Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Longtime friends (from left) Cori Hodgson, Camille Belden, Maureen Anderson and Susan Crook chat after their aerobics class at Highpoint Sports & Wellness in the Northeast Heights. "We've kept each other going," Crook says. "I don't ever not want to be here."

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Instructor Janette Martinez puts her 8:15 a.m. aerobics class through its paces. Martinez began teaching the class 14 years ago, went on to become aerobics coordinator at Highpoint Sports & Wellness and is now the club's personal training leader. The 8:15 class is the only one she still teaches.

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They call it, simply, "the class."

Susan Crook and Cori Hodgson walked into it in June 1993. They greeted Janette Martinez, a young mother and newly minted exercise instructor.

The 8:15 a.m. step aerobics at Highpoint Sports & Wellness was for swim-team moms, summer only, to give them something to do while their kids did laps.

Crook and Hodgson were there because they liked the time, early, to get a start on the day. Others liked it, too. Camille Belden, Marty Loscerbo, Suzy Smith, Maureen Anderson, Monica Cyrino and Jill Camp walked through the door over the next months.

None of them knew each other.

Fourteen years later, all eight are still in the class. Martinez is still the instructor.

Along the way they became close friends and stayed in remarkable shape. At a time in life when many women gain weight, this group is slim and fit.

"It's called peer pressure," Loscerbo laughs.

"We've kept each other going, " Crook says.

Says Smith: "I know I can't pig out."

The women have seen one another through birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, illnesses and adversity.

In the beginning, they were in their 30s and 40s, juggling work and kids. Now they're well into in their 40s, 50s and 60s, looking to retirement and grandchildren.

"We've been through so much together," Belden says. "Our lives were very different early on. Our kids were young. They went through junior high, high school and college."

The women are poster girls for group exercise, which took off in the 1980s with the health club craze as a way to get people into shape. Studies showed people were more likely to exercise in a group than alone.

Today millions of people attend exercise classes, whether high impact or Zumba or Pilates, finding motivation in togetherness.

Martinez, who went on to become aerobics coordinator at Highpoint, was at one time teaching 15 classes a week.

"I've never seen anything like this one," says Martinez, now head of personal training at the Northeast Heights club. "People come and go; classes come and go. How did this group stay together? They became friends. When somebody isn't in class, they wonder where they are and get in touch."

Lending support

The class, held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, was Martinez's first as an instructor. She had a home day care business and toted the kids under her arm, including her 2- and 4-year-olds, to Highpoint to teach.

"It was exciting for me," she says.

The women joined for different reasons.

"I just needed to exercise," Crook says. "I was in pretty bad shape. My knees were killing me. I couldn't walk up stairs."

"I had just moved to Albuquerque," Belden says. "I had always exercised and wanted to find a class."

The eight women soon started getting together outside class for the occasional happy hour or pool party. They did a Christmas ornament exchange that became a yearly event. They celebrated birthdays ("We've hit the big decades," Belden says) and spent holidays at one another's homes.

Most of all, they lent support.

"When someone is not doing well, she gets food and phone calls," Martinez says. "When there are joys, there's a party. When there are sorrows, there's sympathy and outreach."

If a few pounds crept on, and they did, they turned to one another.

"It's great to be able to talk to someone else," Belden says. "Whatever is going on, you know you can share it and have support."

Their husbands became friends, and they got to know one another's children and now grandchildren. "We've done lots of weddings and baby showers," Loscerbo says.

Evolution of exercise

The class became a priority, something the women scheduled around. They all work. Crook is a businesswoman, Camp a psychologist, Belden and Anderson teachers, Cyrino a University of New Mexico professor, Hodgson a community volunteer, and Loscerbo and Smith artists.

Still, "you know not to make an appointment on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Those mornings are sacred," Crook says. "Our kids know it, too. Mine will say: `We can't do that. It's a Monday. We have to wait until 10.' "

"It's a framework to hang your week around," Cyrino says.

Martinez says she works to keep the class interesting for the women.

"I have to keep the choreography innovative, challenging and different, and tricky enough that they have to think about it," she says. "I'm on my toes all the time with this class. I can't do second-best, because they've been so loyal."

Belden, a former aerobics instructor, says exercise evolves.

"We started with straight step, then introduced a variety of equipment and floor work," she says. "The biggest thing recently is to incorporate core, arm and leg work into the cardio routine instead of separating it out."

Over the years, the class has added dance moves, aero-belts, slides, and now exercise balls that build core strength and balance.

"As the baby boomer population ages, group exercise has tracked to meet the needs of the aging population," Belden says. "Things like core strength and balance and flexibility become increasingly important. There's a lot of emphasis on protecting the back."

She says that, to be successful, group exercise has to stay interesting, or people give up.

"The whole point of all the exercise options is to keep us from being bored," she says.

But, ultimately, Loscerbo says, "you get back to the basics, and it's called sweating."

An emotional bond

Looking back on the 14 years, the women marvel at the role the class has played in their lives.

"I had just moved to Albuquerque when I joined," says Loscerbo. "I can trace pretty much everybody I know back to the class."

"It has been an absolute joy to have these people to help me through this part of my life," Hodgson says.

Says Crook: "I don't know where I would be physically. I was in bad shape. It changed my life. I don't ever not want to be here."

Others have joined the class: Isabel Bearman Bucher and Dave Espinoza 10 years ago, Christine Rancier seven years ago, Pam Vance four years ago and Tanya Ozakyol just a few months ago.

"They're not a clique," Ozakyol says of the original group. "The way they treat me, I feel like I've been with them all this time. I just turned 40, and they're absolutely an inspiration to stay in shape. I look at Camille and Marty and want to be like them, not when I grow up, right now."

Cyrino says the class is much more than just an exercise support group.

"Our emotional bond is such that you wouldn't dream of missing the class," she says. "They expect you to be there. If I'm sick or sad, the more I want to go. The usual reasons for not exercising are completely erased by the existence of the group. I don't know what I would do if not for the group. It's really cool."

Martinez, whose children are grown up and working at Highpoint, stopped teaching aerobics a few years ago as she focused on personal training, but she keeps the 8:15 class.

"I would really miss it," she says. "I've met so many wonderful people.

"I started teaching them when I was 29 and thought, `Wow, 40 doesn't look so bad.' Now I'm 43 and think, `Wow, 60 is going to be great.' "