Top of Utah gyms open to help work off holiday pounds

OGDEN -- Many Top of Utahns will consume more calories on Thanksgiving Day than in the three days before.

That's why area gym owners started offering early gym classes on Thanksgiving a few years ago to do some pre-burn workouts and special offers on Friday to burn those Thanksgiving Day calories and this year is no exception.

Both Gold's Gym in Ogden and Layton and Lady Fitness in North Ogden and Layton offer Thursday morning classes for the health-minded who want to eat on Thanksgiving, but not get the extra calories.

"It's one of our busiest mornings," said Casey Nielsen, vice president of operation for the Ogden, Roy and Layton Gold's Gyms.

He expects about 500 exercisers to visit his two gyms this morning.

They offer extra classes between 6:30 a.m. and noon.

"We really try to jam them in," he said. The gym does close at noon to give employees a chance to celebrate the holiday, Nielsen said.

Gold's stayed closed on the holiday until 2001 to give employees the day off, but when gym patrons kept requesting to have some gym time on turkey day, they decided to make the switch and haven't looked back.

Both Gold's and Lady Fitness are only open on the mornings for those days and both clubs only open two of their gyms so patrons on the north and south ends of the area have a gym within reach.

"Our exercise community is really dedicated to a healthy lifestyle and they want to fight off calories," Nielsen said.

They offer sign ups for classes beforehand to make sure they are staffed properly and get a good response.

"Every class will be full," Nielsen said.

They try to offer the most popular classes that burn the most calories, like a few Body Pump classes. The Body Pump is one of the most popular classes because it uses low impact weights to burn fat.

"It is one of the classes that can really change the shape of your body and burn a lot of calories," Neilsen said.

Lady Fitness employee KoKo Reynolds has also seen much success at the gym on Thanksgiving.

The gym is only open from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. and offers a fat blaster aerobics class and a cycling class.

Gold's aerobics instructor Jeni Nielsen did some research and found that Americans consume about 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving, mostly because of the snacking that goes on throughout the course of the day.

Casey Nielsen said about 3,000 calories are consumed just on the meal alone.

Gold's is also offering "Trim the Fat Friday" when anyone, member or not, can come workout that day for free.

"It's kind of like changing the day from Black Friday to Trim the Fat Friday," Casey Nielsen said.

Reynolds said although patrons have to be members to get in they offer a free two-week trial membership.

"They can come try us out for free and see what they think," Reynolds said.