The Marcus Barometer

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

The sweat rolled down my temples as I took in these famous and powerful words. On this particular occasion, I wasn’t hearing them in school or watching the speech as it was replayed on TV. No, this time, I was stretching my hamstrings on my workout mat on the aerobics floor of the Club at Green Hills in Nashville, Tennessee.

You might be wondering why these words are what I heard instead of say, a nice, relaxing cool-down song by Sade, Erika Badu, or Jewel (did I mention it was 1994?). The credit goes to my aerobics teacher, an amazing man named Marcus.

Marcus was one of those people you felt you needed to get to know immediately after meeting him. Every pore of his body exuded friendliness, kindness, encouragement, and approachability, all qualities that are excellent for life in general. But take those same qualities and apply them to a fitness teacher and that person—and their classes—becomes absolutely magnetic.

I discovered Marcus shortly after joining my gym. I noticed an extremely long line of people waiting outside the aerobics area and asked what was going on. “Marcus is teaching next.” Hmmm. Who was this Marcus person who caused women—and men—to clamor for a step like it was the Hope Diamond? I didn’t participate in his class that day, but my interest was piqued.

Truthfully, I was intimidated by group fitness. When it came to working out, I was a complete doofus back then because I’d never had a formal exercise plan (yeah, yeah … I know). I’d also never taken any type of organized group class before, partially because I’d always associated aerobics with fit, perky women (definitely not me), and partially because I’m about as uncoordinated and choreographically-challenged as Patrick Swayze was pre-Baby. And I was twenty-three. Translation: I was convinced the whole world was watching me and waiting for me to make mistakes everywhere, even a few silly missed steps in an aerobics class. So I wasn’t about to make myself look like a complete ass for the sake of cardiovascular benefits. But I eavesdropped on Marcus’s classes from my treadmill vantage point and one day, I finally decided it was time to give it a try.

I had fun that day. I didn’t get all the steps, but I got a lot of them, thanks to Marcus standing near me to show me how it was done.