As she dashed from one group-fitness class to the next, group-fitness instructor Mollie Brown hardly broke a sweat.

“When I stop, a little sweat gets broken,” joked Brown, a junior recreation administration major.

Brown is one of 12 group-fitness instructors who teach group classes in the Student Recreation Center. For Fall 2012, she teaches cardio strength, abdominals, arms, cycling and total-body classes.

Brown began teaching group-fitness classes her freshman year, though she was a bit hesitant.

“I almost didn’t do it, and the I was like, ‘Why not?’” she said.

Not even short of breath, she darted across the basketball courts from teaching her half-hour arms class to her half-hour cardio class.

Grabbing a blue workout mat and weights, Brown took her place in front of seven women as they faced a full-wall mirror.

As fast-paced dance versions of pop songs played over the stereo, she jumped right into teaching the class, looking into the faces of her students through the mirror.

The students fall quickly into step to keep up with her pace, throwing their arms up in-sync to loosen up.

Soon, the floor was trembling as the students stomped their feet in unison, jumping to quicken their heart rates.

“I love getting the heart rate up and then slowing it down,” Brown said.

Brown also likes to incorporate new moves her students suggest through comment forms they can fill out through the REC.

“I’ll just throw (them) in somewhere in the middle,” she said.

As students grabbed their weights, following Brown’s lead, they lunged their legs forward at themselves in the mirror.

Slightly red in the face, Brown transitioned quickly into her favorite move: mountain climbers.

Placing her hands shoulder-width apart, feet planted straight behind her, she led the class as she kicked her legs towards her chest as if hastily ascending a mountain peak.

To wind down the class, Brown led all seven women as they placed their backs against a wall, their legs at 90-degree angles.

After several seconds in the position, the women’s faces began to tense and their legs shook.

“Stick with me,” Mollie said. “Five more seconds; stick with me,” she said.

After the countdown, the women slowly picked up their workout mats and weights and put them back on their respective racks.

Merissa Anderson, a sophomore biology major, participated in the class and said the workout wore her out.

She said she had not been able to participate in group-fitness classes since the beginning of the semester and just began participating again.

“I stopped coming because of class,” Anderson said. “I needed to start coming back to the REC. I made the sacrifice,” she said.

Taking a quick rest after her cardio class, Brown said she loves fitness and teaching her fellow students how to workout and live healthy.

“Fitness is a big part of my life,” she said. “I love it, every part of it.”

As well, she said she also loves the chance to meet new people, make friends and to show them the benefits of working out.

“They are challenging, but they are a good challenge, and you feel so rewarded after,” she said.

A slight sheen emerging on her forehead, Brown sprinted to the cycling class she taught immediately after her cardio class.

Tim Deters can be reached at 581-2812 or tadeters@eiu.edu.