Contestants bring out their competitive spirit in two volleyball matches
Ray Blosel and Chantla Colon battle at the net.
Frank Schreck works out on one of the resistance machines.
Lester Frye lifts the full amount of weight.
Personal trainer Dustyn Pastors gives Chantla Colon some encouragement as she works out on the leg extension machine.
The losing team pays the penalty by doing a set of 30 squats.
Lester Frye hits the ball over the net for his team during the volleyball game.
John F. Brothers | Herald-Standard
Chantla Colon sets the ball for her team during a friendly game of volleyball for the Shape-Up Challenge participants.
The Shape-Up Challenge contestants start the week six workout with two volleyball matches, after which they moved to the fitness center where they worked out on the selectorized resistance training machines.
While the competition has already started to heat up, Uniontown YMCA personal trainers Dustyn Pastors and Matt Howrylak added a little more fuel to the fire at the start of week six.
Two volleyball matches brought out the competitive nature of the contestants.
“Competition always helps people strive that extra little bit when they’re exercising,” Pastors said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a better workout then when I was playing a sport. When you’re in a match, or a game, you give everything you have. You do things that you didn’t know you could do. You work yourself to a level you didn’t know you could reach.”
Because Frank Schreck and Phil Michael lost the most weight from week five to week six – nine pounds and five-and-a-half pounds, respectively, – they were chosen as the two team captains.
Schreck chose Sherry Rockwell, Lester Frye, Ray Blosel and Howrylak to be on his team, while Michael chose Pastors, Chantla Colon and Herald-Standard representative Ashley Zias to be on his.
Shape-Up Challenge contestant Fay Cohill was unable to make it to Monday evening’s workout and weigh-in.
In the first volleyball match, Schreck’s team took an early lead when Blosel scored several points on serves.
However, Michael’s team was able to catch up, and ended up pulling out the first win.
Howrylak originally planned only one volleyball match, but because of the contestants’ enthusiasm, a second match was held.
“It was so much fun,” he said. “Everybody had a great time.”
The second match was much closer, with one team taking the lead over the other with each each serve. However, in the end, Michael’s team pulled out a second win.
But the physical activity from the game wasn’t enough. Howrylak also threw in a fitness aspect, asking the losing team to do 30 squats after each match.
Although Colon was part of the winning team, she joined her peers in the fitness exercise.
Following the two matches, the contestants headed off to the YMCA’s fitness center, where they completed more exercises on the selectorized resistance training machines.
“I have a lot of these guys on their own time doing exercises on those machines,” Howrylak said. “I wanted these guys to get to know these machines and learn these machines, because it is a great way to get a quick workout if you do that in combination with some cardio work.”
According to Howrylak, there is some debate among personal trainers that these machines are less efficient than free weight exercises.
While he agrees that they are less efficient, he still sees value in the machines.
“My argument to that is simply that they are good in the fact that they are easy to use,” he said. “They are great for individuals who have limitations in mobility, or limitations in ability. They have good uses in their simplicity. It’s very self-explanatory.”
On one machine, Frye completed a set with all of the weights activated.
While he has been leading each week in weight loss, this week, he didn’t. He 3 ½ pounds.
However, he’s not deterred.
“I worked harder this week to lose 3 ½ pounds than the week I lost 12 ½ pounds,” he said. “Different activities need to be implemented. As you drop a lot of weight, it gets harder and harder.”