Shape Up at Cheers
by Kristen De Deyn Kirk
Tammy Harper has been working out regularly for 25 years. She does so so she can compete in Adventure races - which combine running, trekking, biking, mountain climbing and kayaking.
Anyone stepping into Fine Lines Fitness Center in early December would have immediately gotten a sense of the owner's friendliness.
Tammy Harper had a sign posted in the first workout area: Christmas Party, Dec. 15 at 6:30 p.m. Some gyms wouldn't bother with such a thing: Members go in and out and barely talk to each other: They're too focused on themselves and their lives.
But at Fine Lines, there's a sense of community - and humor. On the bottom of the Christmas Party sign was a warning. It read, "All food items will contribute to your need to continue to patronize our facility."~ Uh-oh! Sounds yummy - and fattening.
Don't worry, though. Tammy. who bought the fitness center in May, is ready to help after all those treats Five years ago, she worked at the gym, then called BAER Fitness Center, on Carrollton Boulevard. Owner Tim Baer had originally manufactured fitness equipment, but he had so many people walk into the building and ask if they could join "the gym" that he decided to create one. Tammy has loved working out - especially doing strength training - since she was 21. She managed the gym for Tim, who's in the military, until a job opportunity for her husband moved the family to Bedford, Texas four years ago.
Last spring, Tammy traveled to Virginia to visit friends and something told her she should move back to the area and take over the gym.
"Tim was so busy with the military, because he had become Active Duty,"~ Tammy says, "so I thought he might want to sell the business to me."'
She was right, and Fine Lines Fitness Center was born.
The workout areas cover two floors and 6,000 square feet. The first room, the original gym area, has 13 "selectorize" machines, where exercisers insert a pin in a stack of weights to select the number of pounds they'd like to lift. This is the area where many new exercisers are often the most comfortable, Tammy says.
The next room is huge, with dozens and dozens of glistening white and black machines. Selectorize machines are mixed with plate-loaded and cardiovascular machines. All the famous names are stamped on the machines - Hammer Strength, Flex Fitness, Life Fitness and, of course, BAER.
The third room is for the "gym rats,''' Tammy says. It has free weight after free weight. That's where you find most of the power lifters.
Up a steep set of stairs (which Tammy sprints over two at a time) is a resource room with a couch, chair, table and TV. It's available to any group that needs to hold meetings.
"I want fitness groups to come here and plan their activities," says Tammy. "I want Fine Lines to be a gathering place."
Across the hall, there's a room filled with a complete circuit of cardio and workout machines and a matted area in the back. Yoga classes started in the room in early December, and Tammy also offers Tai Chi, kickboxing, core strength and strength training classes. She leads the core strength and strength training and an introductory to the gym class. Nicholas Henney heads up kickboxing, and Barbara Olin instructs the yoga classes.
In the hallway between the upstairs resource and workout rooms are pictures showing Tammy's passion: adventure racing. She likes to take her finely tuned body outside and put it to the test. No simple runs or bike rides, though. Tammy competes in races that require running and biking and rock climbing and trekking and kayaking over a 12- to 24-hour period. Workouts prior to races are intense.
"I recently kayaked with a friend from Churchland to Lynnhaven Inlet. It took eight and a half hours," Tammy, 46, says. "Then we biked back 27 miles."~
Tammy was in the Air Force, which brought her to Isle of Wight, for 17 years. The Ohio-native has been to California, New Mexico, Illinois, Korea, and Tampa and rose to the rank of master sergeant. She taught survival skills and is raising three children ranging in age from 11 to 25. About six years ago, the National Strength Conditioning Association certified her as a personal trainer.
When Tammy works out in the gym, she tackles the toughest exercises: Inserting her arms in two hanging slings, she lifts up her legs past her waist and kicks them back out, over and over. Then she gets on the floor and gets in a push-up position. Her feet rest on a huge red ball. She maneuvers the ball and her body back and forth into an upside down V, a position that requires strong stomach muscles and balance.
"I'm just an average person," Tammy says later.
Well, maybe she started out that way, but there's nothing average about Tammy these days: She's 5-foot-10 and sculpted with tight muscles, thick, short hair, flawless skin and a sparkling smile. She jokes with her clients (it's easy to imagine that she knows just about all 200 by name) and gently encourages them. When Mike Avera walks in, she starts on him: "Come on, you know you want to do some ab work," she teases.
Tammy likes to think of Fine Lines Fitness as a "Cheers,"~ where people gather and stay a long time because they're with friends. She has clients of all ages and sizes, and she particularly enjoys training two women at the same time.
"I find I can push two women more than one alone because they end up enjoying the challenge when they're with someone else,"~ Tammy says. "They have so much fun laughing and helping each other."' Non-exercisers are skeptical that working out is a good time, but they can try it for themselves free at Fine Lines Fitness. Tammy offers a complimentary week to anyone who would like it - and they can use all of the machines and attend the fitness classes.
Reach Tammy Harper at Fine Lines Fitness Center by calling 238-7000.
