
How I Found My Core Through Group Fitness
After logging several miles every week during my marathon training over the last five years, the wheels started to fall off the bus and I plateaued in my finishing times.

“Most group classes are included in the cost of membership at the Club. They provide me with the inspiration and motivation that I would not have working out on my own.”
Member, Jo Ellen Gardner shares how she enjoys her Club membership. Photos with the Athletic Strength Training class led by Janet Greger.
As a physical therapist, I know the value of strength training, but never applied it to my individual training. Rather, I took a Forest Gump approach, and, ‘just kept running’. Until, that is, I was gifted with an RVC membership. This opened a whole new training program for me.
Abs what abs? I started taking Athletic Strength Training classes with Janet Greger two times per week and noticed a huge difference in my ability to run further and faster.
Janet addresses a balance of large and small muscle groups in arms, back, and legs, while targeting the core. Janet is like the John Tesh of the fitness world, I always leave her class with a new pearl of fitness wisdom. I credit Janet for helping me find my strength.
More recently, I have started taking a class called IGNITE led by Kelly Arlington. This class combines cardio circuits with strength and plyometrics keeping your heart rate at sub-max to maximum levels.
After an hour, I feel that I have had a complete workout and leave feeling tired but rejuvenated and strong. These group classes, along with hundreds of others, are included in the cost of our membership at the Club. They provide me with the inspiration and motivation that I would not have working out on my own. Who wants to complete burpees by themselves? All the classes are filled with encouragement from the instructors as well as the participants.
I may not have Popeye muscles, but now I can say I found the wheels to my bus. I qualified for the Boston Marathon this year and plan to have a personal record thanks to a strength training program I found at RVC. Should I consider that Boston strong or RVC strong?