With summertime fast approaching, thousands of Americans are asking themselves what they can do to make themselves look fantastic in their swimsuits. For the residents of North Pocono that might be asking themselves that very same question, FitnessQuest, located on Rt. 502 in Covington Twp., has the answer.
The gym is participating in “Get Active America”, an initiative of the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association where every year participating gyms open their doors free of charge to their  communities to try to get more people to pay attention to their health. This is FitnessQuest’s fifth year participating in “Get Active America”.
“We offer a lot of great things at FitnessQuest during our Open House,” said Rich Derricks, owner of FitnessQuest. “We offer free classes, such as aerobics. We also give people the opportunity to try out our strength training machines and our rock climbing area, among other things.”
FitnessQuest also offers metabolic testing, which factors in a person’s heart rate and age, among other things, so that the trainers there can customize the best workout for their  clientele.
Derricks explained that there are three main reasons why people decide to join a gym.
“People mainly join a gym because they want to lose weight or get active or because they aren’t happy with how they look or the doctor gave them a red flag,” he said. “Or they join because they want to have fun and get their body moving. Another reaso is that they want to improve their sports performance.  People come here for a lot of different reasons.”
Derricks also explained that participants in “Get Active America” come from all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds.
“It is a really fun time, the people come and they get active. We all enjoy it,” he said.
From May 11-14, any FitnessQuest member can bring a guest to work out with them for free. Then, the actual Open House is from May 15-17. Complete information on the week’s events can be obtained at FitnessQuest.
“A lot of times, people are afraid to come to a gym because they are afraid of being judged,” Derricks said. “But when they come here and get active, the fear goes away. They see other people working on themselves; they think ‘I can do this’ and they realize that no one is perfect. That’s the best part of all of this.”