Drill Sergeant Whips Recruits into Tip-Top Shape

Fitness instructor Debbie Marzano is a mere slip of a woman — 5-foot-2, 98 pounds. But she barks out commands like a drill sergeant. “One, two, three, down and out! ... One, two three, up and up!"

This petit, 40-year-old redhead leading 16 “recruits” in the vast open gymnasium of the old middle school may be adored by her students, but as she counts off the most brutal exercise in her arsenal, not one is feeling the love.

Marzano, director of the Boot Camp Fitness class run through the East Haddam Parks and Recreation for the past four years, has lived in town for five.

She’s been teaching the class for 15 years, “before anybody ever heard of boot camp,” Marzano says.

In her early 20s, she began getting more into fitness, then started getting tapped to teach.

At the time, Marzano says, “the marines were running a boot camp for civilians,” which is where she got her training. She laughs, recalling how much smaller she was than everyone else enrolled.

Today, she runs her recruits, the majority of which sport gray and blue “Fitness For Life” T-shirts, through punishing circuits of pull-ups, toe rolls, lunges and jumps, as two at a time take off to complete the agility course she’s set up.

As she deftly demonstrates the moves, Marzano, an American Council on Exercise-certified instructor, makes it look so easy.

Personal trainer Nancy Walter, 52, of East Haddam, started off as a student four years ago, quickly moving up to student teacher. “My husband (First Selectman Mark Walter) and my neighbor were the first two in her class.”

Now certified to teach through World Instructor Training Schools, Walter runs the class alongside Marzano.

Not everyone is in tip-top shape in the class. And they needn’t be, Marzano says.

“Don’t think, ‘I have to be in shape to take the class.’ I’ll always modify it. Don’t think, ‘People will make fun of me.’ If there’s something you can’t do, come to me, I’ll find an alternative.”

One recent Saturday morning, she demonstrated a combination side shoulder lift and squats. “If you find the weights get too heavy and the form is [lousy], put down the weights,” Marzano said.

Most sessions are divided into two levels, so each group is pushed to its limits.

“That way,” Marzano says, “you get different instructor styles and you get more variety that way.”

Chad Peterson of East Haddam and his partner Robert Estep have been participating since the beginning. “I've been doing boot camp class for four years and I haven't felt better,” Peterson says. “From not running in my life, I'm up to 20-mile runs and now have the physical endurance that I never thought was possible.”

Marzano incorporate traditional marine corps conditioning exercises — like mountain climbers, the steam engine, scorpion stretches and (the dreaded) dirty dogs.

“The travel sequence is going to be an exaggerated grapevine,” Marzano says to her Saturday class. When you get to the end, do the bird dog, 10 on each side.”

Boot camp is not all work, however. 

“There’s a social component to the class,” says Cheryl Cepelak of East Haddam.

Peterson agrees. “It's also good to socialize with a great group of dedicated neighbors and friends. I couldn't imagine life without boot camp now.”

Marzano says there is a wide range of ages in her classes, from 17- and 18-year-olds to those well into their 50s.

“I am going to be 48 [in February] and consider this class to be my ‘fountain of youth,’” says paralegal Patti DeRiso. “I have done things I would have never dreamed of doing at my age — running, rolling around in the mud, jumping over and under hurdles, doing crazy sorts of push-ups, etc. And I don't even give it a second thought now.”

When DeRiso began the class, she was sitting at a desk eight hours a day and getting minimal exercise.

“I started three years ago and could barely run a half-mile. I am now part of the advanced group and am going to be tackling a half-marathon, the Tough Mudder, and possibly a sprint tri[athalon] this year. 

“Although the classes are difficult, I walk away feeling so proud of myself that I did it.”

Her recruits aren’t the only ones Marzano pushes beyond their limits.

Besides teaching boot camp three hours a week, Marzano runs

And just this past weekend, she traveled to Austin, Texas, to participate for the first time in extreme action sports’ newest — and most grueling — events, the Tough Mudder.

Created in 2009 by two Harvard Business School students and held thorough the world, the Tough Mudder is “a seven-mile obstacle course of muddy hills, cold water and flaming bales of straw … long slogs up ski slopes, wades through mud bogs, crawls through corrugated pipes and under barbed wire, climbs over vertical walls, traverses on rope bridges and a drop from a plank into a cold pond. The finish line is through a ring of fire.”

Ever the drill instructor, Marzano plans on incorporating elements of the Mudder into boot camp classes — so many of her recruits, in top shape now or not, may train for the upcoming Mudder at Mount Snow in Vermont.

“When I get back,” Marzano said just before she left to compete, “we’ll do training clinics for the event in May. We’ll be doing a lot of upper body and working on our core.”

And for those who aren’t yet ready, but want to train? “I’m going to get them ready,” Marzano says confidently.

Each recruit has his or her own testimonial.

At the first class, Danielle Hoff of East Haddam says, “I pushed myself, but had to stop not even halfway through. I had to sit down, I almost threw up,” Hoff says.

Now in her third year, Hoff has completed a 10K run and bike rides three hours a week in addition to boot camp twice a week.

Hoff comes “for the challenge, for sure. I definitely need the exercise,” says this pastry chef at the Saybrook Inn and Spa.

“I definitely lost weight last year, about 15 pounds,” Hoff says. “We had a contest at work and starting biking and running.” Last spring, as she trained for a duathalon, Hoff says, “I hate running. I told Deb what I was doing, the way I was running and breathing. She helped me with that.”

Many of Marzanos students have set goals and met them — things they never would have thought possible years ago.

“Some of the exercises I could not do,” says Cepelak, “like the side plank, when I first came here. My goal this year is a 5K every month.”

Walter is especially proud of Ruth Ziobron, whom she calls “a poster child” for the class. Ziobron says she has lost four pounds since last March, but the real difference is in her measurements. She’s lost 14 inches in less than a year.

“When she started with us,” Walter says, “she was so basic. She lost weight and does a half-mile now. She never considered herself a runner.”

Marzano points out her students’ successes are their own. It takes hard work and dedication, and it’s not all pretty.

“You only get out what you put into it. Those that really give it a try have really seen a difference. I’ve had people come off meds because their health has improved,” she says.

“When you work out in a group, it makes it easier. No one can do it on [his or her] own. It challenges everybody.”

Marzano says she’s found a great group of people. “The camaraderie is so great, you can work beyond your comfort zone.”

Hour-long sessions continue Tuesdays, Thursdays (6:30 p.m.) and Saturdays (8:30 a.m.) through April 2. The drop-in rate is $12.

For information, see Bootcampct.org.