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Mar 21

H4G fuels fitness hunger – Stanly News & Press

Fitness Comments Off on H4G fuels fitness hunger – Stanly News & Press

According to Chris Watson, fitness instructor for the new Albemarle fitness group H4G, the key component to fitness is not a gym membership or a special diet, a particular workout routine or a new app to download.

The key is hunger, Watson said. Hunger to be better and to grow, to want to move up and step out.

That is the idea at the heart of his new fitness group, H4G. Short for hungry for gains, the group started about seven months ago and now averages about 15-30 people a session.

Most of those members are new to fitness, Watson noted, but whether getting started or toning up, everyone has a driving desire to improve, Watson noted.

Thats what I love, Watson said. I love to see people work hard.

That driving desire to push forward is not always easy to maintain, though. As a multi-sport athlete who graduated from Stanly County Schools in 2010, Watson said it is nearly impossible to do that alone. It takes a team.

In fact, he started H4G as a way to keep his own family gnawing after a healthier lifestyle.

My dad and his girlfriend wanted to get in shape, Watson explained. They asked me to help them with it.

So he started leading their trio in exercise routines at the Albemarle High football field. Before long, friends were joining them on a regular basis. People walking by would stop join in.

Watson rolled with it.

Talking with the principals at both AHS and Central Elementary, he secured their facilities on a regular basis for the group (AHSs football field for good weather, Centrals gym for cold or wet weather).

H4G now meets 6:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 9-10 a.m. Saturday.

Its more cardio than anything youll find in a gym, Chris Armet said at a recent workout.

With temperatures below 30 degrees that morning, the crew met at Central Elementary. The workout began with sprints and lunges and then rolled into curl-ups and planks, with only one short break in between.

And this is an easy day, Armet said.

On warmer days at AHS, the warm-ups usually involve dashing up and down bleachers and sprinting up hills, he explained.

He knows how to push, Arnett said.

However, the routines are never routine. Sometimes members are holding a plank position while their partners jump back and forth over their legs. Sometimes they are doing curl-ups with dumbells before jumping into burpees.

Its always different and its always challenging, Jennifer Stokes said at practice.

But nobody stops.

Like an athletic practice, exercises are done as a group and completed as a group. Attendees call out encouragements around the room and urge their partners on in pair exercises with keep goings and almost theres.

Watson, an ever-present coach, makes circuits of the room, occasionally modifying exercises for people who are struggling, but more often getting down on the floor to do the exercise with them as encouragement.

Thats his style, Mark Thompson said. Its not boot camp. Hes not yelling in your face. He motivates you by making you feel good about what youre doing.

For Crystal Stanbeck, that has been essential for success.

Struggling to maintain an exercise routines for years, her weight fluctuated so much she had stopped buying smaller clothes for fear of wasting her money.

It wasnt until Watson, who saw her exercising alone one afternoon, invited her to join H4G that she has kept the weight off.

When Im struggling on the track, (Watson) comes and runs with me, Stanbeck said. When he sees me at the store, he comes over to check in with me... He holds me accountable.

In the four or five months with the group, Stanbeck has lost 50 pounds. She has also bought some new clothes.

I know Im going to keep it off this time, Stanbeck said.

To put an emphasis on that kind of hunger for success, Watson takes a picture of the group at the end of each session. The picture is pasted to Facebook later that day as a little reminder of why they are there.

Stay hungry, Watson said.

To submit story ideas, contact Shannon Beamon at (704)982-2121 ext. 24, shannon@stanlynewspress.com, or @snapshannon on Twitter.

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H4G fuels fitness hunger - Stanly News & Press

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