Last one to post........... Part 8
- Thread starter eeyoresmountainpals
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Here you go. I found it.
Even good girls do it
A new class at Xtreme Total Health & Fitness promises better living through gyration.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER, Times Staff Writer
Published September 23, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOHO - In a dark room lined with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, eight women arch their backs, sway their hips and fix their lips in sexy pouts.
Tousling their hair, they drop their eyelids in come-hither fashion.
Speakers blare the lyrics to Madonna's 1992 hit Erotica.
"Stick your chest out!" yells their leader, Kelly Craft, a petite blond.
"Now your butt. Be proud of what you've got. Grab it! C'mon, this is your playground!"
The playground is actually an exercise studio at Xtreme Total Health & Fitness, a popular South Tampa gym owned by Joe Redner.
Redner is best known as owner of Tampa's landmark strip club Mons Venus, but the women following Craft's lead are not strippers. Nor do they aspire to be.
They are eager students of Fit Strip, a one-hour fitness class that debuted this month, making Redner's 24-hour gym one of the few in Tampa to embrace the workout that's all the rage in Hollywood.
Last year, Desperate Housewives' Teri Hatcher showed Jay Leno and his Tonight Show audience how she pole dances to stay fit. Former Baywatch siren Carmen Electra launched her own video series of aerobic stripteases in 2003, after taking Crunch Fitness' Cardio Striptease classes. Two years ago, Oprah Winfrey featured Pole Dancing 101 on a show about "finding your inner sexpot."
Shapes Total Fitness locations in the Tampa Bay area, including the Shapes on Swann Avenue, already offer striptease classes.
And now, Xtreme. Some might say it's long overdue, given the racy images neighbors conjured up in 1997, when Redner opened the fitness club.
"Because of who the owner is, people already had some expectations that we would gravitate in that direction right away," said Warren Rose, Xtreme's group fitness director. "So I think it's actually wise we did this later rather than sooner.
"Right now we're trying to find programming that is unique. We are extreme, and we want to have a class that shows it."
* * *
Craft has a voluptuous figure, bright blue eyes and a smile that goes from sunny to sexy with the grind of a hip. A 30-something mother of one, she has full-length mirrors and a stripper's pole in her St. Petersburg home.
Craft has never been a stripper, and there is no nudity in Fit Strip. Exposed midriffs and sport bra-supported cleavage, yes. Bare breasts and naked bottoms, no.
"The only thing that's going to be bare in here are your feet," Craft said with a smile.
Craft was a gymnast during her teenage years, then moved to classical ballet. She has since become certified to teach yoga, Pilates, kickboxing and cycling.
Today, more than a year after moving here from Los Angeles, Craft juggles her Xtreme classes with pole fitness classes at her St. Petersburg studio, L.A. Dance Moves.
Craft learned to strip for fitness a few years ago in the L.A. home of actor Sheila Kelley, a married mother of two who learned to pole dance for the film Dancing at the Blue Iguana.
In 2002, Kelley started hosting pole classes for friends and fellow mothers. A year later, as demand for the classes grew, she opened the S Factor Studio - which features five poles - in Los Angeles. A San Francisco studio followed.
Actors Daryl Hannah, Lisa Rinna and Allison Janney are among those who tone up their quads, abs, arms and derrieres by dancing like strippers.
"It's about empowerment," Teri Hatcher has said. "It's about finding this place of comfort and confidence in your own body."
* * *
There is no pole in the exercise room at Xtreme, but the women taking Craft's Fit Strip class are getting a workout just the same.
When they sway their hips, their obliques burn. When they get on all fours and do the "cat pounce," moving their chest back and forth across the floor, they work their arm and stomach muscles.
Their legs shake with fatigue when they do the "corkscrew," a move that has them twist their legs up and around, toes pointed.
"There's a lot of Pilates in this," Craft said. "It's not easy holding your legs up like that."
It's also not easy - at first anyway - to be so sexual in such a public forum. Women worry that they're not pretty enough, not thin enough, not buxom enough, Craft said. The class helps them get over those feelings of inadequacy.
"A lot of women are afraid to express themselves sexually," she said. "You find out in class: Wow, I can do that? It's an extreme power trip."
Tonya Meacham, 32, of St. Petersburg used to be so self-conscious about her body that she refused to work out in a co-ed gym. Then she started taking Craft's pole dancing classes, and her confidence grew.
Sure enough, there she was in the first class of Fit Strip, back arched. Hair tousled. Hips moving seductively.
And to think she considers herself shy.
Even good girls do it
A new class at Xtreme Total Health & Fitness promises better living through gyration.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER, Times Staff Writer
Published September 23, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOHO - In a dark room lined with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, eight women arch their backs, sway their hips and fix their lips in sexy pouts.
Tousling their hair, they drop their eyelids in come-hither fashion.
Speakers blare the lyrics to Madonna's 1992 hit Erotica.
"Stick your chest out!" yells their leader, Kelly Craft, a petite blond.
"Now your butt. Be proud of what you've got. Grab it! C'mon, this is your playground!"
The playground is actually an exercise studio at Xtreme Total Health & Fitness, a popular South Tampa gym owned by Joe Redner.
Redner is best known as owner of Tampa's landmark strip club Mons Venus, but the women following Craft's lead are not strippers. Nor do they aspire to be.
They are eager students of Fit Strip, a one-hour fitness class that debuted this month, making Redner's 24-hour gym one of the few in Tampa to embrace the workout that's all the rage in Hollywood.
Last year, Desperate Housewives' Teri Hatcher showed Jay Leno and his Tonight Show audience how she pole dances to stay fit. Former Baywatch siren Carmen Electra launched her own video series of aerobic stripteases in 2003, after taking Crunch Fitness' Cardio Striptease classes. Two years ago, Oprah Winfrey featured Pole Dancing 101 on a show about "finding your inner sexpot."
Shapes Total Fitness locations in the Tampa Bay area, including the Shapes on Swann Avenue, already offer striptease classes.
And now, Xtreme. Some might say it's long overdue, given the racy images neighbors conjured up in 1997, when Redner opened the fitness club.
"Because of who the owner is, people already had some expectations that we would gravitate in that direction right away," said Warren Rose, Xtreme's group fitness director. "So I think it's actually wise we did this later rather than sooner.
"Right now we're trying to find programming that is unique. We are extreme, and we want to have a class that shows it."
* * *
Craft has a voluptuous figure, bright blue eyes and a smile that goes from sunny to sexy with the grind of a hip. A 30-something mother of one, she has full-length mirrors and a stripper's pole in her St. Petersburg home.
Craft has never been a stripper, and there is no nudity in Fit Strip. Exposed midriffs and sport bra-supported cleavage, yes. Bare breasts and naked bottoms, no.
"The only thing that's going to be bare in here are your feet," Craft said with a smile.
Craft was a gymnast during her teenage years, then moved to classical ballet. She has since become certified to teach yoga, Pilates, kickboxing and cycling.
Today, more than a year after moving here from Los Angeles, Craft juggles her Xtreme classes with pole fitness classes at her St. Petersburg studio, L.A. Dance Moves.
Craft learned to strip for fitness a few years ago in the L.A. home of actor Sheila Kelley, a married mother of two who learned to pole dance for the film Dancing at the Blue Iguana.
In 2002, Kelley started hosting pole classes for friends and fellow mothers. A year later, as demand for the classes grew, she opened the S Factor Studio - which features five poles - in Los Angeles. A San Francisco studio followed.
Actors Daryl Hannah, Lisa Rinna and Allison Janney are among those who tone up their quads, abs, arms and derrieres by dancing like strippers.
"It's about empowerment," Teri Hatcher has said. "It's about finding this place of comfort and confidence in your own body."
* * *
There is no pole in the exercise room at Xtreme, but the women taking Craft's Fit Strip class are getting a workout just the same.
When they sway their hips, their obliques burn. When they get on all fours and do the "cat pounce," moving their chest back and forth across the floor, they work their arm and stomach muscles.
Their legs shake with fatigue when they do the "corkscrew," a move that has them twist their legs up and around, toes pointed.
"There's a lot of Pilates in this," Craft said. "It's not easy holding your legs up like that."
It's also not easy - at first anyway - to be so sexual in such a public forum. Women worry that they're not pretty enough, not thin enough, not buxom enough, Craft said. The class helps them get over those feelings of inadequacy.
"A lot of women are afraid to express themselves sexually," she said. "You find out in class: Wow, I can do that? It's an extreme power trip."
Tonya Meacham, 32, of St. Petersburg used to be so self-conscious about her body that she refused to work out in a co-ed gym. Then she started taking Craft's pole dancing classes, and her confidence grew.
Sure enough, there she was in the first class of Fit Strip, back arched. Hair tousled. Hips moving seductively.
And to think she considers herself shy.
eeyoresmountainpals
<font color="green">Volunteer Firefighter and Mom
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ckckc2000 said:OK-I'm going to leave you for a bit-a couple of things need my attention-see you around noon'ish??? don't get too lonely,Kathy might keep you company in between cleaning chores!!!
I have to run down to the school to meet with the principal but I'll be back later!
see you in a little bit!!!!!!eeyoresmountainpals
<font color="green">Volunteer Firefighter and Mom
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ckckc2000 said:
Just some fundraising issues for my son's eighth grade class! I'm the treasurer for the class (along with the PTSO treasurer). Several parents have approached me concerning the "honesty" of one of the parents and some cash problems last year (same parent had an eighth grader last year, too) so I want to run this by our principal. Sticky situation!
eeyoresmountainpals said:Just some fundraising issues for my son's eighth grade class! I'm the treasurer for the class (along with the PTSO treasurer). Several parents have approached me concerning the "honesty" of one of the parents and some cash problems last year (same parent had an eighth grader last year, too) so I want to run this by our principal. Sticky situation!
Better you than me.
I want to talk to the Principal about the car line issues. But I don't want to make waves.
eeyoresmountainpals
<font color="green">Volunteer Firefighter and Mom
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I'm here! Sort of. I'm also on the phone on hold with WDW! DH just said to try to tack on an extra day to the beginning of our trip next month!!! I'm so excited! If we can do it then it will be a surprise for the boys!
Good Ol Gal
A Longhorn living in Buckeye Country
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ckckc2000 said:has anyone seen Elizabeth or Duckfan-in-Chicago lately-I think they've deserted us
I am here now and I am last!!
I have been so busy with school, work, kids classes, housework, bills, etc, etc, etc!!
Our dw went on the fritz this weekend and I think I fixed it.. fingers crossed.. don't have the $$ to buy a new one.
It is hard, but I have to or else I would get NOTHING done! lunch time here right now, so I am setting a bad example... eating at the computer.
But I missed everyone and had to stop by!!
Good Ol Gal
A Longhorn living in Buckeye Country
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I'm last again 
gotta get as many in as possible
gotta get as many in as possible
eeyoresmountainpals
<font color="green">Volunteer Firefighter and Mom
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- Feb 18, 2005
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Mom2Ashli said:
Thanks for the good luck wish! I feel like I'm going to need it. I was on hold for almost 15 minutes. Finally a real person answered, gave her name and we were cut off! UGHHHHH! Now I'm back on hold again!
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