Ready for some stress relief?
Pounding might do it.
Selene Byron, who instructs pound classes for Edgewood Fitness for Women, brings stress relief and a lot more to sessions that when the weather is good are conducted Saturday mornings at the park overlooking Stillhouse Cove.
Sessions are fast paced and rhythmic as women click (bang?) sticks on Selene’s commands and in time with music. The women come prepared for a workout, bringing along bottles of water, towels, and mats and attired in shorts and T-shirts.
“This is not yoga,” Selene says emphatically, sweat breaking from her brow as she pauses to give her students a chance to catch their breath and swig from their water bottles.
Indeed, there’s no time to meditate or even return the curious stares of early morning walkers, cyclists and joggers. Selene may start the group off with them rapping their sticks three times behind their backs before repeating the sequence above their head, in front of them and then on the ground. Next she’ll add in some squats, then some jumps before picking up the pace.
“I feel less like I’m working out when I’m hitting sticks,” says Carrie Pope, who learned of the program because she and Selene are Edgewood neighbors. Pope confides, too, that pound has her doing things she hates like squats.
“I forget that I’m doing them,” she said.
Another pound regular, Dana Borrelli-Murray finds the exercise gives her the “best of all worlds.” She is a musician so she is thrilled with the rhythm of the sticks and on top of that she is getting a workout.
There’s yet another aspect that appeals to Pope. It’s the community that has come together for pound and other programs offered by the Edgewood Fitness for Women. Pope said she has come to know so many people.
“It’s such a great community of women,” she said.
Selene sees those connections, too. The kids of some members of the group go to the same school and they cross paths in the neighborhood and about town.
Located at 1856 Broad St., Edgewood Fitness for Women Also offers small group training in cycle, barre, TRX, rowing, kick boxing, boot camp and resistance cardio intervals. Selene said pound sessions cost $17 and a full schedule of rates is available from the center.
For Selene, instructing at Edgewood Fitness for Women is part time. She is a products specialist for Eastern White Cedar Shingles, a Canadian company supplying shingles for the construction industry. She’s versed on the topic and, as one would expect, an advocate for the use of shingles.
After an hour of pounding, however, she was ready to save that talk for another time. Packing up, getting home and a shower were on her mind.