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Miranda Adkins | So Salem

From left: Karen Anderson, Molly Armistead, Sherri Stinson, Mallorie Brumfield, Hanna Giorno, Leslie Giorno and Diane DeReu-Foley.

"It's pretty cut and dry. I kick their butts and then we go to lunch," Sherri Stinson declares over a post-workout meal at a local coffee shop.

"Then we can't lift the fork!" Molly Armistead added.

The ladies work out together more than once a week at the Salem Family YMCA, but they clear out a day after Sherri's weightlifting class where they can sit back and eat, relax and talk to one another. Stinson shares scientific facts about diet and exercise with them: "Protein needs to be replenished within 20 minutes of a weightlifting workout!"

"She [Sherri] haunts us constantly. On our bike trip, afterwards, you're so hungry you could eat the bark off of the trees," Armistead said.

"Going to one of her classes is just as close as you can get to having a personal trainer," Diane DeReu-Foley said.

"We have figured out how to make it fun -- so it's not so tedious," Leslie Giorno explained. When one of the class regulars has a birthday, they've come to expect sweet and unhealthy treats to show up at class. Anderson's husband Mike just recently had a birthday -- and passed around cheese puffs during the workout. The exercisers were probably wary if they knew what Stinson had in store for them. "Never tell her it was easy or someone else's class was just as hard" -- and the rest of the women agreed that she prides herself on constantly improving her class and techniques.

They each have their own competitive calling of some sort, too. Armistead and Karen Anderson enjoy distance bike riding with the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club. Stinson enjoys distance running and swimming and is an instructor at the YMCA. Leslie is nicknamed "the triathlete" after Chip Gunsten mistook her for one as she aqua-jogged. And most notably, while the judges were tabulating the children's scores at Dance Machine Nations in North Carolina, DeReu-Foley earned her own first place title while shaking it onstage with other mothers. "When my kids tell me to stop dancing, I tell them I'm the national champion!"

The moms in the group have had reciprocal influence on and from their children, as far as staying active goes. Stinson's daughter, Mallorie Brumfield, switched her major as a second year senior from biochemistry to exercise science. Armistead's, Giorno's, and DeReu-Foley's kids are all involved in some sport. Although Anderson doesn't have human children, she walks her dog -- right past the Giornos and the DeReu-Foleys, where their pets are pretty familiar with him.

The families carpool and spend time together, and the moms have their weekly lunches and occasional girls' nights. "We've definitely had our evenings of pinky-swears," DeReu-Foley said. "The focus on our friendship is not what you eat or what you wear."