack Nicklaus Signature Design club which opened in 2006. It features a par 72, 7500 yard course at 6,000 feet above sea level with a 125,000 square foot clubhouse.
In December, 1956 Ronnie Delaney sprinted home to win the gold medal in the 1500 meter Olympic final in Melbourne, Australia, setting a record in the process. At the time his victory captured the imagination of Ireland and he continues to be an Irish sporting icon to this day.
On May 15th, Mr. Delany officially opened Dublin’s newest fitness facility, Peak Health. The 23,000 square foot facility boasts a fitness area of 11,500 square feet fully supplied by Fitness Concepts, the exclusive dealer of CYBEX in Ireland.
Peak Health is a state of the art facility offering a unique science center which avails their customers of the most up to date sport science support along with a full spectrum of exercise possibilities. We extend our heartiest congratulations on their grand opening and wish them every success going forward!
The TruLaser 2030 arrived at CYBEX’s Medway facility the first week of June, 2008 and now is fully installed and operational. This self loading, high speed cutting laser is the newest state of the art technology in sheet metal cutting. It will boost production, increasing capacity with less scrap waste and frees up our engineers from constraints in their designs currently posed by specific tooling requirements.
The sky is the limit with this unique machine as it can be programmed to cut to order every size, shape and design imaginable. Production can now mimic and create products similar to those manufactured in the Owatonna facility, giving all product lines a seamless manufactured look and feel.
Jim Brown, Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Medway, together with co-team member, Rodrigo Delgado, Manufacturing Engineer, started this project in late January 2008. They shopped many different manufacturers of similar equipment and settled on Trumpf, Inc., given our direct experience with them and their history of solid support. Just as CYBEX can proudly claim “Made in the USA” so can Trumpf, Inc. with their TruLaser 2030 which was wholly manufactured and assembled in Farmington, Connecticut.
Floor plans, refurbishment and demanding logistics were taken under consideration and accomplished in bringing in this substantial piece of equipment to the Medway plant. Walls, floors and office space were refurbished and 9 existing machines and 28 bulk storage racks were moved and placed with maximum efficiency in mind. Finally, this project not only came in on time, but within its allotted budget of $630K. Jim Brown informs that with the increased capacity, boost in production and savings presented by the TruLaser, that it will fully pay for itself within 3 years.
Congratulations to Jim Brown, the Laser Project Team and the manufacturing team for their extraordinary efforts in bringing the TruLaser 2030 to Medway!