How can I fight this membership contract?

[lioil]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? VA
So I signed up for a year of gym membership at a local gym back in May and due to schedule and the workouts there I asked the owner if I can cancel my membership. She said since i signed a one year contract I have 3 options:
1. Continue the way it is and I pay X/month
2. Pay a 4 months worth of penalty fees - because I prepaid for a couple of months in advance so she would owe me Y$.
3. Freeze account if i give good faith I will be back.

I met her and told her that I will pick option 2 - and since i prepaid for the cancelled months anyway might as well use the remainder which i did and after the 2 months i stopped coming. This was around July

Now moving forward to September, i see the X charge on my Credit card and I disputed with my AMEX card and in October I did get another charge and a response from merchant with basically a copy of the contract and stating i signed a year long contract and because i PREPAID for months June-Aug, I will start to get charged from September moving forward. I responded with my justification that I selected option 2 (while copying her email with the options back then) and uploaded to AMEX. Now they are still working on the case but I got another charge in November and now December. I finally talked to a manager at AMEX saying the merchant can keep denying the dispute and AMEX can't do anything unless merchant accepts the dispute. I finally emailed the merchant and now am awaiting her response...

I guess in situations like these what can I do to "win" or at least not end up paying so much?
My argument is this - I stated I wanted out and I STOPPED GOING around the 2 months mark. Why wouldn't I have cancelled it and instead not go there and keep getting charged? Since this is a local shop there's no "fancy" cancellation numbers etc and heck she uses paper for the records!

So what are my options? I suppose if I just let her run over me i could:
1. Agree pay Sptember -December and say thats my "cancellation fee". But thats 500+ out the toilet!
2. Be "reasonable" and say "we are both at fault" and agree to pay her 1/2 and see if she bites?

I think she might stick to her guns on the whole contract thing and with no "receipt" and only "common logic" I am not sure I can win... AMEX certainly doesnt think so...
I do agree I probably shouldve contacted her sooner and maybe she shouldve to me as well but I think maybe we both wanted to play the process out?

Thanks!

 

[lioil]

So i talked to the owner and she says she thinks i wanted to continue and just didnt show up. She told me i had to email her to cancel my account and words or others dont count because thats the process she follows...

She also said for me to follow up with her contract department which is a single person working for her dealing with contracts and she said she wants to follow that procedure and she can relay our discussion. I offered her 2 of the 4 months she has charged me and the 2 months she thought i was still attending. I said i would be satisfied with that resolution.

I think if she wants to follow to a T she could say i have to pay her 4 more months since i stopped now so she ends up charging me 8 months or just charge me the four months she has already done...

Since she harped on the email thing could i legally ask her where in the contract states i have to email to cancel? I feel i would be at her mercy if she has that in writting no?