While many people across the Rio Grande Valley were enjoying a morning of sleeping in on Thanksgiving, a Dallas man was up early and at a Brownsville gym. He wanted to make room for eating and drinking.
“We work out to eat and drink,” said Bob Ibe, 52, an information technology manager who is in the Valley to visit friends and family.
Ibe was flanked by others who said Thursday morning ushered in his first Thanksgiving morning workout.
“We were visiting family and friends, and they dragged us out,” said Marty Butron, a 37-year-old from San Antonio who works in real estate.
Butron and Ibe — along with at least 30 other people donning scarves, jackets, workout pants and tennis shoes — were both at Hardknox Strength and Performance Gym on Military Highway 281 at 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving.
The gym’s owner, Rodney McClanahan, said he opened the gym about two years ago and last year on Thanksgiving, around 20 people showed up to carve out time to work off the turkey calories.
“The whole reason behind the workout on the day is to create a deficit as far as calorie intake goes,” McClanahan said. “That’s why I’m offering this class the day of Thanksgiving.”
McClanahan said fitness is becoming more popular and mainstream, and he thought that movement contributes to the growing number of people who workout every morning, even on holidays.
“There’s been a big fitness movement, more so in the upper Valley, but it’s starting to come down to the lower Valley,” he said.
But for some, a morning workout is just part of the daily routine, and Thanksgiving was no exception.
Lety Zavala, 40, a special education teacher, said she was at the gym Thursday morning just to keep her routine and stay fit.
“I don’t take a break for Thanksgiving,” she quipped.
However, being thankful wasn’t far from her mind, and she said she was thankful for her health and her family.
Zavala’s friend, Yanira Cisneros, a 30-year-old homemaker, said she doesn’t take a break from her morning routine on Thanksgiving either.
“If I don’t workout, I feel all out of it,” she said, adding that she thought McClanahan was a popular fitness instructor because he motivates her. “He motivates all of us to keep pushing harder.”
And according to McClanahan, Thanksgiving morning is perfect for a workout because of the American tradition of gathering with family and friends for a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings.
“The benefit in the morning is raising the metabolic rate for the rest of the day so you’ll be burning more calories,” he said. “When you eat and go right to sleep your body is working at a slower pace and that is when the body is storing calories and fat.”
McClanahan suggested that people make an effort to continue working out during the holidays, even though that can be difficult to do.
“If people can make the effort to really try to get workouts done during holidays and holding themselves accountable because the hardest time to stay consistent with it is during the holidays,” McClanahan said. “One of the first things people take out of their routine during the holidays is the hour or two hours they take to work out.”
mreagan@brownsvilleherald.com[1]
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