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Retro Fitness combines training with Netflix and virtual games

Time flies during a movie, whether it’s at home or at the theater. One minute, you have a full bag of popcorn or snacks. Then, the next minute you look down at the end of the movie, and about 1,000 empty calories later, it’s all gone. What if instead of gaining 1,000 calories while watching a movie, you lost that much?
At Retro Fitness in Fort Myers you can do just that. With a big screen cardio theater room at its facility, members can hop on the treadmill, bike or elliptical, and instead of focusing on how many minutes they have left till its finally over, they can watch a movie on the big screen and take their mind off of the hustle.
With the gym’s Netflix account, Netflix and chill just got to a whole new level: Netflix and treadmill.
“We play a different movie every day,” said Tyler Dowland, the managing partner at Retro Fitness. “I usually post the movie schedule on our Facebook page, but we also have members call almost every day to find out what movie we play that day.“
Dowland said movie requests are more than welcome, and he also encourages members to ask for movies through the gym’s Facebook page. Stepping into the gym, the red and yellow color combo looks back at you from every angle. The chain gets its equipment, both strength training and cardio, custom-made in those specific colors.
While walking around, you’ll find a variety of machines and weights that ensure a full-body workout, whether you visit the gym two to three times a week to stay in shape or pump the iron everyday prepping for show. Going back to making your cardio session more exciting — because cardio is for many the most boring part of the workout — Retro Fitness has a couple of stationary bikes where you can not only pick a virtual path to ride on but also choose a video game to find dragons, collect points and get rewards.
Twenty minutes of hunting, playing and focusing on everything but pedaling goes by in a heartbeat. So, the next time you choose Netflix or the Xbox over the gym, think about the fact that there is a way to combine the two, and instead of becoming an unhealthier version of yourself, you can squeeze in that 60 to 90 minute workout you know your body needs.

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