St. John’s Antigua- Organisers of the 2012 Fitness Madness health and fitness challenge, slated to commence on May 14, have increased the programme’s duration by two weeks.

Sumita Balooja, one of the chief organisers of the initiative, said the decision was taken to increase the programme by two weeks which would allow participants added time to get more out of the programme where physical and mental changes are concerned.

“If you actually do want to see a difference in your blood pressure, your blood sugar, in order to get you on a really good gauge on how you are doing and how the activity and the change in your lifestyle, whether it’s your eating, nutrition, or introduction of exercise or whatever, it takes roughly between 10 to 12 weeks to actually show some valuable changes,” she said.

Registration for the event commenced Thursday afternoon at Mount St John’s Medical Centre and will continue today between the hours of 3 and 7 pm.

Balooja said the feedback has been positive thus far.

“So far the feedback has been very good. Lots of persons are interested. What we have done this year is we are showcasing more than just a fitness programme where we are really trying to implement health and wellness so that’s why we are having AUA now on board and they are going to be performing all the health and fitness assessments because we want to get a gauge on a person’s complete physical and present health condition,” she said.

“We will be incorporating blood pressure tests, blood sugar tests, in addition to doing the BMI testing as well too. It’s more than an exercise programme this year. It’s all about health, wellness and fitness,” Balooja added.

The initiative, which will run its 10-week course at America University of Antigua (AUA), will cater for both the early risers and the night owls with classes starting as early at 6 am and as late as 7 pm.

“We are going to have morning classes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays starting at 6 am until 6:45 am and this is going to be also hosted at the AUA Recreational Centre,” she said.

“In addition to that, we have evenings Monday through Thursday and those classes normally start at 5:30 in the afternoons and just like the years gone by, we have three consecutive classes. So we will start one class at 5:30, the other at 6:15, and the final class at 7 pm; and the whole programme ends at 7:30.”

Registration for the full 10-week course will cost $350 with a deposit of $200 required upon registration. Participants can also pay at a weekly rate of $50 or, if they so choose, a daily rate of $20.

Registration can also be done on Monday before the start of classes.

Fitness Madness 2012 will run until July 20. (By Neto Baptiste)