Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Sandy Baker teaches a step-aerobics class at Courtside in Los Gatos.

Moving It

Forty-five-year-old Sandy Baker sets herself as a role model for the middle-aged set

By Mary Ann Cook

Sandy Baker is redefining the concept of middle age. At 45 she won the National Aerobics Championship. It was only the third time she had ever competed and she carried home the top trophy from the competition. Anyone who's ever watched a National Aerobics competition has some idea of how breathtakingly fast the action is. Routines are less than two minutes in length--1 minute, 50 seconds to be exact--and contestants' hearts operate at about 155 beats per minute.

"You have to be able to excite the audience [with your choreography]," Baker explains.

Contestants are scored 40 percent for artistic merit, 40 percent for technical proficiency and 20 percent for difficulty.

Baker's routine featured 16 different moves, including a one-arm pushup, splits and holding her leg straight out for four seconds. With less than two minutes to show off their stuff, switching from one move to another has to be done at eye-blink speed.

But that's fine with this aerobicist, because movement is what Baker is all about. She thrives on it. "I hate to use the word intense. Enthusiastic is how I would describe myself," she says. And disciplined. And organized. All these are qualities it takes to become a champion in a rigorous sport--and at a later age than most people tackle such competition.

"If I can just inspire one person to change their thinking about middle age, I'd consider myself successful. If I can do it, they can do it," Baker says. She competed in the masters division, for those over 35, and she trained for two years.

Most of her training was in Los Gatos, with Los Gatos instructors. It was Move-It instructor Michael Morton who first suggested to her that she had what it takes to compete, that she should train for the nationals.

She had worked out at Move-It for 14 years. Now she's a licensed instructor herself--at Advanced Micro Devices and at Royal Courts Oakridge. Her choreographer is Deborah Yates, and Sue Dale helped her put the final polish on her act.

Says Yates about her pupil: "Sandy's a perfectionist. And she's way too modest about her own skills. When they called out the third-place winner [at the championships] she said, 'Well, there's always next year.' When they called out the second-place winner she said, 'I did my best.' And when they called out the first-place winner, she couldn't believe it!

"She moves like a much younger person, faster, spryer. But she wasn't willing to try the harder movements [when she first started competing]." Yates explained that she wouldn't progress if she didn't take on new challenges.

"After that she set her mind and went for it. She has tenacity and perseverance, is highly disciplined, but needed more confidence. She looks beautiful, with her smile and presence. She's youthful, very inspiring, dedicated." Yates herself is the Mixed Pairs National Aerobics Champion of 1989.

And then there's Karen Holden, wellness director and personal trainer at the Los Gatos Athletic Club, who helped Baker prepare mentally for competition. "Sandy was fine-tuned physically, would be on the edge of achieving her goals, but old self-doubts would pull her down.

"I had to help her transform those negative thoughts into the focus she needed before the competition. She had done everything she could to prepare physically; now she had to be ready mentally. I helped her see her own thoughts as part of her resources, helped reprogram negative thought. Sandy is so young at heart."

Mindy Mylrea is another Move-It instructor whom Baker credits as a factor in her success. Mylrea, herself a world aerobics champion, says the opportunity to be a part of the talent who helped train Baker to become national champion was "inspiring."

Earlier in life Baker had no idea she'd become an aerobics champion. After graduating from college at University of Colorado in art history, Baker joined a modern dance group called Xoregos Performing Dance Company based in San Francisco. After that she worked for I Magnin and Bullocks.

About this time she met her husband. They were introduced through mutual friends and have been married 11 years. Their 10th anniversary was celebrated in Minneapolis, where Baker was entered in championship competition for the second time.

Her time with the San Francisco dance troupe proved to be good grounding for an aerobics champion because "aerobics is similar to dance with an element of strength," as Baker points out.

And dancing gave her good experience in performing and in stage presence. And as with other forms of dance performance, competitive aerobics needs to involve the audience. "They need to feel your joy, your bigger-than-life energy," Baker says.

That's the description of how an aerobics champion should feel--bursting with bigger-than-life energy, "that there's energy beyond your fingertips. No poodle [floppy] arms. Movements are sword-like," she says.

"When I'm competing, I'm like a racehorse. I can't sleep. I visualize getting the gold medal and I tell myself I'm going to enjoy myself, kick the highest I've ever kicked, cover the stage with small bits of explosive energy."

Small bits of explosive energy is a good definition of both the championship competition and the 5-foot tall contestant herself.

Aerobics are performed on a stage that is 23 feet by 23 feet , and contestants are expected to cover the entire area during their performance.

The technical requirements for the competitions are rigorously spelled out, and competitors have to include at least one from each different category of movement. Gymnastic feats such as cartwheels, backbends, handsprings and somersaults are forbidden. Competitive aerobics is a balance of coordination and strength.

It's an arduous game. Consider that Baker can hold herself up off the ground in straddle position with one hand and revolve her body in this position as well. The extreme rigorousness of the sport is one reason Baker intends to compete to defend her title only once.

Even though she's focused, there are other things in life, such as husband Jerry, who owns Skyline Displays Inc. in Sunnyvale, a company that supplies custom and portable booths for trade shows.

Their daughter Lauren, 9, is a student at Hillbrook School. The family has lived in Saratoga since 1985, and before that they lived for six years in Los Gatos.

But for now, in order to compete next year, Sandy Baker works out three times a week for 112 hours doing high-impact anaerobic work; she weight-trains two or three times a week; and she practices plyometrics regularly.

Plyometrics involves a riser that can be climbed and then bounced back from. She can do a jump as high as 28 inches, thanks to plyometric training. She's also involved in spinning, which means utilizing oxygen well while moving. "I love the challenge," she says. "It's a mirror of yourself."

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