Finding time for fitness: No blame. No excuses.

Like most of her female colleagues at Genmar Holdings Inc., Cindy Warren had every minute of her workday scheduled. Lunch was less a time to decompress than an extension of an already overcommitted day.

Squeezing a fitness regime into her schedule seemed impossible, if not a little selfish.

So the accountant mentally rolled her eyes when Genmar's vice president for operations, Marcia Kull, appeared at her desk last year, suggesting that Warren volunteer for a pilot fitness program that the Melpomene Institute was starting at Genmar. Classes would be held at noon on Fridays for 12 weeks at the downtown Minneapolis office.

"I've got three kids and a dog," wailed Warren, 37. "My life doesn't offer a whole lot of time for an exercise class."

But Warren wanted to lose weight. And she had been feeling sluggish. She cautiously signed up. Today, she says the program changed her life.

"Women need permission to do things for themselves," Kull said. "Exercise is one of those things. It's not like getting your kids up every morning or making dinner every night. It's optional. And optional activities -- especially one that is so personal -- tend to get pushed aside."

Exercise ingenuity

Starting a fitness program is hard enough. Sticking with it is worse. And Susan Hadley, Melpomene's program director, knew that was doubly true for her target audience: inactive working women.

"Cindy is Exhibit A," Hadley said. "Exercise was foreign to her. It wasn't even on her radar screen. Intellectually, she and many other women know that they should be exercising. But they were reticent or shy or were afraid of making fools of themselves."

And, if fitness trainer Sandra Swami had walked into that first session at Genmar looking like some skinny, 22-year-old aerobics nazi, Warren and her co-workers might have bolted from the room. But Swami, a personal trainer at the Sweatshop in St. Paul, was a 40-year-old mother of three with a stocky build.

"People could say, 'Gee, she looks like me,'" Kull said. "She's so real and was a great cheerleader. Little victories were incredibly important. She didn't expect anybody to go run a marathon, but if you climbed an extra flight of stairs a day, that was great."

Flash back to 1997. The Cigna Corp. in Philadelphia had hired Melpomene, a St. Paul nonprofit group known nationally for its research into women's health and fitness, to find out why female employees didn't use the company gym. Like many health-conscious corporations, Cigna had invested a bundle in a slick on-site exercise center. It was gorgeous, cheap and convenient. Men used it. Most women didn't.

They had their reasons, Melpomene learned. Unlike their male colleagues, most female employees didn't have wash-and-dry hair. Wiggling a damp body into pantyhose and slathering makeup on a misty face was miserable.

After years of inactivity, the women were embarrassed to have co-workers, especially men, watch them work out. They knew that their managers became miffed if employees spent too much time away from their desks. Add to that family commitments and long commutes.

"Many were single moms. That was an added disadvantage for them," said Melpomene founder and CEO Judy Mahle Lutter. Flexible work hours didn't help much. Women could start and finish their workdays early but they still had to negotiate -- and pay for -- any extra hours their kids spent in day care.

Taking all that into account, and with a three-year grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Minnesota, Hadley and other staff members developed the 12-week program called "Taking Time to Move." Kull promoted the program at Genmar, which was one of four test sites.

The program stresses a healthy diet, stress management and increasing activity levels at work and home.

"Years ago, we were told that everybody should exercise three times a week for 30 minutes," Hadley said. "Until recently, we thought that had to be at one setting. Now we know it can be spread throughout the day."

Double-duty exercises

"Every additional activity you do is good," Swami told her classes. "Don't beat yourself up. And don't make excuses."

She emphasized strength training, which women often neglect. She brought in rubberized resistance bands and small weights. She taught the women stretches that they could do at the copy machine or while talking on the phone. She urged them to walk messages across the room. And to do Kegel exercises at their desks.

"If you visualize contracting the muscles used to stop urine flow -- that's a Kegel," Swami said. "Traditionally, Kegels are considered a way for women to avoid incontinence. In reality, it's part of the structure that makes up your core. You're creating strength, improving your balance. And when you do them, nobody has to know."

Each week, Swami asked the women what worked for them. She urged them to set weekly goals and mark successes with little rewards -- a bubble bath, time to read, flowers for their desks.

"They were so resistant to that," Swami said. "That was a real eye-opener for me. I think women have a difficult time rewarding themselves for something they see as selfish. It's like they think taking time for themselves is narcissistic, silly or superfluous."

When class attendance thinned because women didn't have time to eat, Warren organized healthy group lunches. She asked one woman to bring bread, another to bring vegetables or cold meats. If you missed a meeting, you had to bring the onions. The women ate while Swami talked.

Camaraderie among the women grew.

They started a noonrtime walking club. Warren lost 20 pounds and became more self-confident. She started sending weekly e-mail reminders: Did you meet your goal this week? Did you get to that exercise class? No? Better join us for two miles at noon.

Vases of flowers began sprouting on women's desks.

"Because we were working together, it was a true support system, not a competition," Warren said.

Warren found simple ways to incorporate more exercise into her day outside of work, as well. She abandoned her folding chair at her kids' soccer games to walk around the field. She danced while folding clothes. She stretched watching TV movies. She picked hillier routes for walking the family dog.

A year after classes at Genmar concluded, Melpomene has finished phase one of its employee fitness program. It revised its 100-page manual, adding sections on yoga and problem-solving. It is looking for four more companies interested in pilot programs.

Warren continues walking. Shehe has kept off half the weight she lost. Co-workers talk of bringing Swami back for regular classes, an effort that Kull said she will support. And although Warren has moved to another floor, where she's now Genmar International's finance manager, she still organizes healthy group lunches.

"The best part of the program was knowing I didn't need to work out at a gym to be more active. I can take the stairs. I can do the stretches."

-- Kay Miller is at kmiller@startribune.com .