By: Colin Bynoe

IN an era where persons work out for many reasons: weight control, muscle-building, health, stress relief and plain old vanity, working out at home can be effective and may even save you money, but regularly attending your local fitness gym offers you numerous advantages over home workouts.
Seemingly, these are the thoughts of former National cycling champion Wilbert Benjamin who is the proud owner of Benjamin Fitness Gym located at Lot 220 Courtland Village Corentyne, Berbice.
The former national cyclist spoke to Chronicle Sport of his initiative to open a fitness gym. “The idea was around for a long time, and looking at the demographics there’s nothing like a fitness facility in this area. We choose this so that the community could adopt a healthy lifestyle.”
Benjamin, a son of the soil, who found his passion for cycling at an early age, represented Guyana at the junior and senior levels, and later in his career he plied his trade in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) where he raced competitively.

He now resides in Canada where he still races at a competitive level. The now businessman prides himself and sees it fitting to give back to the community of his birth.
The fitness facility opened its doors to patrons on March 13, 2017. From its inception to this point in time persons have been utilising the facility to full effect.
To this extent, management decided to expand the gym. This expansion phase was recently completed. When asked about the response he’s been receiving from the public Benjamin expressed, “The feedback is pretty good. So far we have over 400 members who rotatively.attend the gym It just keeps getting better.”
The Fitness facility provides an extensive assortment of exercise equipment, which is worth millions of dollars
From weights of variant pounds, a series of treadmills to resistance training machines, also cardio machines and core stability equipment and you can work out in lots of different ways because of the many preferences available.
Membership fees for the Benjamin Fitness Gym are $300 daily, $1 200 weekly and $4 000 monthly. First-time members are offered a Benjamin Fitness Gym shirt and the fun does not end there. Athletes, who are gym members are entitled to a special membership discount.
The gym also boasts a part-time fitness trainer – Candace Lynch (E-Networks Fitness Challenge female champion 2016). Moreover, there is a wide mixture of attractive gym wear for both males and females to purchase such as sneakers, spandex tops and bottoms, gloves (wrist wraps).
“Every day is another chance to get stronger, to eat better, to live healthier and to be the best version of youself. Benjamin Fitness Gym commemorates its first anniversary in March. For this a grand cycle road race is being planned.