Group effort

ST. LOUIS – While divine intervention isn’t the fodder for most fact-based journalism, Erika Neal can’t tell the story of how she helped start a fitness group without mentioning it.

In December 2002, Neal had her first mammogram. Screeners found an abnormal mass in one of her breasts.

“I was thinking, ‘I’m going to die,’ ” recalled Neal, 39, of St. Louis. “My prayer to God was ‘Whatever this is, if you will just fix it and take care of it and take it away, I will take care of my body.’.”

For the next year, doctors monitored the mass. It was there at a follow-up screening in April 2003 and again in June. In December, though, it was gone.

“So I said, ‘OK, God did his part, now you do yours.’ “

The time was right as Neal and four friends stood in the lobby of the Black World History Wax Museum in St. Louis, discussing their aches and pains. Neal works there as director of marketing and visitor services. That night, she and her friends had attended an event.

As they milled around, the five women echoed the same complaints.

“One person said, ‘Oh, my back is hurting,’ and someone else said she was tired,” Neal recalled. “After all the complaints, we all came to the conclusion: We need to lose some weight.” The discussion took another direction: ‘ “Oh, I used to go to the gym,’ or ‘I need to go to the gym,’ ‘I have these tapes,’ and we just realized that all of a sudden, we just need to do it.”

Neal and her friends quickly organized an exercise club to meet at 6:30 p.m. Fridays at the museum. The founders set up a program that suited what they valued.

“There were five of us,” she said. “We were all Christians, and we knew we were going to need to pray. We said we’d do this with faith and prayer.”

Their program starts with five minutes of quiet time.

“Lights are out, and we come in to the room and sit down and relax from the chaos of the day,” Neal said. They read passages from the Bible that might be suited to the week’s happenings or other spiritual challenges, she said.

Next, they stretch, then work out to a 30- to 45-minute video of low-impact exercises. Sometimes they try a video that a participant might bring, or they try an exercise that someone learned during the week.

At the end of the session, Neal said, they have dinner, “a healthy meal that’s potluck; everyone brings something.”

Over the course of the year, the friends have lost weight and improved their health. Neal says that at one point, she had lost more than 30 pounds, although she has regained some. But that’s not such a bother, she says, because the benefits of the group transcend weight loss.

“It’s something I look forward to and need to do,” she said. “I’m accountable to myself and the group now. The group is very supportive.

“If I’m out driving and I want to go to a McDonald’s, I’ll call one of the members and they’ll tell me, ‘No, stay away.’ Sometimes that’s hard, but it’s not as hard when someone is helping you.”

Much of the time, conversations are about discipline and faith, something Neal says she needs in order to break old habits. “What we’ve found out is that every member contributes something. One person will find a new exercise, someone will bring in another psalm about discipline, and the whole group tries it, or a new recipe. So we always have an opportunity for every member to contribute.”

The structure has helped Neal battle her own obesity.

“I’m from a family of great cooks,” she said. “Both my grandmothers were incredible cooks. Five aunts, and four are incredible cooks. My mom is an incredible cook. There was no such thing as eating in moderation.”

The result, she said, is a lifelong battle with weight, “But now that I’ve gone public, I have to live up to what I’ve said.”

Experts say that the way Neal and her friends started their group is ideal. Not only are they working out and getting healthy, but because they’re friends and share values, the group is designed to meet their unique needs.

“The benefit of the group is the group,” says Cheryl Kelly, physical activity specialist with the Garden of Eden Project through the St. Louis University School of Public Health. “The group format is always appealing, because you’re doing it with your friends and there’s support around you.”

The Garden of Eden is a faith-based program to help people improve their nutrition and physical fitness by working with their own communities.

Working with a group of your own may lead to more consistent results than joining a gym, Kelly said. She noted that participants were less likely to stop or cut short a workout with friends. They also are less likely to spend money on special equipment or specialized workout gear.

Groups need a couple of things to get started:

Someone to bring up the idea. This isn’t necessarily a leader; it could simply be someone to start the conversation, to get people talking.

Shared values. These don’t have to be religious. Groups of friends or organizations tend to be within the same age and fitness range, so finding what would be a good program for the group can be easy to pinpoint. One group may want to walk, another may want to do cardio exercises in a basement, others may want to bike ride. And a group effort quells fears about being shown up by those who are in great shape. Groups of friends generally tend to look alike.

The group approach can work anywhere. Employees at Lawrence Group Architects in downtown St. Louis have formed the LGA Losers.

The two dozen participants range from office workers to a couple of managing partners, said Jennifer Garwood, office coordinator for the firm and one of the founders of the group.

“We did it because a lot of people said they didn’t have time for exercise,” Garwood said. “We would eat healthy snacks and discuss things, but we couldn’t (work out) with the hectic schedules.

“We formed to have a support system and help people with tips, to share experiences. Everyone was interested in eating healthy or exercising or cutting out fat.”

The group worked out a deal with the YMCA to provide an instructor, who visits once a week during the lunch period to teach core balance, a combination of Pilates and yoga. The group split the fee so it came to about $10 a person for an eight-week session. They work out in empty suites in their building.

Because the class doesn’t stress aerobics training, the group hasn’t needed a shower system, but that could change, said Garwood, who added that the class brings healthful activity to people who don’t exercise regularly otherwise.

“I become mentally tired, so I can come up with 101 reasons not to work out,” Garwood said. “(The group) was kind of like an appointment for me. It was stupid for me not to go. I didn’t make excuses.

“I knew co-workers were going to be there, so I made myself go and I enjoyed the class and it became a routine.”