Experiencing Surge Fit with Aimee Marshall and Berkshire Fitness and Wellness

A few years ago, on a long drive to a long weekend in Virginia, I pulled into a gas station to use the restroom.

On my way to the back, an almost neon-green standing poster caught the corner of my eye. Within seconds I was transported back to 1999, sitting in a booth across from my buddy Greg at a Pizza Hut. Our Little League uniforms are a dusty orange, but the plastic pitchers next to our large pepperoni are that same bright, bubbly green.

Greg and I drank a lot of Surge soda that season and throughout our youth. The high-octane caffeine made this particular set of 12-year-old ballplayers feel, well, powerful. Surge is kind of an onomatopoeia in that way.

I drifted apart — both from Surge and Greg — during high school and I hadn’t thought much about either until that road trip to Busch Gardens.

And then again, earlier this fall when I stumbled across Aimee Marshall walking her dog at Kirvin Park while I did some “celebrity” goalkeeping at a Pittsfield High girls soccer fundraiser.

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What if I told you that the dark, 85-degree wrestling room at Williams College was only the second sweatiest place I visited in the run up to Thanksgiving?

The morning after shooting some photos for Howard Herman’s feature on the Ephs’ 100th season, I got going earlier than usual. After dropping the toddler off at daycare, I made my way downtown to Depot Street for a 9 a.m. gym class.

The class, you may have gathered by now, is called Surge Fit.

According to Marshall, who owns Berkshire Fitness and Wellness in Pittsfield, Surge is one of the fastest growing workouts out there, and BFW is the only Surge Fit certified spot in the state. In fact, Marshall is one of the only instructors doing Surge Fit north of New York City.

Surge Fit was created in 2020 by West Coasters Ali Christensen and Tracy Adams, who, according to their website, “wanted to create a format that fused the endorphin high of cardio moves with the body sculpting results of weight training in a simple but fun format that would appeal to everyone.”

And that’s the first thing you’ll notice stepping into Marshall’s studio in the Crawford Square building, it’s a place for everyone.

In that Thursday morning session, I met a series of folks from all walks of life, including a 92-year-old who was as eager to get moving as this 35-year-old reporter, still shaking off a burrito from Tony’s Sombrero.

It’s what attracted Marshall to get certified as a Surge Fit instructor. She says she’s always on the lookout for new things to keep her repertoire fresh, offering her members the best of what the fitness industry has to offer. Bringing Surge Fit to the Berkshires was no brisk task. There’s been an abundance of training, check-ups and submissions of sample classes on video all to get herself ready to roll it out earlier this year.

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Admittedly, I went in a little blind. My wife has been a Berkshire Fitness and Wellness regular for a few years now. All she told me, though, was that I could handle it, and that there would be no weighted position holds — the bane of my mental and physical stamina. On that fib she may have to claim pregnancy brain.

As we filed into the wooden-floor studio, with several members sticking around from an earlier class, I was given a yoga mat and told to grab a light and heavy set of dumbbells.

My advice, accept the offered towel too.

Marshall lined up about 12 of us into two rows facing the wall-length mirror. She took the spot in the middle of the front with some printed notes and a stool with a speaker planted atop.

The key to Surge Fit is the musical accompaniment. At the head of the class, for the next 55 minutes, Marshall is as much a DJ as she is a fitness instructor.

A series of movements, stretches and weighted exercises followed, all in the rhythm and groove of a curated playlist, Marshall says can even be tailored to the season. If you happen to be looking to get that holly, jolly heart rate up over the coming weeks.

While this particular class wasn’t quite seasonal, I had the songs running through my head for about as long as it took my tricep soreness to dissipate.

The sweat broke out sometime during Jesse J’s “Wild,” when I could only grimace as I caught a glimpse of my frame while Big Sean features “Today I woke up feeling like the mayor. I spend about an hour looking in the mirror. As I should, as much as I’ve been through. It’s a wonder, I look this damn good.”

Then there was the groove to Lizzo’s “Boys” wondering at what point in the lyrics she’d get to listing how she likes those “newspaper boys.”

I let slip during one far-too-lengthy squatting croon, with my own strength waning, that maybe Ariana Grande should just put a sock in it.

And though my own father was never one to stunt, there was the promised “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy.” I never thought of dancing and dabbing with five-pound weights as an exercise, but once you hit the sweet spot between self-consciousness, an endorphin high and exhaustion, you let yourself become one with the workout.

Finally, there was the aforementioned tricep killer, courtesy of one Taylor Swift’s “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” Swift’s 2024 album is absolutely bloody with breakup songs that at first-listen wouldn’t seem to fit in a gym aesthetic. But the slow stretches of her hook mix perfectly with the Surge workout’s cardio section, all while we readied ourselves for her to tell us in the chorus how both she and perhaps we, are “a real tough kid. I can handle my shit.”

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Keeping things fresh and her clientele coming back for more is only half of what Marshall is trying to accomplish in downtown Pittsfield. 

The real goal with Surge Fit seems to be empowerment.

For me, it happened in the midst of a fast-paced song that I’ve since lost to pace and perspiration. Marshall took a break from leading the class to sidle up alongside me and another student, pushing us during a set of late-session burpees. I felt… capable.

In Madison Vain’s profile on the relatively reserved Austin Butler, from an Esquire magazine issue earlier this year, the actor was describing his process of bulking up for the “Dune” sequel.

“When you feel powerful,” Butler says simply, “that’s a good feeling.”

My wife is due with our second kid before Christmas, and despite all the added burdens and battles of pregnancy, she continued going to the gym up until last week. She wanted to because, with the ultimate challenge on the horizon, this made her strong.

Because that’s long been Marshall’s goal, to make her students feel powerful. Leave the caffeine at home.