RE: Huge article in Dallas Paper:I found it.
Hard Corps: A weekend of workouts
Dozens of fanatical followers - including our writer - flocked to the session with exercise guru Cathe Friedrich
06:29 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 23, 2005
By DARLA ATLAS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
GLASSBORO, N.J. – To say that Cathe Friedrich workout videos are tough is like saying Everest slopes upward.
The other day, as I gasped through another one of her routines, I had to wonder: Do I perhaps have a death wish? Is that what's going on here?
No, deep down I know she's making me stronger. And while she inflicts pain, she does so with smiles, wit and some very clever cardio moves. I got hooked two years ago, and let me just say this: Once you find Cathe, you never go backy.
Last May, as I lurked on her Web site, I happened upon an announcement that had just been posted: "Cathe Road Trip This July!"
Fans were being invited to fly to her New Jersey gym, meet one another and work out with Cathe herself. Four times in two days. Wow. WOW. I could not pass this up.
Because the trip was limited to the first 100 people, I quickly called my husband. "I'm going to New Jersey!" I yelled like a maniac. "To work out with Cathe! I'm signing up!"
"Okaaaay," he replied. People don't argue with maniacs.
For two months, I amped up my workouts, sometimes doing two videos a day. I wasn't looking to be the best one in class; I just wanted to physically survive the class. Or should I say classes – there would be three that Saturday. I said a silent prayer for my resting heart rate.
Finally, the weekend arrived. As I checked into my hotel on Friday afternoon, I suddenly had misgivings about this whole thing. What the heck was I doing here? I'm a home exerciser, not a social-butterfly exerciser. Less humiliation that way. But here I was, nonetheless. Too late to back out now.
That night, we all met at the hotel for a pre-Cathe get-together. I was a bit nervous before I walked into the room, but I told myself the other attendees would be like me: relatively fit, but not perfectly sculpted.
I was wrong.
The first thing I noticed were the biceps, which popped spectacularly out of lots of arms in the room. It was as if nobody had ever seen a Cheeto except me.
But, hey, that's fine. Sometimes it's nice to not be the fittest person in the room, or even the 20th-fittest. The pressure is off, you know? You and your flabby arms can sit back and relax.
Another thing I realized right away: I'm a Cathe novice compared with these people. It's like going to a Grateful Dead concert and believing you're the biggest fan because you've been to six shows – but then, oh, wait, everybody else here has circled the globe with the band. Twice.
That's how I felt: I own a piddly handful of Cathe tapes and DVDs, but these women have her entire library (more than 60 titles). Not that they were bragging; they weren't the bragging types. They were just cool and beautiful and smart and fun. They, like me, had dropped everything that weekend – tolerating many quizzical glances from friends and family – to be there.
These were my people.
The crowd goes wild
On Saturday, my people and I met at 8 a.m. at the gym co-owned by Cathe and her business partner. There it was, in a strip mall next to a Big Lots. The fact that Cathe was inside this normal-looking facility was like finding a geode: nothing special on the exterior, but inside, pure and sparkly magic.
After we walked into the gym, which was incredibly spacious and squeaky clean, we set up our benches for the 9 a.m. step class and chatted in nervous anticipation. A few minutes later, in walked Cedie, a backup exerciser from Cathe's videos.
The crowd went wild.
Amid screams, applause and flashbulbs popping, Cedie took a step back, wiping away tears. (A normal reaction if people suddenly pounce on you like you're Elvis.)
I turned to another woman and said, "Wow, imagine what it's going to be like when Cathe gets here!"
She shook her head and said, "If somebody throws their underwear, I'm leaving."
A few minutes later, the people next to the door started screaming and clapping anew. Cathe had arrived.
We all swarmed over, cheering, snapping photos and standing on our steps to get a better look. As she waved and smiled, she and Cedie hugged each other. Possibly out of fear.
After a few minutes of this giddy lovefest, it was time to start the step class. We did ricochets, reverse hop turns, fast-foot repeaters, insoles with hesitations, peg-leg pivots, over-face-in-overs and more. (We have our own little language.)
Cathe held court after class, signing DVD covers, answering questions and posing for pictures with a succession of sweaty, beaming women.
As she signed another DVD with "Great to meet you," she said she almost wrote "meat."
"I must be hungry!" she said with a laugh.
For lunch, we headed to an Italian place near the gym. I sat with Susan and Amanda, two friends who had driven down from Connecticut, and Melissa, a Maryland attorney who's a stay-at-home mom for now. We chatted about everything from TV shows to American Girl dolls to marathon running to the inner subtleties of Cathe workouts.
When the talk turned to gym locker rooms and how some women feel compelled to walk around naked, Melissa said she once saw a woman blow-drying her hair in the nude. "If you can pick up an appliance, you can put some clothes on," she said.
We were laughing so hard by the end of the lunch that other Cathe fans in the room had to tell us we were having too much fun. (Later that day, I called my husband. "I made a new friend!" I said, not unlike a first-grader.)
Next came an afternoon strength training class. During one segment, we sat on stability balls, bouncing as we worked to keep them steady. I looked at our reflection in the mirror, with Cathe front and center, and realized that we were all smiling like kids at Disney World. We were as buoyant as the balls we were perched on.
Hugs for the fans
To break up all the exercising and eating, we also went to see the studio where all of those terrific yet torturous videos are filmed. A few road trippers were chosen to go up on the set and do a short routine with Cathe and her crew. Cathe, ever the supportive teacher, hugged each one when they were done.
At 6 p.m., we met for another class, this time kickboxing. We squatted, jumped, punched, sweated and smiled uncontrollably, the adrenaline blocking out the sound of our bodies saying, "Um, hellooo, this is the third workout in one day! Have a seat, will ya?"
Dinner – pizza and salad at the gym – was followed by a dance party. I scooted out early, in favor of collapsing on my hotel-room bed. I had to be rested for the next morning's high-step class, which started at 7 a.m.
It turned out to be a mixture of cardio and weights, along with some butt-blasting moves that had us all groaning for mercy. But, as Cathe says in one of her videos, you're always so happy after you've accomplished a challenge. And we were indeed happy.
I then said my goodbyes, drove back to the hotel and started packing. It was over already. Still, I knew I was leaving with more than I came with. Along with an even greater admiration for my fitness hero, I had extra motivation (thanks to those ultra-fit trippers), e-mail addresses for new friends, a head full of fitness tips and much stronger glutes. Oh, and several Cathe T-shirts.
Since the trip, I've kept up my workouts, but I'd be lying if I said I've been following Cathe's advice to eat "clean." No, I've been eating filthily. In complete squalor.
But I know I can turn things around with Cathe's help. The other day I did Pyramid Upper Body – a tape I wouldn't own if it weren't for my new pal Melissa, who heartily recommended it. (And has fabulous arms, I might add.)
During the tape, Cathe asks Cedie for a count of how many reps we've done. My 5-year-old daughter heard this and asked, "Mommy, did you meet Cedie, too?"
"I sure did!" I said. "She was so nice!"
Thinking about the trip again left me with a warm glow. And it wasn't just from the sweat.
E-mail
[email protected].
Camp Cathe: Connect to order videos and learn more about Cathe Friedrich.
