WOMAN STAYS FIT BY VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES; PAM FREEZE LIKEST TO CHANGE SPORTS TO KEEP INTEREST HIGH

Most people have about as much perseverance when it comes to resolutions to work out and get into shape as they do to quit smoking or overeating.

But Pam Freeze, 33, has worked out consistently for the past 16 years. The fitness fanatic says variety is the key to persistence when it comes to working out.

Freeze can be seen almost daily cruising Broadway on roller blades roller skates that look and work like ice skates.

But roller blading is an activity that she's started only recently. She also jogs, swims, bicycles, snow and water skis, lifts weights, hikes, dances and teaches calanetics classes at Universal Physique twice a week.

Freeze somehow finds time between her various activities to work in the radiology unit at Southeast Missouri Hospital and as a part-time waitress. She also attends Southeast Missouri State University full time, working toward a degree in radiology.

"I started working out when I was a junior in high school, so I've been at it for 16 years," she said. "My senior year in high school, my mom joined the old Corinthian Spa in Cape Girardeau and I started going with her. I did weights and the whole bit.

"Then a weight-lifting gym opened, and my sister's boyfriend was into body building, so I started doing heavy weight lifting."

But Freeze said the weight lifting had effects that aren't necessarily desirable for a woman.

"I had a guy come up to me one time and tell me my arms were bigger than his, so I decided it was time to get into something else," she said. "I gave up the weight lifting and started running and aerobics."

Freeze started aerobics in 1980, when the dance exercise was first becoming popular. She never took any classes herself, but learned the routines from a friend who taught a class locally.

She then taught night aerobics classes until she had to give them up when she returned to school after 13 years. "I started roller blading at about that time, so that makes up for the aerobics," she said.

Freeze now teaches calanetics, which involves toning and deep muscle-stretching exercises.

"The first time I ever saw it, I saw a video and thought this was so boring nobody would do it. But it works," she said. "I started teaching it at the Human Performance Center. Now I'm really sold on them."

Freeze said she hasn't had the problem many people do of starting a workout regimen only to succumb to discouragement and quit a short time later.

"I see so many people come into the gym in January that's the month they say, `Okay, I'm going to start a program' and they do it for a week and quit.

"I've had a lot of ladies who start aerobics and they do it every night. I tell them to take it easy and gradually work up to more vigorous workout or they'll end up quitting. Those people usually do quit.

"If they would stay with it for a month or two, they would begin to see the results and it would be a lot easier to stick with it."

Freeze said that trying new activities helps her avoid the boredom of fitness training.

"I try to keep changing what I do," she said. "That's why I started roller blading. It's the most fun I've had other than snow skiing. I think I like snow skiing the best."

Freeze has tried team sports like volleyball and softball, but prefers activities with more solitude.

"I just don't feel I'm good at stuff like that," she said. "I have to have the time to myself to think. I can listen to music and just work out in my own world without any distractions."

Freeze said most people know her through roller blading and dancing. Every weekend she goes to Ragdale's Pub at the east end of Broadway to dance.

She's also known at Universal Physique, where she not only teaches calanetics, but also lifts weights. She said Universal's owner, Doug Friese, last year started her on a "super circuit training" routine.

"You start out with 15 reps for the upper body, then run around the track and come back and do lower body reps, and then run some more," she said. "It's a full-body workout that only lasts about an hour. I've been doing that for about a year.

"It's something different than just going in and lifting weights."

Are there any sports or activities that Freeze hasn't tried but would like to? "My girlfriend from Sweden is going to take me there in May and she's going to bungie jump," she said. "I don't know if I'll do it or not, but I might try that.

"One thing I think I'd like to try some time is surfing. I'd like to move to California and be a surf bum and a ski bum."

Freeze also has competed in road races and team triathlon, but has never completed in a solo triathlon.

"I've done every event in a triathlon, but I've never done one by myself," she said. "That's something I'd like to try.

Freeze said the benefits of working out and staying fit are mental as well as physical.

"I think it helps you deal with stress," she said. "If I didn't work out I think I'd be a basket case.

"It also helps me look younger. A lot of people tell me I look like I'm in my 20s. That's kind of nice to hear once in a while."