In no time, you will be the one who gets noticed, be it work, family and socially. Savings: The money you save by doing a home exercise program is substantial compared to costly gyms and trainers. Wouldn’t you rather use the savings for new clothes, family-time and home rather than fatten’ someone else’s wallet. Fitness is affordable to all. You don’t have to overpay for the privilege of fitness. From the moment the instructor pops a cassette into the stereo, the music is loud. Very loud. So loud that the room can barely contain it. A glass wall shakes violently and the wood floor bounces up and down. The first notes out of the speakers quote a ’70s funk anthem, but the song has merely been sampled for its recognizable hook. In this version, the beat is more emphatic, the bass nearly subsonic.

The original lyrics are deconstructed and reassembled at will by a rapper riding shotgun on the groove. Fitness is a good thing to have in your life. The instructor--a striking woman dressed in an oversized black T-shirt and baggy black sweatpants, with a shock of braids tied up overhead--glides effortlessly to the right in an intricate sequence of hip-hop dance steps. The 30-odd students behind her mimic each move to a T. “Turn it, turn it!” she yells, and everyone reverses field. “Grapevine! Do it!” Only by screaming into a handheld mike can she momentarily raise her voice above the music. “Grapevine, grapevine! One more, one more! Five, six, seven . . . Whe-e-e-e-e-e-e-w! All right!” After 10 minutes of this, the instructor stops the tape. By now her students are sweating rivers and sucking wind, but they appear to be having the time of their life.

Like their leader, many haven’t stopped smiling and laughing since the class began. For a dance/aerobics class, the group’s choreography looks amazing. Still, the instructor isn’t satisfied. “Y’all didn’t get that easy step?” she laughs, presumably referring to the aforementioned “grapevine.” “We’ll do it one more time.” If hip-hop and funk aren’t your thing, don’t worry: Aerobics enthusiasts today have more choices than a couch potato with a satellite dish. You can still sign up for a traditional step, low-impact or high-impact/low-impact class, but if you want to learn some self-defense while you sweat, you can check out a cardio kickboxing class.

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