Published: August 21, 2008 01:59 am      

Yoga instructor with MS donates Cybex Arc Trainer to Fairmont Fitness

FAIRMONT — When Ellie Snyder of Fairmont filled out an online questionnaire about why she likes a piece of gym equipment known as the Cybex Home Arc Trainer, she had an immediate response.

As someone with multiple sclerosis, a disease in which a person’s immune system attacks the central nervous system and causes a variety of symptoms, Snyder appreciates that the versatile machine allows her to have an easy session on off days and to ramp it up on days when she feels better.

“If I need to take it slow and keep the workout low and not high intensity, I can set it with little resistance and it’s like walking,” Snyder said. “And if I’m feeling great, I can crank up the resistance and incline and it’s nearly like rock climbing.”

Officials judging a contest at the Massachusetts-based manufacturer Cybex liked Snyder’s answer so much that she won a contest the company was sponsoring. The prize was not just a $3,499 Arc Trainer suitable for home use, but also a more durable, $6,500 commercial machine that Snyder could donate to a fitness club.

Snyder did not know the prize was dual machines until she learned in late June that she had won the contest out of hundreds of entries, some of which had come from as far away as Dubai and Australia.

The timing was perfect: She had just agreed to teach yoga at Fairmont Fitness, which would be the new name for the old Country Club Health & Fitness when it transitioned into a bright and colorful new 13,000-square-foot facility up from Pizza Hut on Fairmont Avenue.

“I instantly thought of Fairmont Fitness because of their situation,” Snyder said. “I thought what a nice complement it would be to a facility that was just getting ready to open.”

Snyder feared, however, that she would be adding “the 12th Arc Trainer to 11 of them.” But when she talked to gym owners Randy Murray and Jerry Gardner, she learned that while the two wanted an Arc Trainer, they decided the cost was too prohibitive for them.

“We knew it was an expensive piece, so we could get a couple of pieces instead of that one,” Murray said. “It’s ironic. People were asking me if we were getting a Cybex Arc Trainer, and lo and behold, she won one in a contest.”

Since Fairmont Fitness opened July 28, the equipment already has gotten quite a workout at the gym, which also features a new line of Matrix machines in addition to the Cybex pieces brought over from the old club.

“People seem to really like it,” Murray said. “It’s a cross between an elliptical and a stairclimber. It seems to be busy all the time.”

The Cybex Arc Trainer came on the market about five years ago, said Heather Corbitt, director of marketing for Cybex, touted as the next generation of elliptical cross training machine.

Cybex officials also really liked Snyder’s essay and thought it encapsulated the many options the Arc Trainer provides.

“It really stood out,” Corbitt said. “It had a lot of elements of inspiration. A lot of people can relate to working and being a mother while trying to maintain a fit lifestyle, with additional challenges on top of that. It’s an extra special story.”

Snyder, the mother of 6-year-old daughter Maya and 2-year-old Brady, has a job in corporate wellness for a Morgantown company. Always an active child and teenager growing up at Maple Lake in Bridgeport, Snyder’s interest in fitness intensified after she was diagnosed with MS in 1995 at the age of 22 or 23.

She learned she had the disease after playing racquetball and hurting her eye. The eye doctor suspected a neurological problem and an MRI confirmed it by displaying the disease’s hallmark lesions on the brain.

A student at Fairmont State at the time, Snyder had been struggling to get a degree in drafting and design.

“Things were going on with my body that I couldn’t explain,” she said. “I had headaches, so it was almost like the diagnosis was a relief. I was like, ‘Wow, now I know what’s going on.’ It gave me better focus to finish school. It allowed me to dedicate myself a little more.”

However, because the MS affected her vision, along with other systems such as her balance, Snyder decided she could not work as a draftswoman. She got an elementary education degree but because MS can worsen with stressed, she did not get a teaching certificate and instead opted for corporate wellness.

The job requires her to have a personal trainer certification, and Snyder eventually decided also to explore yoga as a stress-reliever to alleviate her MS. Earlier this year, a co-worker convinced Snyder to travel to Monroeville, Pa., to get a certification in YogaFit (www.yogafit.com), a type of yoga exercise that emphasizes fitness in more of a Western style.

“It has the ancient yoga logic with a twist of fitness is the best way I’ve heard it described,” Snyder said. “It’s not like an aerobics class, but we engage those core muscles. It’s a little more fitness-oriented than regular Hatha yoga.”

Snyder got her first certification in February and then went back for the next level in April. This weekend, she travels back to Monroeville for Level 3.

She has been teaching yoga at 7:10 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Fairmont Fitness, and she also teaches private classes on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays at Mountaineer Massage Therapy on Locust Avenue (mountaineermassagetherapy.com/yoga.html).

Like the Cybex Arc Trainer, Snyder describes YogaFit as “very user-friendly. One of the mottos is that it’s for everybody and every body. Everything is done with the ability to show modifications for each move so that hopefully a greater population can find a greater benefit from it.”

That includes Snyder, who has emerged from a bad MS spell following the birth of son Brady two years ago.

“It’s been a constant struggle and a stress, but it is what it is, and we do what we can do just to embrace each day and be thankful for what we have,” she said.

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.