Iolans Get Fit at boot camp

When Roger Campbell named his business Get Fit, he meant it.
Campbell teaches a fitness “boot camp” every January to meet the resolutions of Iolans wanting to lose weight, tone up and otherwise improve their cardiovascular health. His aerobic workout isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Frantic hip hop tunes set the pace for the class. At 124 to 130 beats per minute, the workout doesn’t let up.
“I’ve already lost nine pounds of fat,” says Gerald Chester. Chester and his wife, Debbie, both joined the boot camp this January. As a retiree who likes to cook and eat, Chester admits “I got ahead on my eating.” He jokes that his wife dragged him in, but he seems to enjoy the non-stop activity. For her part, Debbie, a Gates Manufacturing employee, said she joined to lose weight, too. And she said, the exercise has been helpful in eliminating cravings for cigarettes — she quit January 1.
“Gates is going smoke free in 2010,” she said, “so some of the girls and I decided to get a head start.”
“Getting in on a regular basis allows them to make it an integral part of their lifestyle,” he said.
“It’s a way for people to get involved in their own fitness and health.” Plus, “having a group to work out with lets them share the pain,” he joked.
But some participants said just that.
“I just wanted to work out with a group,” said Saundra Upshaw, a fit and trim senior who joined the club 16 years ago.
“I live right next door so I don’t have a reason not to come,” she said. Having a group to work out with motivates her more than solo work, she said. “You can’t quit when people are watching you.”
Campbell’s boot camp attracts a cross section of Iola. There are college students and retirees. Some, like Upshaw, take the class “to keep in shape. I’m close to 70” she said. But you wouldn’t guess that.
Others, like Lauralee McDermeit, do it for their lifestyle.
“I used to live in Colorado,” she said. “I’d climb a mountain five miles straight up. I skied when it was still affordable.” In Kansas, mountains and skiing are scarce, so when the weather’s inclement and she can’t get on the Rail Trail, McDermeit takes to the gym.
“We do a total body workout every day,” Campbell said. Incorporating aerobic dance, medicine balls, ab work, exercise bands, mat work, weight resistance and stretching, Campbell keeps it fresh.
“It’s a different workout every night,” he said. And there’s a reason for that.
Campbell opened the center in 1993. He taught athletic training before that. He’s discovered through the years that “If you do the same workout every day, your body gets used to it and you plateau: you stop losing weight.”
“If you do something different every day,” he said, “your body never gets used to it. You continue to burn calories and build muscle.”
“We have one gentleman who, since May, has lost 91 pounds,” Campbell said. “People are dropping weight, people are dropping inches.”
McDermeit has lost 34 pounds since last year, but the foremost reason she comes is to get rid of stress, she said. In fact, most of the class participants tout reduced stress levels as a bonus they’ve achieved through regular exercise.
The classes, offered four times each day, run only half an hour. If 30 minutes doesn’t seem long enough for an exercise class, the brevity is made up for by the intensity of the workout.
Curls, crunches, abdominal thrusts, leg lifts, shoulder shrugs, bicep curls, Pilates bridges and weight lifts: the accelerated pace logs a movement every second.
“It’s a hard half hour,” said Sandra Drake, another boot camp regular. She’s been coming to the group for four years now.
By the end of the class, muscles get stiff, so the class winds down with some stretching. Everyone is smiling, and a few women even stick around for the next class.
Joshua Campbell, Roger’s 19-year-old great-nephew, moved here from California. He summed up his reasons for attending. “I just wanted a change in my life,” he said. Hoping to lose weight, he recognizes “You have to actually do it. Just talking doesn’t do anything for you.”