Training dame

Nicole Ricci is standing, hands on her muscular hips, over Judy Preble . They've been working out for just about a half-hour now, and Preble, lying on the floor doing leg lifts, is showing signs of fatigue.

"Oh, I'm so old," says Preble, a 48-year-old real estate attorney from the South End. "No you're not," Ricci snaps back. "OK, butt up, head out, shoulders back. We're going right to abs." A bit later, the two joke that Preble needs to keep her rear-end up so she doesn't look like an old horse. Having dropped 100 pounds under Ricci's watch, Preble can hear the support, and humor, in such chides.

"She's nothing but encouraging," Preble says, "positive, always saying, 'You can do this and I can help you.' "

The 34-year-old Ricci's brand of tough love has made the personal trainer a magnet for South Enders and others bent on shaping up and not afraid to sweat. Like Jackie Warner, the entrepreneurial, no-nonsense star of Bravo's reality hit "Work Out," Ricci inspires a fervid devotion in many of her clients. One even calls her "mama."

"I know their lives inside and out, so I feel that I'm on the same team with them," Ricci says. "And I want them to know I'm there with them, whether it's for confidence, support, or just that they're not going at it alone."

Ricci opened a spa on Shawmut Avenue almost five years ago, on her 30th birthday. She'd worked as a trainer and massage therapist for a local gym , but, armed with an $8,000 personal loan, wanted to give her own business a try.

It worked. In 2004, Ricci moved to Washington Street and opened Saldare Body Spa & Private Fitness , a three-story space with massage , body waxing , facial rooms , and a gym. She works 13-hour days, cramming in a catalog of clients that has, at different times, included the members of Blue Man Group and the entire cast of "Stomp." She's worked on Boston Ballet artistic director Mikko Nissinen , professional ice skaters, and dancers. But you don't have to be famous to score a spot on her exercise mat.

Ricci has thick, muscular arms and legs, a build more Serena Williams than "Terminator"-era Linda Hamilton . She has stylish, rectangular glasses, and wears her curly dark hair pulled into a messy mass in back. (Don't call it a "bun." That word makes her bristle.) She's quick to joke with her clients, though she doesn't smile a lot, and, thanks to her physical education degree from the University of Maine and a thirst for new research, can chat compellingly about muscle growth and good nutrition.

Her clients laugh affectionately about some of her personal obsessions: the sneaker collection, the T-shirt wardrobe, the Michael Jackson wiggles during a workout. And she's got a neat streak. Every day she stoops to pick up trash in front of her storefront and ends up a few blocks down the street.

But what people talk about most in respect to Ricci is their loyalty. Their fierce, abiding bond stems, they say, from the way she motivates, inspires, and cares for them.

"I've been with different trainers over the years," says Edward Benedetti , 40, a South End resident who works for State Street Corp. and has been with Ricci since the early '90s. "I've been on the East Coast and the West Coast. I honestly believe that Nicole is a hidden gem in that small shop on Washington Street. And she keeps me honest to myself, and committed to myself."

That kind of attachment is apparent on a recent morning.

The lineup: After Preble's $30 half-hour workout -- an hour is $60 -- at 7 a.m., there's Jill Thibault , a 34-year-old costume designer for Boston Ballet who is looking to shed pounds and strengthen her bad back. Her favorite activity is sparring with Ricci. For this, she breaks out her pink boxing gloves.

Next is Lisa Scala , 32, a political fund-raiser who's getting married in a strapless soon and needs to improve the muscle tone in her arms. (She has.) At 8:30, Ricci works with Lisa Borger , a 59-year-old grandmother who, after a lifetime hauling around too much weight, credits Ricci with her trim figure.

Jim Torres , 46, is next. He can't make it without Ricci because he works too many hours as marketing director for the SpeakEasy Stage to plan his own workouts. And finally there's Liz Cahill , 54, managing director for Stuart Street Playhouse , who wants Ricci to help her lose 10 pounds and reduce her blood pressure.

In bright red exercise pants and a gra y tank, Ricci hovers over them, advising, counting, pushing. "Upsy daisy, darlin'," she'll say, or "finish strong," or "push it , sweetie, dolly." She's got her hands on their elbows, in the middle of their shoulder blades, on their knees. She never lets them rest, and she never stops encouraging. And they love her for it, and she, them.

Dan McNichol , former spokesman for the Big Dig , and author of a book with the same name, has been a massage client of Ricci's since 2000, when she used to drag her table to his apartment in the Leather District. He's followed her to every spa since for his once-a-month, deep-tissue work over.

"Every time I'm on the table with Nicole, I'm getting not just like a deep-tissue massage, I'm also getting a ton of fitness advice. I don't want to sound vain here, but I'm usually like 'Nicole, how am I doing? Am I doing all right?' " he says, laughing about how honest she is about what a 45-year-old man looks like naked. "When you go in, you just want to be Zen-like, and not say anything, but always, at the end of the hour or hour and a half, I'm engaged in some kind of deep conversation with her."

That sounds about right to Ricci, who has been working with a number of her clients, like McNichol, for many years. She knows them: what they like to talk about, what they want to hear about, and what they need to hear.

"I think a lot of people go to a therapist to help them mentally," she says, "but going to the gym helps them too, physically and mentally. They like to know someone is there, rooting for them."