Tuesday, Mar. 03, 2009

THE RIGHT FIT

These women — and others — are raving about a fitness program in Garner. Personal trainer Melanie Tucker started the Female Fit Camp in October. Since then, women have been gathering at the crack of dawn at the clubhouse in Heather Hills subdivision.

Hutchinson says she joined because she was tired of feeling tired all the time. Tucker’s workouts were a rude awakening.

“I would sweat, but my first two days here I truly felt like I was going to throw up — which is a good thing,” Hutchinson says.

That first day, the women in the class did sets of 100 crunches, pushups, sit-ups and lunges. But Tucker breaks up the routine so her students don’t do everything at once.

“I’ve never done that in my life,” Hutchinson says. “Not when I was 20, let alone 40.”

Tucker, 36, started teaching aerobics about 12 years ago. The Garner woman started her own fitness business, Mellifit Training, in 2002. The mother of three lives near the clubhouse, and she rents the space to host grueling morning workouts.

One class gathers at 5:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The second class meets at 6:15. The shortest session is four weeks, but those not faint of heart can sign on for longer.

In this round, Tucker has nine women in each class.

The key, she says, is the military boot camp-type routines. She doesn’t ask her students to do the same workout twice, so they won’t get bored.

“It really works,” Tuckers says.

But Tucker doesn’t let her students off the hook after the 45-minute workouts three times a week. On their off days from the program, she tells them to do 30 minutes of cardio activity. And she asks them to log everything they eat.

“Food is the No. 1 challenge that we all face,” Tucker says.

Eating healthy foods can be an extra challenge when money is tight. The recession has raised some concerns among fitness experts that people will go for cheap fast-food options instead of fruits and vegetables, which can be pricey. Carico, 24, who drives about an hour from the Louisburg area for the class, says she has been eating low-calorie, low-fat foods. She’s trying to lose baby weight. She had a daughter a few months ago.

“I really want to take the weight off, because I feel miserable with it on,” Carico says.

She tries to follow this rule: Don’t eat anything you can’t pronounce — like monosodium glutamate, the flavor enhancer better known as MSG. Carico also stays away from processed sugars and white breads. Another trick Carico has picked up on has to do with staying away from certain parts of grocery stores. The processed foods are in the middle. So she tries to shop around the outer edges of stores, where dairy, meats and produce are.

“If you go in the center aisles, that’s all fat and sugars and stuff you shouldn’t be eating,” Carico says. (To learn some of Tucker’s tips, see sidebar.)

But the women in Tucker’s classes might not be as worried as some about grocery store bills. A four-week session costs $150. A gym membership can run less than $30 a month.

“But you’re not going to have me, though,” Tucker says of those big gyms.

The personal attention might be what’s drawing women. Carico found the class on Craig’s List and realized her town didn’t have a program like this. Two women drive from Cary for the class. Tucker says she recognized a need for this type of fitness option. Obesity is a major problem, she says, and she hasn’t always been so conscious of her health.

Tucker says she smoked a cigarette in the car on her way to the first aerobics class she attended more than a decade ago.

“I just get a lot of joy out of seeing people succeed,” Tucker says.

For more information about Tucker’s program, go to www.femalefitcamp.com.