Farrell’s co-owner Pam Green (center) with FIT class participants Mickalah Mulkey (left) and Nancy Baldwin (right). Photo by Martin Boling

BY BARB BERGGOETZ

Pam Green, co-owner of Farrell’s eXtreme Bodyshaping, shouts to be heard over the music blasting in the gym. “Pound that bag. Left jab, right cross,” she yells. “Let me hear that bag. It’s music to my ears.” To the 20 sweaty exercisers punching and kicking the black heavy bags, she exhorts, “Keep pushing yourself.”

For 45 minutes, Green leads the class through high-intensity cardio workouts designed to burn fat and build endurance at the 430 S. Landmark Avenue studio. Besides punching and kicking, clients also muscle through moves like burpees (a four-step, squat-thrust exercise), sit-ups, reverse planks, and lunges. Each person has an exercise partner who calls out encouraging phrases like “keep it up, you’ve got this” during classes.

That’s part of what has kept Nancy Baldwin, 54, coming back to Farrell’s since April 2016. “I know a lot of these people by name. It becomes like a family. And it never gets boring,” Baldwin says after a recent Farrell’s Infinite Transformation (FIT) class.

Clients advance to FIT classes after an initial 10-week program, but both programs alternate days of kickboxing and strength training with a healthy serving of nutrition counseling. Classes are offered six times daily, Monday through Saturday, starting at 5 a.m. Members are urged to come in at the same time each day to develop relationships and create accountability with fellow participants, says Green, who opened the facility with Teresa Geary in 2015.

Founded by Lance Farrell, the organization has more than 60 sites nationally. The high-intensity kickboxing classes are based on martial arts, and strength-training classes feature resistance bands and medicine balls. Green says an important feature is nutritional guidance and support, and feedback on food logs so clients can better fuel their bodies.

“We provide a quick and very efficient and effective 45 minutes of exercise,” Green says. “We’re really trying to instill lifelong healthy eating and exercise habits.”   

Mickalah Mulkey, 20, finished the 10-week program in March and is planning to continue taking FIT classes. A lab technician at IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Mulkey comes to 6 a.m. classes after her night shift.  “I just love using the bags,” she says. “I wanted something that challenges me and this does that.”

Visit bloomingtonlandmark.extremebodyshaping.com for more information.