Something to Talk About: Workouts End with Supportive Discussions at Transform Fitness

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PEOPLE PEEKING INSIDE Rockville's Transform Fitness (6001 Montrose Road; 240-383-8402; Transformfit.net) often aren't sure what to make of the studio. "Are you open? You don't have any machines," they keep telling owner Anne Johns, who explains to them that her arsenal of functional fitness tools — including tubing, balls, sandbags and kettlebells — is all anyone really needs.

Well, that and a room that's empty except for a couple chairs.

They're not props for balance exercises or triceps dips. The seats are simply for sitting and talking, which Johns hopes to make as integral a part of her clients' experience at Transform as sweating.

"As a trainer, I found the biggest hang-up wasn't knowing you need to exercise or how to eat well. It's how to get around the mental barriers," Johns says. "Coaching is the missing link in making these lifelong changes."

The idea is to pair workouts with check-in discussions, either for individuals or groups with similar struggles. Think new parents, chronic pain sufferers — or people looking to lose significant amounts of weight, such as Mannie Pallia, 40, and Geneva Hoey, 54.

When the two ladies showed up for a recent Transform session, Johns started them out with an exhausting circuit training routine. They played toss with a medicine ball, assisted each other with push-ups, hugged a heavy bag to lift it off the ground, took turns dead-lifting a 63-pound bar and more, working their muscles and raising their heart rates higher with each rep.

But instead of going from there straight to the showers, they headed to the meditation room with Johns and Kate Wissman, the wellness coach, for part two of their workout. With eyes closed, they focused on their breathing while Johns offered a reading about empowerment.

And then it was time to open up. "My work computer has been broken for two days, and my first thought was 'vending machine,'" recounted Pallia, who's on a quest to drop 200 pounds. "Instead, I came here and worked it out. I'm focusing on that success and how it's been feeling. I can't control the situation, but I can control how I react to it."

"You can't stop the thought or the feeling with food," added Hoey, who said her greatest coups of the week were realizing that she could climb stairs more easily and actually enjoyed her new diet plan. "I'm excited about apples and cottage cheese." That segued into talk of goal setting — size-12 clothes for Hoey, and for Pallia, the ability to chase after her toddler niece.

Although Johns and Wissman are there to guide and inspire discussion, and they might have a reading or exercise in mind, there's no set plan. "It's not a classroom. We just want to go into what folks need," Wissman says.

For this duo, that was the chance to rehash some of their recent decisions and feelings.

"There's no judgment here," Pallia said. Just a few powerful chairs.