With energy to spare, Terry Fasching gives one more call to his class to move.

Fasching of Franklin Township, is the ultimate exercise enthusiast. He is also an award winning cabinet maker and fine woodworker,While he has been awarded 14 Professional Excellence Awards by the Lehigh Valley Builders Association for his fabulous woodworking skills, it's his passion for exercise that gives him his spare frame and six pack abs. With only five or six percent body fat, his body is ripped for action.His quest for fitness began in high school, when he began riding his bicycle to and from work for local farmers. Today, it's that drive to be in motion that has him pushing others to do their best. As an instructor at Healthworks, Carbon Plaza Mall, where he offers weekly "Ultimate Bootcamp" sessions."My fitness level helps me with my woodworking," he said. "Since I am in good form, I can keep the pace when I need to in my woodworking shop."One his award winning projects was revamping the interior of Marshall's Meat Market in Lehighton, which is soon to reopen.His first full blown fitness activity was doing some bike racing with the Lehigh Wheelman. He placed third with a time of 10 minutes 38 seconds in a two mile race on the north side of Hawk Mountain, Kempton."I knew I was doing well when I passed someone on way up the mountain," he said with pleased satisfaction. The competition fueled him even more to push himself to the top.Racing bicycles became his passion, along with martial art of Tae Kwon do. He earned his black belt and won the title of Tri-State Kick Box Champion. One of his favorite icons is the belated Bruce Lee.To add to his aerobic fix, Fasching began following the race tour group from North Carolina on the "Tour De Trump." The race began in Wilmington, Del. and traveled south through various states, finishing on the famous Beech Mountain, N.C. He and his group would ride 80 to 100 miles a day, gaining upward of 10,000 to 12,000 thousand feet of climbing per day.They stayed in the same hotel as Lance Armstrong, sharing meals and the love of biking with him. This was before Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer.After the Trump race, he was asked to take part in the Tour de France race tour group."Someone had canceled out at the last minute, and the tour owner wanted me to fill an open slot," he said.Without hesitation, he purchased the plane ticket and was ready to go.Eight months later he was in the middle of the Pyrenees Mountain Range raring to go, staring up at those monster mountains."Meeting up again with Lance was surreal," he admitted. This was the year Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer.Fasching and Armstrong shared stories of the crazy fans on the mountainside leading to the top of the mountains.Fasching's average tour day would start with a good breakfast and getting on the road bikes at 7 a.m.The group would ride 80 to 100 miles each day on the same course as the pros, only two hours earlier. The amateurs would get to the mountain pass where they had a good vantage point to watch the pros sprinting to the finish.All mountain climbs are rated between one and four, with four being the easiest."A mountain rated HORS, meaning out of category, is a long climb, but not necessarily a steeper climb," he said.Several years later in 2000, Armstrong, who was going off his second Tour de France win, stayed at Fasching's sister-in-law's home in Vermont so he could race in the mountain bike finals."I fed him well for his cross country bike race," said Fasching, smiling at the memory. "It was neat to see him all muddy on a mountain bike."Armstrong finished third in that race.This is around the time when Fasching faced some bad luck. His first brush with injury was being sideswiped by a pickup truck in Franklin Township. Luckily he got up and walked away. Some months later, he was hit on the helmet by the mirror of a passing tractor trailer.These two incidents inspired him to trade in his road bike for a mountain bike. So instead of spending hours weekly riding 6,000 miles a year on the road, he was hitting the trails in peace and serenity for a different type of ride.When the weather turned bitter and the snow scarce for cross country skiing, Fasching found his cardio fix by joining Lehigh Valley area gyms where he did light weight bearing cardio and resistance training. When the instructor failed to show up a few times, Fasching took over a class."It happened to be a kick boxing class, which was right up my alley," he said.After getting certified to teach group exercise and learning CPR, he began teaching regularly and filling in at other locations. His classes varied from boot camps to step to body toning.With his constant updating of his portfolio and honing his skills by attending various conventions, he is a challenging teacher. He is a member of AAFA, AAAI and SCW and has worked alongside fitness experts such as Fit-TV's Kendall Hogan, Shawn T, Mindy Mylrea and Leslie Bender. He has also found himself among those ranked in the top five percent on a local obstacle course held at a local ski resort, where participants would compete in wall climbing, tire crawling, rope walking above water, free running on trails and hopping over boulders.Today, you can find Terry at Healthworks, Lehighton, instructing his "boot camp" as well as offering body toning classes.His boot camp consists of exercises and calisthenics that normally deal with body weight only and are quick fat burners.His classes include plyometrics, or jump training, as well as ladder-interval training and abdominal/core training."Boot camps are easier to use since they don't require any choreography and hard to follow steps," he said. "Simple exercises, when done properly with little or no weight, can be a chore when done repetitively."Fasching feels that when people are working out at the right intensity, more fat is burned since fat requires oxygen to burn."Finding yourself out of breath while working out is counterintuitive," he said. "You are only burning simple sugars and carbohydrates you just consumed rather than utilizing your fat storage."Fasching recommends working out three to four days a week.He recommends Healthworks because it is a fully staffed gym."It has plenty of exercise equipment for cardio as well as weight training and also offers post rehab workouts." he said.Fasching's passion and exuberance for fitness, as well as his desire to keep it fun and down to earth, shows through his "off the cuff" approach to every class, keeping the classes fresh by mixing up the routines."The boot camps change up constantly to provoke muscle confusion which allows the muscles and heart to grow stronger," he said. "I keep a close eye on my clients in my classroom to make sure safety and form are not forgotten while maintaining an encouraging "you can do it" attitude."Fasching is as comfortable being a fitness instructor as he is being an award winning woodworker and cabinet maker.For additional information about boot camps, call Healthworks at (570) 386-8080 or Fasching at (610) 544-0535 or email at

craftsmen@ptd.net.