By Stephanie Dunnewind
The Seattle Times
(KRT)
SEATTLE - This workout includes singing "If You're Happy and You Know It" while squatting against a wall and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" while pulling exercise bands to tone arm muscles.
For any mom who's faced the realization that the spandex-and-sports-bra crowd at the gym isn't for her anymore, there's a new option: an outdoor interval training class that combines power walking, calisthenics and toning exercises - and songs to entertain the accompanying babies in strollers.
"Nothing here is the ideal," said Heather Gertmenian, a certified personal trainer and mom who leads a new Stroller Strides class in the Seattle area. "It's not about the ideal body, and everyone has dealt with a fussy baby or a baby dropping books as they go. We're all going through it together."
The goal is for moms (or grandmas, dads or caregivers) to get out of the house, burn some calories and connect with others - without the guilt or cost of leaving their baby with a sitter.
At another Seattle area park, instructor Becky Soliday, a certified personal trainer and mom of Jack, 19 months, started a recent class with a stretch to "release that mommy tension."
Half a dozen moms, dressed mostly in sweats or shorts and T-shirts, walked briskly for short periods, then parked the strollers for different activities cleverly adapted to the park.
Soliday urged moms through a step-aerobics routine on the stairs leading to a fountain, demonstrated resistance exercises on a grassy lawn surrounded by trees and blooming flowers, and did pushups against picnic tables.
"This is no walk in the park; it's a good strong workout for mothers of all fitness levels," said Gertmenian, who brings her son, Henry, 9 months, while her 4-year-old daughter is in preschool.
The 50-minute class involves 1 to 1-½ miles of walking (or light jogging, if a mom needs to catch up after stopping to pick up a jettisoned snack container).
With strollers positioned in a circle or stretched out in a line in front of sweating moms, the babies - most ages 6 months to 2 years - watched the moving bodies and chewed on snacks, toys or their shoes. Some slept; a few fussed a little but moms were nearby to offer assurances.
"I wanted to exercise more regularly, but it was hard with a baby," said Shelley Guzik, who brings Brady, 22 months.
She joined a gym but couldn't go until her husband got home from work in the evening to watch the baby.
"By then you're tired," she said. "Now I've already exercised in the morning, and we go home and he takes his nap."
Her son likes playing with kids his age and looks forward to what he calls "size."
Asked what sparked her interest in the program, Deborah Simonds answers: "Fat!"
"I can take the kids with me so I don't have to pay for child care," said the mom of 22-month-old twins, Zohar and Nadav. "I try to entertain them as I go. The key is to bring plenty of food and lots of toys."
Familiar to anyone who has taken an aerobics class, instructors remind participants to "Smile, mommies! This is fun!" But the calls to "Grab your babies and head on down that way" and sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" as they walk are unique to Stroller Strides.
The class ends with moms doing situps on blankets laid out in the grass, babies positioned nearby and toddlers playing together with toys.
Soliday and Gertmenian run the King County, Wash., franchise of the 2-year-old company founded by a San Diego mom, Lisa Druxman. They started offering area classes three days a week in May and hope to expand the programs.
Druxman helped choose the class locations, which will move indoors to local malls during the winter. They pay a fee for a permit to use the city parks.
They see the classes as a support group and hope to organize moms' nights out with educational speakers, play groups and family picnics. Before and after classes, kids can play together at the playgrounds.
When they can catch a breath, moms chat about where to find baby-sitters and other parenting issues, though for a while "The Bachelor" was the hot topic.
At the class, one mom noted that Nealy White's 6-month-old son, Thales, just learned to sit up on his own. When Thales started crying, White lifted him out of his stroller and did squats with the baby as a weight. Gertmenian showed her how to keep her back straight and not lean forward.
"You can always do the exercises and move the stroller back and forth," Gertmenian advised. "Sometimes they get upset when we stop abruptly: `Hey, I liked that vibration.' "
White almost didn't join the class because Thales didn't like to ride in the stroller. She started with him in a sling but now he's gotten used to the stroller routine.
"He expects that in the morning, he goes in his stroller, then I hold him the rest of the day," she said.
While she tried the occasional exercise video before, she never did it as consistently as Stroller Strides, which she attends four to five times a week. After two months, she's noticed she's stronger, having to slow her pace while walking with a friend.
"I'm completely hooked on it."
© 2003, The Seattle Times.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
