OK, let’s just skip right over the exercise-is-good-for-you lecture.
You’ve heard it a million times.
Let’s turn instead to Carol Erbeck’s story, one that will make many women chortle in recognition.
“You know how every woman has a pair of ‘fat jeans’?” she asked. “I couldn’t ge
t my fat jeans over my hips.”
That was in the spring last year. Fast forward a little more than a year.
“I was able to get them off without unzipping them,” she said.
Her turning point came in March last year. She and her husband, Bill, who were foster parents, had just adopted two children, son Evan, 13, and daughter Jordan, 12.
“I had gained quite a bit of weight,” she said. “I wanted my newly adopted children to get involved in sports.”
Erbeck, who lives in Everett, was then 47 and struggled to walk up a flight of stairs.
She wanted to be a good role model for her children, but knew the hard reality of her situation: “I can’t make them do it if I’m not doing it.”
That’s when she joined the Total Sweat Fitness boot camp, run by Al Yenkevich.
By July 4, she participated in her first 5-kilometer race, Everett’s Yankee Doodle Dash.
“I ran the whole way,” she said. “So in four months, I went from not being able to get up a flight of stairs to running a 5K.
“I felt proud of myself. I hadn’t felt pride in myself in a long time … It’s all thanks to Al.”
While his classes do have the “boot camp” in the name, “we try to make it fun,” Yenkevich said. “It’s not yelling in anybody’s face, or anything like that.”
The classes are designed for people who feel apprehensive about going to a gym, he said.
“Being around others that are in shape can also make a person feel very insecure,” he said. “I want to reach out to people who don’t like to go to the gym.”
The classes are open to anyone age 15 and up.
Conditioning routines are modified to fit individual needs, Yenkevich said. So all participants work at their own level.
Just bring a water bottle and towel to class and you’re ready to go. Dumbbells, resistance bands, jump ropes, mats and other workout equipment are provided.
The goal, he said, is to tone and to increase energy, endurance and flexibility.
With some 50 workout routines, it’s not boring, Yenkevich said. “They’re doing something different.”
Tom Cooper, 63, an Everett attorney, said he enjoys the workouts despite having no cartilage in one knee, residual damage from an injury when he was 16.
Nevertheless, he participates in swimming, skiing and climbs in the Cascade Mountains.
His ability to remain active despite his injury astounds his doctors, Cooper said.
“I do attribute it to the intense workouts,” he said.
Cooper first met Yenkevich while he was working at a gym. When Yenkevich left that job to start offering the boot camp classes, Cooper signed up.
“When you get older, you can’t do contact sports,” Cooper said. “So you kind of need these challenges. It does give you a little bump, a little competitive motivation with yourself.
“I can tell you, when I get home, I’ll be a little tired. It would be easier not to go. But … 10 minutes after I’m there, I’m glad I did it.”
He’s training in preparation for a planned summit of Mount Rainier within the next two years.
“I feel no restrictions at all because of his class,” Cooper said. “Not being active is just not an option.”
Meanwhile, Erbeck is preparing for a goal of her own, completing the Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon on June 25.
“I would never have dreamed a year ago I would be doing this,” she said.
“Once you start moving and exercising, you start feeling good, you never want to go back to where you before,” she said. “I actually plan my schedule around my exercise class so I don’t miss it.”
Total Sweat Fitness boot camp
Classes are held at The Beautiful Savior Church, 12810 35th Ave. SE, Everett.
For more information, call 425-330-3398 or go to totalsweatfitness.com/index.htm.
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