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Jazzercise Returns To Rec Center

Jessica Bair/SUNCOAST NEWS

SUZANNE CARLSON, a 13-year fitness instructor, will hold the popular Jazzercise classes at the newly reconstructed New Port Richey Recreation and Aquatic Center.

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By Jessica  Bair | The Suncoast News

Published: December 22, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - With Christmas only days away, many folks will make New Year's resolutions to reverse their holiday weight gains.

Women in the Jazzercise fitness program at the New Port Richey Recreation and Aquatic Center have gotten a jump start thanks to Suzanne Carlson, a Jazzercise instructor for the past 13 years.

In March, Carlson and her dedicated fitness gurus moved to a Port Richey studio while the state-of-the-art $14.1 million recreation facility was being reconstructed.

The well-known Jazzercise fitness program recently relocated back to its home on Van Buren Street. There, women ranging in age from their 20s up to the 70s work out to high-energy contemporary dance, pop, country and jazz music.

The exercise regimen, which was created in 1969 by professional dancer Judi Sheppard Missett, has grown from a one-woman operation into an international franchise business with 5,800 instructors teaching weekly classes in the U.S. and more than 30 countries.

"This ain't your grandmother's exercise class," Carlson said of the fitness movement, which is still popular today.

On Monday, about 40 women filled the recreation center's gymnasium and got their hearts racing with the exercise craze. It combines elements of aerobics, yoga, Pilates and kickboxing with dance routines.

"I'm 54, but I feel like I'm 22," said Aida Pera, a New Port Richey resident who has been taking the classes for the past two years. "It's a fabulous class and really nice facility," she says of the move.

Anyone with a moderate fitness level can participate in Jazzercise, says Carlson, whose interest in the program was piqued when a friend brought her to a class.

"I needed to do something that was fun and that I would stick to," the CPR-certified exercise instructor says. That was 14 years ago.

"Sometimes it's intimidating to walk into a gym with all that equipment," she admits. In the beginning her routine was to run on the treadmill, then hit the stream room and sauna. "But going to the gym and working out are two different things," she says.

Now Carlson is much more serious about her passion for fitness and fixing the obesity epidemic.

Nationwide, 60 percent of the American population is overweight or obese, according to a fourth annual report from the Trust for America's Health.

"It's important to make the effort to include some kind of physical exercise into our daily lives," says Jazzercise founder and CEO Missett.

"So we encourage those who are already active to stay active, and invite those who aren't to start today," she says.

The comprehensive program is designed to enhance cardiovascular endurance, strength, and flexibility while improving wellness.

Carlson's first student, Nancy Mercer, 69, a snowbird from Teaneck, N.J., still attends the 60-minute classes, three times a week that includes a body warm-up, aerobic dance session, strength-training with free weights and Exertubes, and ends with a full body stretch.

Classes at the Recreation and Aquatic Center take place: Monday and Wednesday, 6:30-7:30 p.m.; Friday, 5-6 p.m.; and Saturdays, 9:30 -10:30 a.m.

For more information on the program contact Suzanne Carlson at 727-560-2383, via www.keepjazzin.com or at the New Port Richey Recreation Center, 6630 Van Buren St., 727-841-4560.

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