Urban Active, Lexington, KY, recently welcomed nearly 1,000 participants to a 10-city Get Active Challenge tour, which offered them a free boot camp as well as an educational session and tips to stay motivated.
The Get Active Challenge tour had stops in Charlotte, NC; Pittsburgh; Cleveland; Columbus, OH; Cincinnati; Omaha, NE; Louisville, KY; Lexington, KY; Nashville, TN; and Atlanta. The challenge was inspired by Men’s Health magazine’s list of America’s most sedentary cities.
Josh “JB” Bowen, the Urban Active fitness guru and quality control director, drew attention from media outlets across the country for leading the challenge.
“Discipline is what separates those who set and achieve goals,” Bowen says. “More often than not, you get in the way of your results, and this year, Urban Active seeks to break that cycle.”
Several athletes joined Bowen to spread the message of the importance of a healthy lifestyle, including Olympic hockey medalist Joe Gimaldi; former Ohio State Buckeye football players Branden Joe, Joshua Harris, Jimmie Bell and Jamal Luke; R&B artist Q Parker of 112; and the Georgia Force Cheerleaders.
One of the Columbus participants, Rosemary Walton, brought a friend along for the challenge that had recently undergone surgery and chemotherapy. Walton says exercising at Urban Active helped her lose 100 pounds.
“This boot camp was off-the-hook full of energy,” Walton wrote in a post on the challenge’s blog.
Bowen, who says he was affected by Walton’s story, adds that encouraging others to live healthfully is a big part of the fitness challenge.
“We want to show the world that together, we can make a difference in the lives of our neighbors in the communities that our fitness clubs call home,” he says.