Staff writer
After spending the day helping kids reach their potential, some faculty members at Marion Elementary School gather to help each other do the same.
Around Thanksgiving, physical education teacher Nicki Case recruited some faculty members to come try a new workout program, called “Cize.” The program features follow-the-leader style videos of dance routines, and participants get a workout by learning new dances.
“You didn’t need any equipment or great skills to do it,” Case said. “There’s no required ability levels. It’s fun and dance and exercise all at the same time.”
Case said the group, which has only included women, started strong. As many as a dozen faculty members showed up for workouts. Numbers dwindled toward the end of the semester, but a core group remains.
“We are all working for the same goals, and when you have a group of people doing it, it’s just so much more fun,” custodian Greta Smith said. “You can push one another to be held accountable.”
Case said it helps that members of the group can motivate one another to continue attending.
“If you know they’re counting on you to be there, it makes you accountable,” Case said. “It’s a social thing, too. It makes you feel like you’re having fun more than actually working out.”
The group typically meets in the building’s cafeteria. Meeting after school in the school building is a big convenience, teacher’s aide Becky Peterson said.
“It’s right after school, you bring your workout clothes, you work out with your friends, and go home,” she said. “It’s great.”
Case said it helps eliminate excuses.
“People get busy,” she said. “By the time you get home, you find things to do, or suddenly the couch looks pretty comfortable. These workouts are fun to do at home, but a whole lot more fun to do it with your friends. That’s why we brought it here.”
It isn’t the first time faculty at the elementary school engaged in a group workout program. Case and Smith led a Tae Bo workout program for faculty several years ago.
“It was the same thing,” Smith said. “We did it for four years, four days a week. It’s just getting a group of girls together that want to work on bettering themselves.”
At the time, Case was on a subscription where she would receive a new Tae Bo DVD each month. She said as the group gets through the Cize program, they’ll look for new avenues to come together and exercise.
“We’ll go on to something different,” Case said. “It’s just fun to have a group.”