When the trippy thrillride comes alive, pedal faster

Allison Hedin recently finished her instructor training for “The Trip,” the part-video game, part-cycling class that was introduced just weeks ago at Fitology in State College. But on Tuesday, her first teaching experience would have to wait: She was there taking the class for fun.

“I love it,” Hedin, 21, said after finishing her first official class. “It’s kind of an escape from reality, and whenever you’re finished it doesn’t feel like you’ve done a workout. Because during it, you’re just so immersed in the scenery.”

That scenery sprawls across a sweeping screen, one not out of place at a posh home theater or a college lecture hall. Inside the cool, darkened room, the assembled cyclists are active participants of the show. When the on-screen road veers left, the riders follow suit. When a virtual incline unfurls ahead, they jockey for position. The hoots and hollers, however, are human-generated.

Incidentally, it’s a professor who helped bring The Trip, one of three in the country, to State College. Jinger Gottschall, an associate professor of kinesiology at Penn State, has done research with programs from Les Mills, a New Zealand fitness company, for the past six years. Her focus of study — finding ways to maximize fitness goals — dovetailed with Fitology, the business she co-owns with Claire Colebrook, a professor of English at the university.

“This is my latest project, to see if something that takes you in a virtual world will motivate you to come out and make it more enjoyable,” she said. “I feel lucky to combine the two things: the research and what I love in terms of fitness.”

On Tuesday, spinning legs churned out beads of sweat and more than a few smiles. The 45 minutes flew by over a series of virtual vignettes, which included a futuristic city, a “Lord of the Rings”-esque cave and a trippy tunnel, a signpost for the next leg of the race.

“It’s all designed to get people to stop paying attention to what hurts and pay attention to the screen,” said Katrina Oselinsky, a Fitology instructor and Penn State student. “It basically is like an Imax but with working out.”

David Kuskowski, 50, said he liked the competition aspect of the class. Not with the other participants — the bikes are stationary — but with the drone-like characters that interlope during The Trip’s latter stages. Half-spaceship, half-alien critter, they flutter just out of reach, egging riders to catch up.

“You kind of lose yourself in the visuals,” he said, laughing. “It’s a little bit like a race.”

Hedin, meanwhile, sees more of her peers getting interested once school picks up. With the growing market for fitness monitors, smart watches and other wearable devices, technology is carving a lucrative niche in the fitness industry. According to research store Research and Markets, the global market for wearables is projected to be $12.44 billion by 2022.

Hedin, a senior at Penn State, interned with Fitology last year and gradually became more immersed in the programs. When she teaches her first class, she may be guiding some of her classmates down the virtual highway.

“It’s more like a video game you’re in yourself,” she said.

Workshops for Parkinson’s patients highlight skill-retention, aerobic fitness

STATE COLLEGE Ella Mae Stitzer was the “cool” grandmother, the kind who did yoga while stoking the fire. The kind who milked every minute — and some cows, too — while working on her farm. The kind, as her granddaughter tells it, who never sat still.

“She was super active,” said Danielle Duvall, Stitzer’s granddaughter. “She stretched and did stuff each morning and it just made me want to work in this field.”

Seeing firsthand at how an active lifestyle remained indiscriminate in bestowing benefits, regardless of age, Duvall sought to help others like her grandmother, going on to study kinesiology and gerontology at Penn State.

Now the Wellness Programs Supervisor at Foxdale Village in State College, she’s living her dream. Or at least reliving a bit of those days spent at her grandmother’s farm.

On Thursday, she helped host a workshop for 27 physical and occupational therapists to help improve the brain’s neuroplasticity, or its ability to remain spry and adaptable over time, in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The workshops present the first the time the Parkinson Wellness Recovery program, a nationally recognized exercise-based course, has been brought to the area.

“So what happens in the body is when we do this higher level aerobic intensity, we get a whole bunch of neurotransmitters booming in our brain,” Duvall said. “And then when we go to skill acquisition it solidifies it in the brain again and it helps our body recruit it.

“It’s really cool.”

The workshops, which continued Saturday and Sunday for kinesiologists and fitness professionals, will allow attendees to get certified in PWR. After the two-day course, they’ll learn exercise programs that target problems associated with Parkinson’s. High-intensity intervals accented by bouts of skill-learning foment neuroplasticity — and the attendant pliability that comes in both body and mind.

“Life is really dual tasking,” Jennifer Bazan-Wigle, a PWR therapist, told the group.

For instance, several of the exercises involve a relearning everyday tasks. Going from carpet to hardwood, getting in and out of a tub, perching oneself safely in a restaurant booth — all seem routine, but with Parkinson’s, a once perfunctory task can turn harrowing. Patients can freeze up at any point in the process.

“We interval train and we try to get them sweating and then work a skill that helps them function better in life and then reacquire a skill,” Duvall said, “and get their heart rate up again and then train another skill.”

Car dealership announces grand opening celebration

Bobby Rahal Honda of State College is set to host a grand opening celebration from 6-8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Bobby Rahal Automotive Group, which owns 16 locations in Pennsylvania, took over Dix Honda, located at 2796 W. College Ave., in the spring. Former owner Dave Dix told the Centre Daily Times in February that he was selling the 61-year-old auto dealership.

Those interested in attending the celebration can reserve a spot by calling 844-332-0426 or emailing rsvp-hsc@bobbyrahal.com. Indy Car greats Bobby Rahal and Graham Rahal are set to appear, as is former Penn State and Chicago Bears fullback Matt Suhey.

Mortgage team merger expands coverage base

The Munar Mortgage Team in State College and Megan Marsh and The Erie Mortgage Team have completed a merger, the companies recently announced, combining to form Keystone Alliance Mortgage.

The merger more than doubles the size of the organization. Keystone Alliance Mortgage will have three offices across State College, Erie and Altoona.

“This merger is huge for hopeful homeowners throughout the state,” co-founder Andres Munar said in a release. “With this merger we can leverage partnerships developed over decades in the business to better serve our clients across the state.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2016 at 12:40 AM with the headline "When the trippy thrillride comes alive, pedal faster."