As Flo Rida's "Club Can't Handle Me" echoes through the Hill Hall Aerobics Room, five ponytails flop back and forth as girls organize their exercise balls, mats and weights on the dance floor.
"If you want to stand up and jog in place, we'll do that for 45 seconds," sophomore Sarah Tralins instructs her class. "Knees up!"
Tralins, one of Tufts Student Resources (TSR) Fitness' eight student instructors, began teaching exercise classes this year, serving as a cheerleader and coach for a weekly class of her fellow students.
She joined this semester because, like many of her co−workers, she wanted to bring to campus the group workout experiences she's had off campus.
"When I have a room full of women and we're all dancing around, it seems less like a formal workout and more like you're just dancing with your friends," Elizabeth Keys, a sophomore TSR instructor, said. "At that point you're not thinking about burning calories or anything."
TSR offers 10 different student−instructed fitness classes ranging from the relaxing, like Yoga 101, to the intense. On the roster this fall is an ominous−sounding class called Bootcamp.
Classes, which each last an hour, cost $5 to drop in, $19.99 for a five−class pass or $110 for an unlimited semester pass. Money from the classes helps to purchase new fitness equipment and pay instructors.
It's a rate that has students scrambling to sign up.
"It's really affordable," sophomore Jonathan Bird, who is signed up for the Wednesday night Butts n Guts class, said. "I really like that they have the passes because I feel that once I put down the money it motivates me to go."
"I think it's such a great program," MarysaSheren, a senior who has taken TSR Fitness classes for two years, said. "It's such a great resource for students to go invest in their health and maintain their sanity."
In Hill last week, after he had had a few weeks of experience with teaching TSR classes, sophomore Jonathan Sokolski led a class of girls in a series of strength−training exercises, including maneuvers with weights and sit−ups.
"Guys tell me girls can't do push ups," Sokolski said to his Bootcamp class. "But here are nine girls here proving them wrong."
Long before he came to Tufts, Sokolski said he enjoyed studying and teaching different forms of exercise.
During the summer he runs a training camp in his Burlington, Mass. backyard for middle and high school boys as well as a cardio and fitness workout course for the boys' mothers called, appropriately, Cougar Bootcamp.
"I've never found [teaching my peers] to be awkward because I've really done it all my life," Sokolski said. "Even before I started my business I worked out with my friends. We'd push each other. I kind of took that relationship and brought it to my business and classes."
Applying to teach a class is a relatively simple process — to become an instructor this year, Sokolski taught a sample class in which he guided TSR Fitness managers Aleta Pierce, a senior, and Sarah Heath Howe, a junior, through a condensed, 20−minute class of what he would want to do in an hour.
In addition to teaching a demonstration class, student instructors must be CPR and first−aid certified.
"At first you have to establish that you're going to help people, and then you just ease into the class," Tralins said. "I just had to show that I know how to instruct and can keep people from injuring themselves."
Because TSR Fitness classes have exclusive access to the Hill Hall Aerobics Room, instructors are also responsible for cleaning up before and after their hour of teaching to ensure the space stays neat and organized, Tralins said.
TSR is also working to publicize the availability of the instructors to teach classes outside of Hill Hall — Chi Omega, for instance, will host TSR instructors teaching different classes to the sorority's members each week.
"A lot of people want to do group fitness classes but don't really know where to go," Tralins said. "We are available to teach them, it's just about reaching out to different members of the community."
The rigors of the weekly class schedule make the support of the other instructors crucial to keeping the program running smoothly, according to Tralins.
"[The instructors] are all in the stage of adjusting our schedules and making sure we're on top of all the rules," she said. "We're really good about taking over each other's classes if someone is sick or can't make it for whatever reason and we're working on getting closer with each other."
They have been doing something right, as the classes continue to be as popular as ever. During the first week of classes, when TSR waived the attendance fee, some instructors had to turn students away because classes were filled to capacity.
"I think we're really strong in the beginning of the semester and we're just going to try to keep it up with flyers and talking to people," Tralins said. "It's a lot about just networking it to your friends so they tell another person."
