The Bleacher Club
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Gina Before |
Gina After |
In early September I received an email from a woman named Gina McNeal who had questions on stair training. It turns out that she was the leader of a group fitness class that called themselves the Bleacher Club. She wrote to me to ask for training tips on stair exercises because a big part of the Bleacher Club workouts were done using bleacher stairs. I was so excited to hear about this program that I immediately sent her my Ultimate Stair Exercises e-book so she and her group could have all the ideas necessary to do complete stair training. All I can say is that these ladies rock! I’m sure you’ve seen the ladies in action on the web site as well as Gina and Ellen’s before and after pictures. These women are a true testament to what can be achieved through consistent hard work. And it doesn’t have to be gym. These ladies use stairs, hills and a track to get in shape. Most importantly they inspire and support each other with a group dynamic. I was so inspired by Gina and her group that I sent them a free copy of my Ultimate Stair Exercises DVD set. So read through their inspiring story and if this success story doesn’t motivate you to go out and exercise nothing will! I can’t thank Gina enough for sending her story in because it will inspire thousands.
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Ellen Before |
Ellen After |
Our club began about two years ago. I used to run along a path near an old concrete stadium, and like many other people, I would add in a few sets of stairs when I passed by there during my run. But I was intrigued with the challenge of stair climbing. I was looking for a new kind of workout, so I went there and climbed stairs for as long as I could, which was only 15 or 20 minutes the first few times. I talked to people about it, but everyone said it sounded too difficult and no one wanted to do it with me. Until I met my friend Klare, through my son’s preschool. She had been running almost every day and was also looking for a new workout challenge, so she joined me one night a week to climb stairs and chat. We found that the time flew by because we were talking so much – working hard, but having fun. Soon, other moms from the preschool class joined us, and we became a little club of four or five women. We added running “snakes,” or circuits of small stairs, to our usual bench climbing, and then we noticed a steep, grassy hill nearby, and we started sprinting up that. Now we had ourselves an interval workout with several different parts.
We switched to mornings when the kids all started elementary school in fall 2004, and then we got even more women (and one man) to join us. We added track running to our repertoire, and decided to run backwards and sideways to challenge our muscles in a different way. Then we added walking lunges, lateral squats, step-ups, and finally, hops, to our workout. A local newspaper ran a story on us in January 2005. Then our club expanded to two mornings a week this past September, which drew more people. We started going up the hill backwards in addition to forward, and we added Indian sprints to our track routine.
Today, we appeared on our local NBC affiliate, in a segment called Get Healthy 4 Life. The reporter touted the benefits of working out in a group, and the video showed us doing all of our various conditioning activities. The oldest of us is 55, and the youngest is 35. We all do other types of exercise on the days we don’t climb stairs, but everyone loves Bleacher Club days most of all! We come out even in the cold because we know everyone else will be there too. We wear layers and peel them off as we warm up.
One person in the group recently ran a 10K and found she had improved her time quite a bit because the course was hilly, and she credits our workout for conditioning her legs for the hills. I myself recently turned my ankle laterally (at the gym, not at the bleacher workout). I was scared it would be a bad injury, but it never swelled and it got better in a few days, I think because the bleacher and track workout has strengthened my ankle and improved proprioception in my ankle joint.
I can’t say enough about the multiple benefits of climbing stairs. I feel the effects of the anaerobic and aerobic conditioning, as well as the muscular strength and endurance of my legs and glutes. Plus, you can constantly challenge yourself in this kind of environment, making it harder as you become more and more conditioned. Once upon a time, I could only walk up the benches for 15 minutes. Now, I can sprint up them as part of a one-hour-plus workout. It’s hard to beat that. We just feel invigorated while we’re out there. We are so pleased at being able to accomplish this. None of us were athletes before, but we feel like it now!