Category: Fitness
Fitness feature
Reza Hashampour's business was growing. The problem was so was the boss. 260, 270, 280...
Finally, when he tipped the scales at 284 pounds in January 2010, Hashampour decided, "Enough."
"I was headed for a heart attack or stroke," said the founder and CEO of Polaris Asset Corp. in Virginia Beach. "I was working out regularly and still gaining. I knew I had to make some serious lifestyle changes."
The little voice would pop into Judy Hamann's head from time to time - "Do a triathlon." |
Hamann, who was 30 pounds overweight and hadn't been swimming - "wallowing is more like it" - in more than 30 years, would answer, "No way."
"I was a 'social exerciser.' I would go to the gym and get on the elliptical trainer for 45 minutes and talk to my girlfriends the whole time," said Hamann who is president of Next Steps Resourcing Inc., which provides marketing and development strategies to small businesses.
Those are Kevin Kordek's arms. |
We're not talking about the muscular pair attached to his body. |
There's that bulging set of biceps that adorn the statue of legendary Virginia Beach fitness guru John Wareing that stands at 17th Street and the Boardwalk.
Kordek, CEO and president of A-Active Termite and Pest Control in Virginia Beach, posed as the "perfect model" to capture Wareing's arms.
At a callow 23, Michael Burns isn't old enough to get too far out of shape. But he got close once. And that was enough.
After he put away his lacrosse stick to concentrate on academics at Christopher Newport University, Burns, now an investment executive for Lions Bridge Financial in Newport News, heard Big Macs and fries calling his name.
"I got up to my all-time high of 225 pounds," said the 6-foot-4 Burns. "It was not a good feeling. I gained about 15 pounds but it felt like 50."
Who has time to sleep?
Not Marian Bear Ticatch. It's not much after 4 most mornings when Ticatch is up and into her stretching routine.
"Then, I stretch some more," said the grandmother of eight. "I've recently started hanging from a door. I heard that's good for you."
After that, Ticatch hoists some weights and does some core exercises. She finishes up her before-sunrise workout by popping on the elliptical trainer for 20 minutes.
"I don't have time for more than 20 minutes, but I'm going faster and farther all the time."
Pierce Tyler is hoping his workouts will take him to new heights. // On April 3, Tyler hopes to climb 50 flights of stairs at Step Up, a stair-climbing competition to benefit The Up Center, which provides social services to local residents.
Last year, Tyler huffed and puffed up the 25 flights - that's 580 steps, if you're counting - of Dominion Tower in Norfolk. This time, he's going for a double dip of 50. Contestants can opt to climb 25, 50 or 100 flights at Dominion Tower.
HARDLY A DAY goes by when Ben Dumire isn't asked "The Question," as he's come to call it.
"Hey, Ben, how'd you do it?"
How did Ben Dumire go from 197 pounds to 132, trade in those 38-inch waist pants for 29s and reduce his pain medications from eight a day to two?
"It isn't rocket science," said the quality assurance analyst for Ferguson Enterprises in Newport News. "I started going to the gym and eating better."
LeAnne Rains Benedetto got the news in January 2009.
Type I diabetes. Her body had stopped producing insulin.
"You don't realize what a grim disease it is until you get it," she said. "It can lead to amputation or blindness. I was terrified."
Rains Benedetto, a familiar face in Hampton Roads after a 10-year career as a TV news anchor, was determined to fight the disease in "the healthiest way I could."
The way turned out to be a fitness regimen.
Here is Angela Hankins' idea of fun. | First, sprint 400 meters as fast as you can. Then, snap off 20 combination pushups/vertical leaps and follow it with a round of "ball slams," hurling a weighted ball into the ground as hard as possible. | Then - whew - do the whole thing three more times. In just over 11 minutes.
It's called CrossFit, a short-duration, high-intensity workout of constant motion.
"I love it. I'm absolutely addicted to it," said Hankins, who took up CrossFit in January and tries to get in four sessions a week.
The company comes to the rescue of more than 1,000 homes and businesses a year that have been wracked by natural or manmade disasters. After 9/11, it was Collier who was called to the Pentagon as a consultant to help with the restoration.
"I deal with people whose lives have been turned upside down, and have incredible stress," said Collier, 41. "I've got to be the guy who is the calm in the storm."
