Athletic shoes? Check. Hot new workout outfit? Check. Gym membership? Check.

According to this checklist, you might actually accomplish your New Year’s resolution of losing 10 pounds and sporting a six-pack by the end of this year. But what about a month from now, when workouts seem to drag on and no one will notice if you skip class just this once … again.

More and more people are turning to extreme team-oriented fitness programs that whip them into shape in 10 weeks or less. If the course transforms you into the hottest bod in the class, you can expect more than good looks as part of your reward. How about a prize as high as $1,000?

For Shane Madison, president of Pinnacle Construction Group, the spinning classes that prepared him for RAGBRAI were not enough to reach the fitness level he wanted, so he signed up for 7 Flags Fitness & Racquet Club’s Ultimate Bodyshaping Course.

“I joined the program for a reason, and that was to lose weight and improve my physique,” he said, adding that paying a fee of more than $300 also provided motivation.

In 10 weeks, he lost 15 pounds and went from 22 percent body fat down to 15 percent. He also has stuck with the maintenance program after the class now that the program got him into a workout routine.

7 Flags bought the rights to the nationally licensed program a year ago and now starts a new 10-week class every five weeks. The Ultimate Bodyshaping Course includes three days of kickboxing, three days of resistance training and nutritional guidelines that encourage participants to eat smaller meals throughout the day. About 15 people attend each class.

“A lot of people are intimidated by personal training and gyms, but I think programs like this, you go through them with other people at the same time. There’s a lot of camaraderie,” said Jenae Halstead, director of the program, who stresses that the course is designed as a “body-shaping course, not a weight-loss course.”

If there are enough participants in a class, there’s a $100 cash prize to the person who achieves the best results.

Farrell’s U.S. Martial Arts and Fitness has had a similar program for about five years. In fact Farrell’s eXtreme Bodyshaping program has been so successful that it is opening several new facilities just for the program, including ones in West Des Moines and Ankeny.

“We saw several years ago how it really started changing people’s lives. … We were interested in it because that’s what our martial arts program did for people, so when we saw what was happening in extreme body-shaping classes, we felt like we were on to something, changing people’s lives in a short amount of time,” said Todd Dorr, vice president of operations for Farrell’s.

Like 7 Flags, Farrell’s offers a 10-week program with cardio kickboxing, resistance training and stretching. A physician comes to the first session to give nutritional tips and answer questions, and participants follow a nutritional program.

To kick off the new year, Farrell’s is giving away $10,000 to the person who transforms the most over the next year, to encourage past participants in the program to stick with it after the 10 weeks. Although the $1,000 prize given to the winner of each session is also a nice profit from a $359 course.

However, Dorr believes the cash prize isn’t many people’s motivation to go through the course: “At the end they’ve received so many other benefits like energy and increased alertness that suddenly the cash prize doesn’t matter as much to them.” But Farrell’s has received a nice response from its yearlong challenge announcement, he said.   Mardi Pfannebecker went through a couple of total body fitness challenges before deciding to start her own version in her new gym, Goals in Motion. The studio, which opened in Urbandale at the beginning of January, features several small programs, including the Total Body Fitness Challenge, a nine-week extreme, fitness course. The first class, which started Jan. 6, had 25 more people sign up than Pfannebecker expected.

“It’s a small studio, so it’s kind of a community feeling walking in, everyone pushing for the same goal,” she said.

Pfannebecker, who has been a massage therapist and personal trainer for 13 years, most recently in Reno, said she focuses on kickboxing with a bag and resistance training with medicine balls, balance balls, jump ropes and resistance bands. In addition, after the fourth and seventh weeks, the class routine changes.

The person who changes the most in each class receives $600 cash and a $100 gift certificate to be used at the studio.

“A few people care about that,” Pfannebecker said, “but more people are in it because they want to get healthier and more fit.”