Everyone from couch potatoes to fitness freaks can benefit from some exercise now and then.

And Iowa State’s Recreation Services makes workin’ up a sweat ultra-easy for students, because it offers free aerobics classes to anyone who has athletic shoes and the desire to learn.

In charge of the aerobics program is Irene Lewis, a graduate student in health and human performance, who puts in over 30 hours a week as Rec Services’ graduate assistant for fitness. Since she came to Iowa State two years ago, she has seen class attendance double.

For this increase, she credits the program itself, which gives aerobics instructors the boost they need to get some hands-on experience under their belts.

“One of the things I think is really neat about this program is that it gives students in health and human performance the opportunity to actually get some job experience in the field,” she said.

“Instructional technique, whether it be in the weight room [or] in an aerobic capacity, is part of fitness, and if you’re going to be a health and human performance major, which is a huge, growing field, then you need to have some experience like that working with people. … It complements the knowledge they’re acquiring in their program.”

The instructors this year are mostly undergraduates, many of whom are students in health and human performance, which is “extremely unusual,” Lewis said, “because most places have fitness instructors [who] are just regular lay people.”

But Lewis won’t settle for the mediocrity that many fitness centers accept. Though there are no requirements as far as licensing and certification of fitness instructors go (which Lewis calls “a crime”), she insists that all aerobics instructors who work for Rec Services get their certification.

“It’s a requirement that I had made when I got here; it’s our policy,” she said. Rec Services will pay half of the $250 fee to do so.

But earning the privilege to teach a few aerobics classes a week requires more than looking cute in a leotard. Each March Lewis holds a two-day training workshop for all wanna-be instructors.

Out of the 50 who come to this session, 20 or 25 stick around for auditions, and Lewis hires 10 or 15 out of that pool.

“It’s hard to teach,” Lewis said. “The more experienced you are, the better instructor you are, the easier it looks. That’s why people go, ‘I love her classes. They’re so fun, and she’s so good. I bet I can do that.'”

And instructors realize early on that Irene’s insistence on excellence not only makes them better teachers, but it increases their chances for a good job once they graduate.

Jenny Bauer, a junior in exercise science who teaches a few classes a week, trained under another instructor when she went to the University of Northern Iowa. In the two semesters she’s been at Iowa State, the aerobics program has made a strong impression on her.

“I know that Irene gives instructors good directions and fills us with a lot of good information that we’re not only going to use teaching here at Rec Services, but we’ll carry with us when we go to work out of school,” she said.

Lewis agreed. “I offer excellent training,” she said. “You can go teach anywhere in the community with the information you get here, I promise. Instructors for clubs in the community call me and ask me, ‘Do you know anyone who’d be interested in this [job]?’ So I know it’s good.”

Part of the reason that Iowa State’s aerobics program is of such a high caliber is the commitment that each instructor makes when she decides to teach. It’s not just to teach three classes a week, but it also includes mandatory meetings and planning time.

“It [takes] a lot more time than just going to teach it,” Bauer said.

Shann Christie, a senior in exercise science, concurred. “It’s a big-time commitment,” she said. “You have to make sure you’re prepared for class. You have to know what you’re doing.”

Emily Hanson, who instructs aerobics for Rec Services, Ames Parks and Recreation and Ames Racquet and Fitness, spends 14 or 15 hours a week sweatin’ in front of classes. She said that you have to be completely unselfish to be a good teacher.

“You have to definitely have an interest in the field,” Hanson said. “When you instruct, it’s not for yourself; you have to make sure you’re doing it safely and that other people are getting a good workout.”

Safety, in fact, is way up there on Lewis’ priority list. “It’s the most important thing they have to do: to teach safely and effectively,” she said. “And then fun is up there, too. I mean, it’s quite effective to stand there and march, but it’s not fun. And it’s quite safe to stand there and do nothing, but it’s not effective, and it’s not fun. You have to have all those things.”

Lewis and three or four other instructors have also spread their fitness message to television. “Cyclone Fitness,” which Lewis calls her “project,” airs on STV-9, Iowa State’s student station, at least once a day. She and her team will start taping new episodes next week.

“What’s really good about it is that it’s exposing people to fitness,” Lewis said.

But, as Lewis points out, the advantage of beaming a half-hour of exercise into local homes is that people can learn without feeling self-conscious. “You can try it over and over and not get too bored. You’re in your own home; nobody’s gonna see you if you mess up. The whole goal is that you move. You have to do that at least 30 minutes, five days a week.”

If that recommendation sounds like a little much, that is because it’s brand new, right out of an upcoming surgeon general’s report on fitness. Lewis hopes that this report will do the same for health and fitness that the report on cigarettes did for smoking. That is, to make people more aware, especially of the benefits of exercise, no matter what your current level of fitness.

Lewis said the point is to do something that you enjoy, even if it might require a few, ahem, lifestyle changes. Foregoing that cheeseburger and at-the-bar cigarettes are a good place to start.

“You have to exercise,” she said. “Just do something. But you have to do fitness in conjunction with a good diet. And smoking’s definitely a no-no. It does a lotta bad things to your body.”