By Linwood Outlaw III — Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — Local residents looking to lose a few pounds, take a swim in a pool or lift some weights will have a new hometown health and wellness center to visit starting next month.

Officials with Valley Health are nearing the completion of a new Wellness and Fitness Center at 401 Campus Blvd. in Winchester. The 56,000 square-foot facility was designed to offer a variety of services to satisfy its clients' healthy lifestyle needs, from state-of-the-art fitness equipment to spinning and yoga classes.

"It'll be open from early morning to late evening throughout the week, and some weekend hours," said Keith Edic, director of Wellness Services. "It's all inclusive. Everything is there in one spot, the swimming, the classes, the fitness floor and everything else. But, it's also the only medically-based [fitness center in the area] where everyone gets a personalized fitness assessment prior to working out, plus evaluated every year after that for free. Evaluations are something we can use to track people's progress, help them redesign [fitness] programs and move them through it. But, we also want to work with the high-risk clientele."

Officials broke ground on the new fitness center in April 2007. It is expected to officially open on Sept. 29. Residents who sign up to be members of the center by Sept. 5 will be enrolled free of charge. A formal grand opening for the center will be held for the entire community to attend Oct. 4, said Dena Kent, executive director of rehabilitation and wellness.

"And that is a community-wide open house. You do not have to be a member to come," Kent said, adding the event will include prizes giveaways.

The new center will offer: free weights; an indoor cushioned walk/jog track; cardiovascular training equipment; massage therapy; resistance training equipment; group exercise studios and stretching areas; individualized personal training; and a lap pool and a warm-water exercise pool.

Members also will have access to full-service locker rooms, which will include complimentary towel service, shampoo, conditioner, moisturizing lotion, shaving cream and hair dryers, according to Valley Health's official Web site.

A supervised Kidz in Motion child care area will be available for children between the ages of 6 months and 11 while their parents are working out. Activities offered to children will promote "positive health, safety and nutritional practices through fitness, science, arts and crafts, active games and special projects," according to the Web site.

Additionally, the center will also host a variety of individualized and medically directed health education programs that will combine education, exercise and lifestyle improvements. Proposed hours for the center are 5 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

"We have gone through a lot of surveys, analyses, demographics, everything in this area to find out what is needed, and it played a big part into determining what was put into the center and the size of the center," Edic said.

The fitness center has a capacity of close to 5,600 members. So far, roughly 2,000 people have signed up to join. The most popular attraction at the fitness center, Edic said, will likely be the swimming pool.

"People want a lap swimming pool that they can utilize multiple times throughout the day as opposed to set hours. So, this one is going to be open the majority of the day so people can come and use it at their will," Edic said.

"There's such a need for indoor swimming in the community. ... The city pool runs really full, and there's such a demand for swimmers," Kent added.

If research is any indication, the fitness center will be a big hit, Kent said.

"We actually did phone surveys. And, we looked at the population growth [in Winchester] to help us determine the need. We did a full feasibility study," Kent said.

For more information on the fitness center, visit www.vhwellfit.com or call (866) 439-2325.

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