Mitch Calvert
Coming on the heels of its successful “Biggest Loser” competition, Energy Fitness here has another group program in motion to get members actively involved.
Staff member Alana Pierce, who doubles as a physical education instructor at Confederation College, is training for her first fitness competition in June, and has welcomed club members to come along for the ride and train for it themselves.
“I’m kind of finding my way myself, [and] it’s been something I’ve always been interested in doing,” Pierce noted. “And hopefully there might be a few in the group who get in competition condition at the end with me.”
The program, still in its infancy, currently involves four scheduled workouts a week, with three days focusing on two different muscle groups each time.
The fourth day is focused on leg exercises.
“Right now we’re just working on getting our base,” Pierce explained. “They can come do it in the class, or if they can’t make it to a class, we post equivalent exercises on the board each day so they see it when they come in and can do it on their own time.”
Pierce runs classes focused on the program Mondays at 6:30 p.m., as well as Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:15 p.m. She also noted other employees at Energy, including owner Jackie Lampi-Hughes, run classes focusing on her training program.
“We originally had close to 80 signed up, and I’m averaging from 16-24 people per class,” Pierce said. “It’s about half and half from those coming to the class and those doing the program on their own.”
Pierce said she does the program along with the class when she’s instructing, but will get a little extra in after class since she isn’t able to do the same reps and sets as her pupils. She’s in the gym six days a week.
Of course, getting into contest shape is only possible when your diet is equally consistent with your training in the gym. Pierce said that will be an important step later in the group journey.
“It’s coming down the road for the group, but for myself, I’m trying to increase my protein and eat a little bit cleaner now,” she remarked. “Starting in January, for anyone who is really interested in getting into contest shape, we will have to have their diet worked out at that time.”
Pierce said the program is a compilation of her own fitness journey, along with some elements from her own personal trainer while she was living in Nova Scotia.
“He got me on a basic bodybuilding program, working from compound exercises to isolated ones, so some aspects come from that,” she noted. “But mostly it’s just what I’ve learned along the way in the fitness industry as an instructor and personal trainer.”
