May 26, 2015 By Michael Florio
The Long Island City YMCA and Sunnyside Shines have teamed up to host monthly fitness classes under the 7-train.
The YMCA is offering free classes at Lowery Plaza, the public plaza located under the 7-train station at Queens Blvd and 40th Street. The series, aptly called “Fitness under the Subway,” kicked off May 16 with a Zumba class.
Six people attended the first class, according to Kathleen Rahill, the exercise coordinator with the YMCA, although she expects the number of participants to increase as the word gets out.
The next class is scheduled for June 13, followed by sessions on July 18 and August 15. The classes all begin at 12:30pm and are free and open to the public.
The LIC YMCA decided to host the series in Sunnyside to help spread the word about its facility. Rahill said that Sunnyside is a large market for the YMCA, with the majority of its members coming from the neighborhood.
Rahill said that she believes the plaza is a good venue to hold the classes since it generates a great deal of food traffic.
“There are always people coming on and off the train, people walking by with their families and those people driving by,” she said. “Especially with the nice weather people go to the plaza to sit and relax and enjoy their community.”
Despite the visibility of Queens Blvd, Rahill was initially concerned about noise, making it difficult for participants to hear the instructors. However, she said that it wasn’t an issue during her first class.
She said that while car fumes may seem like an issue, they didn’t pose a problem since there are not as may cars on the road on weekends.
“It being a weekend, the traffic level was a lot lower and it wasn’t as bad as I expected,” she said.
