Fall into step with new fitness schedule
by Dawn Brazell
Special to The Catalyst
Walter James barked the command. “Fifty push ups guys!”
Most of the 40 participants jammed into the Harper Student Wellness Center’s aerobics room looked at him, motionless. It’s not that they didn’t hear him. They just wondered if they maybe misunderstood. It’s 7 p.m. — at night! — and they had already done squats, kicks, uppercuts, punches and jabs. He repeated the command, ending their trance.
“Quickly guys. That’s today! Not tomorrow!”
Walter
James challenges his students during a Just Kick It class.
The class, Just Kick It, is one of several new fall offerings at the Wellness Center that have the state-of-the-art aerobic studio packed. In this case they want to see what new torture tactics James and co-instructor James G. Johnson, a black belt in martial arts and professional dancer, have in store for them.
Janis Newton, the center’s aerobics director, said people want variety, and that’s definitely what they get on this schedule. Not everyone is on the same level, so the classes are tailored more to meet specific fitness needs, she said. On the intermediate to advanced end are the sports-conditioning classes, which are short on frills and heavy into boot-camp basics.
Participants
experience a vigorous workout during an aerobics class.
Falling into that category is the cardio-tennis sports conditioning class, which has been popular. It combines speed and agility exercises taught by an aerobics instructor with tennis drills taught by a tennis professional. Newton said the beauty of the class is that people are getting in shape for their sport rather than using their sport to stay in shape, a practice that often leads to injury. It’s an intense class that pushes participants to the next fitness level.
That’s what the kickboxing classes aim to do as well. There are two types of kickboxing classes on the schedule. The ones taught by the “kickbox crew” use aerobic instructors to do conditioning work and martial arts experts to do punching and kicking drills. The new class Just Kick It, offered once a week, also combines conditioning and marital arts drills and incorporates power, plyometric moves.
James said the class is meant to challenge the fit participant, pushing them to fatigue as they work on balance, strength and power.
“There may be smiling before and smiling after, but there’s no smiling during class,” he said, a smile almost reaching his lips. He’s not known as a drill sergeant for nothing. It’s a style he uses in another of the new classes on the schedule called Body Max, which is an intense hour of sculpting designed to make people much stronger, he said. He hopes the sports conditioning and sculpting classes, which don’t require much choreography, will bring more men back into aerobic studios.
For those who enjoy choreographed movement, though, the schedule offers dance classes taught by Johnson. Newton said the center is lucky to have such a distinguished athlete who is talented in so many different disciplines. The dancer and martial arts expert has been a featured performer in video, television and stage productions and is a former choreographer for the Reebok performance team in Atlanta, Ga., and a dance faculty member of Gotta Dance & Co., Atlanta Ballet Center for Continuing Education and The Dance Gallery.
He teaches dance classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings and offers a CardioFunk class on Mondays at 4:25. Classically Fit on Wednesday mornings at 9:35 is a dance-based muscle stretching and toning class.
For those exercisers who want to chill, there’s a full slate of water aerobic classes. Yoga remains on the schedule as a popular option for those who want stretching and toning. It is joined by a new offering called NIA, or neuromuscular integrative action, which is taught by Leslee Ames. It is an expressive movement and fitness class that integrates concepts from a diverse set of disciplines from martial arts to dance.
There are many regular standbys on the schedule, such as step classes, which remain popular because of the mostly low-impact, high-intensity workouts they can give. Multi-step is a Saturday class that offers a challenge for the intermediate to advanced stepper as participants use anywhere from two to six steps for a workout. For beginners, there are introductory step classes that are offered during the week in the smaller aerobic rooms downstairs in the center, where newcomers can learn the steps without feeling so intimidated.
Newton said she hopes people will take advantage of the wide variety of classes to crosstrain, which can prevent overuse injuries. It also helps exercisers escape those dreaded fitness plateaus where they just don’t seem to make any progress, she said.
The fall is a great time to get started on a fitness program, she said. “The varied classes help you stay motivated to exercise, which means you’ll be consistent. Consistency in exercise means everything when it comes to reaching your goals.”
MUSC HARPER STUDENT WELLNESS CENTER
Besides fall aerobic classes, the center provides many programs from
running clinics to a senior’s Stae Fit class.
The 100,000 square-foot facility offers a variety of exercise and free-weight equipment, a seven-lane junior Olympic size swimming pool, racquetball and squash courts, a running track, tennis courts and a juice bar.
For information about the various programs or membership rates, call
the Wellness Center at 792-7080.