Working out is working, say health coach's clients
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
By Jack Kelly
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Arguably the best fitness deal in Pittsburgh is the body toning class Chris Howard teaches four times a week at the Kingsley Center, 6435 Frankstown Ave. in East Liberty.
The price is certainly right. The cost to blacks of all ages and both genders is free, the tab picked up by the Center for Minority Health of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh as part of its Healthy Black Family Project.
Mr. Howard, 40, is a student at Pitt majoring in exercise science and a "health coach" with the Graduate School of Public Health. On Monday and Wednesday mornings at 11, and on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6, he puts his students through a fast-paced hour that includes aerobic exercise, resistance training, stretching and balance and flexibility exercises.
"It's never the same," said Sharon Sloan, 54, who has been taking the class for 14 months. "It's something different every time."
Ms. Sloan said she has peripheral artery disease in her leg, which discouraged her from walking more than short distances. "Now I can walk everywhere," she said.
"I had some problems with ligaments in my right shoulder," said Lawrence Harris, 68, a retired electronics technician. "I planned on having surgery. But now everything is looking good."
"It's helped my blood pressure," said Betty Tallon. "My medication has been cut in half."
But no student has reported more dramatic results than Valerie Stagger, 53. When she began three years ago to take Chris' class, she weighed 170 pounds, wore a brace on her left knee, and was taking medication to control her blood pressure.
Today Ms. Stagger is a svelte 143, has thrown away the brace, and no longer takes blood pressure medication.
"I went down four dress sizes in that class," she said. "Chris is very inspirational."
Inspired by Mr. Howard's example, Ms. Stagger, an Avon sales representative, is studying to become a personal trainer herself. Mr. Howard was a steelworker who taught a body toning class at his church, Mt. Ararat Baptist Church on Paulson Avenue, when he was approached by Dr. Stephen Thomas, the director of the Center of Minority Health, to become a health coach for the Healthy Black Family Project.
"If you draw a two-mile radius around this campus, you'll find some of the worst health statistics in Pennsylvania," Dr. Thomas said.
The project was begun in 2005 in order to improve those statistics, Dr. Thomas said. With a budget of $1.5 million this year, the project subsidizes yoga, water aerobics and African dance classes and nutrition seminars in addition to Chris Howard's body toning class. But it remains the biggest draw.
"The people who are showing up are not the 'worried well,' " Dr. Thomas said. "These are the people at high risk. These are the people who have been missed."
