Woodbury Fitness Challenge

Photo: Mark Strand

Fitness Challenge contestants Jessica Dansky, Rae Ann Brusten and Kerstin March have been working out at UpLift Guided Fitness.

The contestants in the Woodbury Fitness Challenge were at the halfway point of their six-month journey when we checked in on their progress. Life-changing transformations were already easy to see—and hear.

Three Woodbury residents were chosen, from among many compelling entries, based on their desire to make positive health changes. Beginning February 15, Rae Ann Brusten, Kerstin March and Jessica Dansky placed themselves in the hands of trainers and nutritionists at UpLift Guided Fitness, where they are learning resistance and cardiovascular training, and sustainable healthy eating.

The most striking and universal discovery among all three women: While weight loss remains an important goal, their awareness has expanded to an appreciation of what it means to add lean muscle while trimming fat.

Muscle cells are smaller than fat cells, so bodies with a higher percentage of muscle are naturally smaller, denser and healthier, pound for pound. Resistance training, along with cardio and good nutrition, drives this beneficial shift of body composition, something Dansky has already seen and felt firsthand.

“I’m seeing the inches coming off,” Dansky says. “From the resistance training, that’s where I’ve seen the most changes in my body.” (After six weeks, she had trimmed 7 inches off her total measurements, a significant result, and dropped her body fat 2 full percentage points. All caliper measurements, in fact, show that she is gaining muscle and losing fat.)

March says that, “if you just go on a diet, you try to get to a certain size. But this is different. I feel great and can tell that I’m getting stronger. I continue to check the scale, but I’m trying to switch out of that thought—that weight loss is the only measure of success.”

Resistance training was new for all three participants. Brusten says she took to the weights instantly. “I really like it,” she says. “I like how the [the trainers] are always around making sure we do the exercises correctly.” Brusten has some trouble with her knees from softball, but noted that she has been taught to modify squats in order to do them comfortably, along with strengthening movements for her knees. Throughout the initial six weeks, Brusten lost a total of 7 inches in her measurements and dropped 19 pounds.

Dansky had always thought that “lifting weights was more for men,” and expressed surprise at how quickly she learned proper form and began making strength gains. Ditto for March: “I was sore after the first day,” she admits. “I thought, ‘I’m doomed.’ But after starting with just the weight of the bar alone (for squats), I’m adding 25 pounds onto the bar now. With free weights, where I was using 5-pound dumbbells, now I’m doing 12-pounders. And I know my cardiovascular conditioning is improving, because what got me winded at the beginning, I can now breathe through that point and double what I used to be able to do.”

Another unanimous observation, which surprised March, is that despite pouring energy into the workouts, she has been rewarded with increased energy levels throughout the day.

“I don’t feel that mid-afternoon crash anymore,” she says. “When I was on a low-calorie diet and that was all I was doing, I’d start to peter out and need a Diet Coke or coffee to pick me up for the second half of the day. I don’t seem to need that anymore.”

All three have met with UpLift’s nutritionist, and are learning to shop for and cook healthy meals. “That’s been a big change,” says Dansky, “the diet and menu planning. My husband and I have changed the way we shop for groceries. We really pay attention to getting foods that are good for us.”

Yet another benefit these women have found: a body that powers through the day rests well at night. “I always slept well,” says March, “but now I sleep like a rock.”

Sleep apnea has plagued Brusten, but she has seen improvements since beginning the fitness challenge. “I’ve been able to sleep better, naturally,” she says. “A regular exercise routine, along with losing weight [19 pounds in eight weeks], seems to have done that.”

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Watch for a wrap-up story in the October issue of Woodbury Magazine.

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