New Utah County fitness group includes moms and babies, simultaneously
Niki Harman, left, high fives Becca Degraw, right, during a a FIT4MOM workout at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
Nikki Day, a franchise owner of FIT4MOM, welcomes all the attendees of the exercise group at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine. Day started as a member of a FIt4Mom class five years ago and now owns and operates her own classes.
Attendees of the FIT4MOM exercise group use resistance bands during a workout at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
Allie Rose, a FIT4MOM instructor, holds her seven-month-old son, Ben, during a workout at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
Danielle Nelson, from Lehi, smiles at her children during a workout at the FIT4MOM exercise class at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
Attendees of theFIT4MOM exercise group performa workout at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
Rachel Canfield, the running coach at FIT4MOM, leads a workout at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
Whitney Whatcott, an instructor at FIT4MOM, moves into the large circle at the start of the workout at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
Attendees of the FIT4MOM exercise group make their way to exercise stations at Creekside Park on Thursday, May 3, 2018, in Alpine.
It might surprise some to find out that yes, you can exercise to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
Not only was the workout music significantly different Thursday at the spring kickoff for the Utah County branch of Fit4Mom South Valley, but the workouts themselves were unique as well. Mothers did squats, resistance band exercises, jogs and pushups, all while interacting with their kids tucked into strollers.
In one of the four stations scattered around Alpine’s Creekside Park, mothers did a tapping toes quick feet exercise routine while tickling their toddlers’ toes, belly and faces. The classes, based on the Fit4Mom Stroller Strides 60-minute workout session, allow mothers to exercise, meet other moms, and get out of the house with children in tow.
“We’re not a gym membership. We’re so much more than a workout,” said Nikki Day, owner of Fit4Mom South Valley. “We’re a community of lifelong friends for both you and your kids.”
Thursday’s event at Creekside Park in Alpine was the first of many Utah County Fit4Mom Stroller Strides classes to come. Fit4Mom is a nationwide fitness franchise with more than 30 locations, and the Fit4Mom South Valley location has been running for five years at five different parks in south Salt Lake County. Day, 30, said she is expanding the classes to Utah County because she knows there are plenty of mothers in the valley who need this type of interactive exercise experience.
“We’ve had tons of questions about when we were going to expand here,” Day said, bouncing a Fit4Mom instructor’s baby on her hip. “It’s something every mom needs in life, and we want to get this to as many moms as possible.”
Day said there will be regular Fit4Mom Stroller Strides classes Monday through Friday at Creekside Park in Alpine, and Mondays and Wednesdays at Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove. Classes at both locations start at 9:30 a.m.
Day, a Salt Lake City mom of four, actually started at Fit4Mom as a student herself. Like most moms of toddlers, she needed a space to exercise and have adult conversation, but did not want to drop her kids off in a gym daycare and then exercise on her own. Finding a group that involved her children in the experience fed that need perfectly.
“Our instructors are trained to not only lead the workout, but keep the kids entertained, too. We try really hard to make it fun for the kids,” Day said.
This training was on display Thursday. Instructors in one station blew bubbles and handed out suckers to kids while shouting out bear crawl reps and encouragement for the moms. At another station, the group did lunges while singing “The Wheels on the Bus” to their stroller-bound tykes.
Rachel Canfield, a 32-year-old mom from Sandy, was one of Thursday’s instructors. After struggling with postpartum depression after the birth of her second child a year ago, she started as a Fit4Mom student. She’s been an instructor for five months.
“It was a way to get out of the house and meet new friends. I went to my first class, and I was hooked,” Canfield said. She now loves teaching other mothers, and her favorite part is “being able to help change moms’ lives. When you feel so down and depleted, it’s a way for them to feel good about themselves.”
She loves the “village” the Fit4Mom group has become. She recently suffered a miscarriage, and it was her friends from the group that buoyed her up with flowers, meals and support.
“They are the best group of women you’ll ever meet,” she said.
Fit4Mom offers other classes, including a run club and prenatal exercises. For more information visit https://southvalley.fit4mom.com.
