Body Mechanics Fitness Training Gym - Lauderhill, Florida, USA

Bus Driver Wellness page


Body Mechanics is collaborating with Broward County and Coventry Healthcare to provide healthy exercises for bus drivers. Lisa Wright and Stephanie Shorr with Broward County bus driver, Nicolette at Ravenswood bus terminal, Broward County, Florida, January 27, 2011.

An Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey…

I lay claim to being one of Oprah’s original fans, seeing as I witnessed her Baltimore Weatherlady debut. Now, this many years later, I bring to her a fitness program currently underway with a group of female African-American and African-Island school bus drivers in south Florida.

Here is the scenario: School bus drivers have the awesome responsibility of conveying our most precious cargo, as well as our greatest future resource, our children. Their unusual and truncated work schedule includes a break of about 3 hours. They have to be hungry; most don’t have time to prepare and eat a proper breakfast.

Many of them have to wake up at 4:00 a.m. 95% are overweight or obese, most have high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Driver's Lounge Cooking Some have diabetes. 80% of African American women in this country are overweight or obese according to American Heart Association statistics. Clearly, this significant phenomena requires alot of attention.

Our health/fitness club, Body Mechanics Fitness & Training, in Lauderhill, Florida, is conducting a pilot study for our health enhancement program, “The Wellness Plan.” We were fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a group of bus drivers from the Northwest Transportation Center of the School Board of Broward County, the nation’s 5th largest School Board with 37,000 employees, about 1300 of which are bus drivers. We are starting to make headway, and one of our motivational tools is our mantra: “When we get in shape, we’re going on Oprah!”

Now, to be totally fair, this expression was first used by Tony Ferguson, one of the partners of Body Mechanics Fitness & Training, when he is motivating his personal training clients. That said, our collective vision of showing our “before” pictures, and displaying a bit of our hiphop routine, and maybe even sharing our Best Health Salad Dressing recipe on Oprah, is a titillating and an enjoyable goal.

Major breakthrough this week: Cheryl M., who is charge of the cooking operation in the Driver’s Lounge, is putting aside the normal fare, which consisted of pancakes, grits, eggs and delicious-smelling albeit greasy pork sausage, and is offering fresh vegetable salads with a choice of proteins. Anyway, we just wanted to let you know we’re doing our best to get in shape and we’ll keep you posted as to our progress. Stephanie Shorr May 2008

SBBC BUS DRIVER WELLNESS 2009-2010

SOUTH TERMINAL	SOUTH TERMINAL	SOUTH TERMINAL	NORTHWEST TERMINAL

Rosemarie E: Tie for Best improvement in Waist/Hip Ratio	Jolene M - Tie for Best improvement in Waist/Hip Ratio	Schwanda C: Greatest Reduction in % Body Weight	Eunice R: Best improvement in Waist/Hip Ratio
NORTHWEST TERMINAL	CENTRAL TERMINAL	CENTRAL-WEST TERMINAL	NORTH TERMINAL

Michelle S: Northwest Terminal - Greatest % Reduction in Body Weight	Vernell M - Greatest Reduction in % Body Weight & Best improvement in Waist/Hip Ratio	Laqualia P: Greatest Reduction in % Body Weight & Best improvement in Waist/Hip Ratio	Madeline W: Best improvement in Waist/Hip Ratio

GRAND PRIZE & GRAND 2nd PRIZE !

CENTRAL WEST TERMINAL	SOUTH TERMINAL

Laqualia P: GRAND PRIZE competing with all terminals! Pictured with Stephanie Shorr.	Shelia C: 2nd Grand Prize - Competing With All Terminals

2009/2010 is the third year of Body Mechanics’ “Biggest Winner Fitness Challenge” with the Broward County school bus drivers and the first year drivers from all 5 terminals participated in the challenge!

Prizes were awarded for the biggest reduction in percentage of bodyweight and the the biggest improvement in waist/hip ratio.

Prizes for each terminal are generously provided by VISTA/Coventry and Grand prizes were generously donated by Whole Foods through the Body Mechanics Wellness Foundation 'Bus Driver Wellness program'. We thank them for their support.

January - March 2009

Our bus driver wellness program has
gained local and national (even global)
recognition.

December 15, 2007:
front-page Miami Herald article

February 4,2009
ABC Nightly News "evergreen story"

Everyone continues
to work hard to
improve their health!

click photo
to see
entire gallery
(18 pix)

Dec 18 2008:

Group photos, fitness classes at Body Mechanics Fitness & Training.

Shaping up for the Holidays!

click photo
to see
entire gallery
(33 pix)

Testimonial: Cheryl Montgomery: CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO READ OTHER TESTIMONIALS!

Nov 12 2008:

Group photos, fitness classes at Body Mechanics Fitness & Training.

This is fun!

Bodymechanics Fitness & Training - Happy Members!

Bodymechanics Fitness & Training - Group Photo!

Twenty-two of Northwest & North Transportation Centers' finest were coming to take the lovely RoseAnne's Belly Dancing class for cardio to be followed by strength training with BMF&T's amazing results-guaranteed trainers.

Great group, great workout and great energy!

Bits of conversations overheard were: "I've lost weight," "I feel great," "My doctor said I can take less medicine"," I have so much more energy","I could do this everyday."

Bodymechanics Fitness & Training - Fitness Class

Nov 6 2008:

"Fit & Phat" Phase II starts belly dancing classes for exciting cardiovascular exercise.. Personal trainers take strength training to a new level with better results.

This is more fun!

oct 8 2008:

Everyone really enjoyed their first experience at Body Mechanics.

Happy & Fit at Body Mechanics Fitness & Training, South Florida

Tony Ferguson held a class for them using light dumbbells and step platforms after which he placed them in small groups and assigned a personal trainer to each group.

The trainers demonstrated different strength training equipment and everyone did sets for the remainder of their time in the gym.

Some of the comments we heard were "we should do this everyday," "everyone is going to want to come when they hear about this" and "maybe we can get a bus to come twice a week and you can come to us twice a week."

Also, they talked about how nice it was that they didn't have to pay for gas to come to the gym and it was obvious they really appreciated this opportunity.

We thank you for this opportunity.

In wellness,

Stephanie Shorr
& Tony Ferguson.