"Can they bring me one?" asks Steve Bauer, a 280-pound food service vendor, drawing high fives from the other Manatees.
Tim Koteff, a 47-year-old from Deerfield Beach, infuses the routines with unexpected vigor and panache for a 5-foot-8 frame carrying 225 pounds. Mark Robinson, an event coordinator in an orange do-rag, shows off a split that brings groans from men who have trouble bending their knees.
George Gonzalez and Brian Seik -- who refer to themselves as Disco George and White Lightning -- dance to the music in their heads more than to the rhythm of the opening number.
"I'm doing this for the guys like me, the regular guys who haven't been that active lately," says Gonzalez, a 39-year-old computer firm account manager who weighs 130 pounds more than when he graduated from high school. Disco George has already made a name by dancing spontaneously at Miami Heat basketball games. He's fleet of foot for a large man.
Seik follows his own constant motion in the studio mirror. A single father and marketing salesman with a protruding gut and a knee brace, he says his 8-year-old daughter, Heaven, isn't cool with her father flaunting his girth in public.
"She's like, 'Oh, Daddy, no!' But she'll deal with it," he says, making a note to put something aside for therapy in case he's wrong.
Two weeks and three practices later, Ramos and the others arrive at Dolphin Stadium for a taping of the Spanish-language breakfast TV show "Despierta America" -- Wake Up, America.
Ramos is wearing a neon aqua ball cap and has added a matching terry cloth wristband.
A rental car agent, Ramos is on his cellphone, telling a colleague he can't help him solve a problem right now. He hasn't told anyone at work that he's a Manatee. His mother is still in shock; his girlfriend, a seventh-grade English teacher, is mortified.
"She doesn't like people saying we're fat," Ramos says. "She doesn't think I'm that bad, so she thinks I'm humiliating myself by being out here."
Two of the original 16 Manatees have fallen to preseason injuries -- including Seik, whose knee went out after the last practice. They've been replaced by Fernando Fundora and Serafim Heredia, aka the Big Kahuna and Bulldozer.
The squad gets through its number for the taping with relative precision. Martinez-Huff's eyes are wide with disbelief when her charges stay on beat. The Manatees seem to have found their groove.
