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Healthy Bride News

FIT TO BE TIED

DEBBIE CAFAZZO; The News Tribune
Last updated: May 30th, 2005 02:40 AM (PDT)

First comes love.

Then comes — panic.

Often, it sets in during the selection of an expensive, full-length white dress. Strapless. Or maybe backless.

That's when a bride-to-be can really begin to worry about the flabby state of her deltoids and dorsi.

For these women, there's The Healthy Bride.

Kitsap County fitness instructor Christi Masi started her six-week classes to help women get in shape for their big day in the spotlight. She calls herself "The Wedding Trainer."

She and her assistant instructors travel throughout the Puget Sound area, offering classes in Tacoma, Silverdale, Seattle and Bellevue, with a goal of sculpting buff brides and others who want to tag along. Spring and summer classes take place outdoors.

Although Masi also offers classes for couples, she's never had any men take her up on the offer.

Her first crop of Pierce County Bridal Boot Camp recruits - brides-to-be Sharon Wallace and Kelly McLain, maid of honor Sacha Hrabar and Diane Hartenstine, who will boldly celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary in a strapless, red full-length gown this summer - recently completed a six-week course at Point Defiance Park.

One evening, they started their workout with a hike around the duck pond near the Pearl Street entrance to the park. Then they ran up and down a hill.

"So how does it feel?" asked Masi.

"Nauseating," answered Hrabar.

"How about some lateral lunges?" Masi cheerfully suggested.

Next, participants partnered up, wrapped stretchy bands around each other and performed a rowing exercise - a great workout for back muscles. Modified push-ups helped them sculpt arms that will go bare on the big day.

Even in a driving rain - when other joggers ran for the cover of tall evergreens - the women of Bridal Boot Camp soldiered on, splashing along muddy trails for 40 minutes.

Their motivation?

On the day these women walk down the aisle in celebration, they want to look good.

"We try to be realistic about what you can accomplish in six weeks," says Masi, who is certified by both the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

"The majority of women are as much concerned about how they feel - about energy levels, getting a good night's sleep and managing stress - as about their dress."

She tries to make her classes fun, but still hard enough to push people, whatever their level of fitness.

"The only complaint I've ever had about my classes is that they were not hard enough," she says.

Masi believes that the months before marriage - although hectic - are a good time for brides to establish a fitness habit they can stick with for life.

"It's probably the only time in your life when you have to set a deadline that you want to look good for," says McLain, a 24-year-old from Puyallup who will marry Mark Aardal on Aug. 6.

She sweated through The Healthy Bride Classes with Hrabar, 25, her best friend and maid of honor. Hrabar, a wedding photographer, found the classes on the Internet and suggested she and McLain sign up.

"Everybody can use work, and a lot of women are self-conscious" about their looks, says Hrabar. "But brides have a deadline to take action."

Even closer to her wedding deadline is Wallace, 28, who will marry Rob Beslow on June 11.

Wallace has run marathons, but after moving to the Northwest from Arizona two years ago, job hunting and other responsibilities started eating into her workout time. So when she found The Healthy Bride, she saw an opportunity to get back in shape.

She started with a Seattle class in October and continued with the Tacoma class.

"Every bride has an image of how she wants to look on her wedding day," Wallace says. "Fitness has a lot to do with looking good, and Christi is able to do that for us."

Wallace says the class has given her the results she wanted.

"My one big goal was to have nice-looking arms for my strapless gown, and I feel like I do," she says.

How did she do it?

"Push-ups," says Wallace. "Lots of push-ups."

Muscle To support skin

Masi understands that brides who choose to show a lot of skin want some muscle supporting it. Her workout DVD for brides, "The Healthy Bride's Boot Camp Workout," features not only sections on cardiovascular training and stretching, but also special sections on weight training aimed at brides wearing strapless, backless or fitted gowns.

Like her classes, the DVD also demonstrates low-impact versions of exercises so brides who start at varying fitness levels can work their way up to the full-blast workouts.

Hartenstine, a 46-year-old hospice nurse who will mark her 25th anniversary with husband Mark this summer, says Masi starts each class asking every woman what her goals are.

"Working on my core has been mine," she says. The class taught her proper techniques for the abdominal crunches and other exercises that are helping her reach her goal.

First she lost inches, then pounds. She has also worked on building good posture so that she'll look stunning in her orange-red gown. The dress will be a marked departure from the bridal gown she wore 25 years ago, a lacy affair with sheer sleeves.

"Strapless wasn't in then," she says.

Hartenstine says the class has given her an energy boost - something she definitely needed after helping to plan her daughter's wedding last year and her big anniversary celebration this year. She's also proud to be able to keep up the same running pace as the younger women in the class.

She's so pumped up by The Healthy Bride Classes, she's signing up for another six weeks.

So is McLain. She's already had to have her dress taken in because of the weight she's lost - an unexpected bonus, in her view.

And she also feels like she has more energy to help get her through the stress of planning an out-of-town wedding that will take place in Port Angeles.

"Working out with a group makes it a lot more friendly," McLain says.

And when members of this bridal brigade are finished practicing jumping jacks, stretches and lunges, they can always take a breath - and trade notes on cakes, caterers and mothers-in-law.

Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
debbie.cafazzo@thenewstribune.com