KEEPING FIT : Helping Others Shape Up Has Its Own Awards : Physical Fitness Is More Than Just a Business for Those Who Were Chosen Male and Female Instructors of the Year

The first time Susan Foley stood and faced an aerobics class, she was petrified.

She hadn’t even planned on teaching, that day or any other. But the instructor didn’t show up, so she agreed, reluctantly, to take over.

“I absolutely froze,” she recalls. “It was terrible. I couldn’t think about what I was going to do next. All I could think of was, ‘What do they think of me?’ ”

But after the first two or three classes, she started to relax.

Nowadays she isn’t the least bit shy, as her students at the El Toro Physical Fitness Center and the San Juan Capistrano Family Fitness Center can attest. And she knows what some very important people think of her: On Feb. 2, her fellow Orange County fitness instructors voted her Female Fitness Instructor of the Year. They also named her Fitness Coordinator of the Year, for her work as program director at the El Toro Physical Fitness Center.

Rob Glick, owner of the Girl’s Gym of Newport Beach, was named Male Instructor of the Year. But for Glick, fitness is more than a business. “You know that cliche ‘Fitness is a way of life’? “ he says. “Well, for me, it’s more than that. It is my life.”

In addition to teaching six or more aerobics classes a week, Glick participates in other instructors’ classes, does weight training, skis, surfs, runs and participates in “just about every sport you can imagine.”

The awards were given by the Professional Fitness Instructors Assn. of Orange County, founded in 1987 by Foley and her husband, Richard, also an aerobics instructor--a couple who met on the aerobics floor.

Richard, who was nominated for Instructor of the Year, remains active on the organization’s board of directors, although Susan does not. He also works full time as a structural engineer.

The PFIA, which now includes more than 125 members countywide, is one of only three such organizations in the nation.

“It was formed as an opportunity for members to network with each other, obtain continuing education credits and keep up with what’s happening in the field,” Richard says. PFIA members also work with charities such as the American Heart Assn., City of Hope and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Although the awards, presented at the association’s annual banquet, are the highlight of the year, the group is active all year with workshops on everything from warm-ups and cool-downs to choreography and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. And the PFIA newsletter features reviews not only of recent exercise videos but of live classes, courtesy of the anonymous “PFI spy.”

The Instructor of the Year competition began with a 90-minute “master class” last November in which all 16 nominees showed their stuff for a roomful of PFIA members. Each candidate had 3 1/2 minutes to showcase his or her best moves. The event was videotaped so that every member would have a chance to study the nominees more closely before voting.

Foley had no problem stepping in as teacher that first day because the moves were simple and she had them memorized. “Things have changed a lot since then,” she says.

Teaching aerobics these days means much more than just leading a class through its moves, Foley says.

“It’s not just teaching anymore. It’s the presentation of the class. You have to really work on your choreography and also work on how to present it to them so they can successfully get the moves. And that has gotten quite complicated with the combinations that are used. But you also have to keep it varied so that it stays interesting and doesn’t become the same old thing.”

She also tries to be entertaining herself, whooping and hollering, singing along now and then with the music, getting the class to yell back at her--whatever she can think of to keep boredom at bay.

Foley attended her first aerobics class 10 years and 20 pounds ago, at the urging of a friend. “It was really fun. It’s dancing to the music that sparks the fire. It’s just something that motivates you to move your body. For me, it’s fun. The workout’s just icing on the cake.”

Although she considered herself “in fair shape” that day, the workout left her breathless. Now she knows that wasn’t good.

“If you’re out of breath, you’re in an anaerobic state. You’re not getting enough oxygen to burn the fat,” she says. To maintain an aerobic state, exercisers are now taught to keep their pulse rate in the correct range.

Foley says aerobics has given her not only a healthier body and better self-esteem, but “a chance to get out there in the world and do something meaningful. I couldn’t stay home and be just a mom.”

The couple’s 6-year-old twin sons, Keaton and Kevin, stay at the El Toro facility’s child-care center while their mother teaches.

Higher self-esteem is one of the fringe benefits of aerobics, especially for women, Glick says. And watching his clients go through the metamorphosis from shy and self-conscious to outgoing and confident is one of the results he enjoys most about his work.

“A lot of my clients come in as timid women that are not extremely comfortable with their own bodies, and they turn into women who are pleased not only with their bodies, but themselves and their whole lives. It’s really rewarding.”

Glick says he moved from working in a big fitness facility to the Girl’s Gym because “I wanted to have a place where people could get more personal attention, more education, more one-on-one.

“There was a void in places where women could go and get top-notch instruction and feel 100% comfortable, a place that was more than a pickup joint. I also wanted a place where women who were new at fitness could feel welcome and not feel like they had to know everything the day they walked in the door.”

Glick’s original career goal was to go into sports medicine, either as a doctor or a physical therapist. But when he saw the effects of fitness as preventive medicine, he decided to stay with it.

The Sports Club/Irvine was also honored as Fitness Facility of the Year for its aerobics and personal training programs.

The PFIA is open to all certified fitness instructors. For more information, call (714) 979-PFIA.