FitclubUnion

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Hi! Thanks for taking the time to read our longer intro. We are Fitclub at the Hub. Fitclub is a community fitness group based at the Phillipstown Community Hub, providing fun, low-cost social exercise sessions five days a week.

Fitclub is led by a team of four local mums, Carly McCall, Tash McIntyre, Kayla Egerton & Rachel Davidson. We’re passionate about fitness and balanced healthy lifestyles, and role modelling healthy behaviour for our children. Tash is a mum of two boys aged three and five; Rachel has three girls aged 12 weeks, six and nine; Kayla’s little girl is two and Carly’s two daughters are five and 15. We’ve all experienced that struggle to find fitness opportunities that are truly kid-friendly, so we decided to create one for ourselves! In May 2019 we were joined by Jimm Voice, a qualified personal trainer and martial arts aficionado who leads our cardio kickboxing program and provides valuable support as a member of our core team.

One of the unique aspects of Fitclub is that we create an environment that is 100% welcoming to children of all ages. From our location to the set-up of our workouts, accommodating kids is a major focus of how we operate.

We’re located at the Phillipstown Community Hub, which is located on the site of the former Phillipstown School. There’s plenty of safe, fenced green space outdoors for the kids to enjoy, as well as space for outdoor workout sessions which the kids love to join! However, even when we’re indoors, we structure the workouts in a way that leaves room for the kids to play with the selection of toys and activities we provide. During a circuit session you might find one of the babies watching over your station, and plank challenges usually feature one or more preschoolers commando-crawling underneath the adults in the room or planting themselves on your back!

Many of our kids have attended Fitclub with us for upwards of two years, and have grown up in a world where ‘doing workouts’ is part of everyday life. A number of our members come from communities where an active healthy lifestyle isn’t necessarily commonplace, so pushing back against the prevailing culture is extremely crucial and making fitness fun for our little ones is one way of achieving this.

To further this environment of welcome for mums with young kids, we take a ‘whanau’ approach of getting to know new children, ensuring they become comfortable with many of the mums present, and taking equal responsibility for the welfare and happiness of all the kids, not just our own. This isn’t a culture we’ve forced, but rather one that developed organically and worked so wonderfully we have simply embraced it. We’ve found this ‘it takes a village’ style significantly reduces stress levels for everyone concerned and means that attendees can usually get a great workout without much worry about their kids’ wellbeing, safety or behaviour. Additionally, we maintain a small collection of toys for babies and preschoolers, and provide a communal snack table with home baking, crackers, fruit and more which kids can graze from at will.

So the kids are happy…. What next? Well, we’ve created a programme of workouts that is varied, challenging and adaptable to most fitness levels. We currently offer upward of ten sessions a week including Boxfit, Zumba, \HIIT, Mat Pilates, Steps to Strength which is a lower intensity class, three sessions of high energy Cardio Kickboxing, a dedicated strength training group the Bar Bellas, and finally ‘Sweaty Saturday’ - a varied bootcamp-style workout that packs a major punch, to get the weekend off to a great start. Boxfit, HIIT, the Bar Bellas, Steps to Strength and our Saturday session are led by our core Fitclub leaders, with guest instructors joining us for Zumba and Pilates.

We keep Fitclub open to all, and we’ve had attendees as young as 14 and as old as 64. Our workouts are as inclusive as possible, and we present modifications for those with limitations. We embrace all body types, genders and ages, as every person deserves to enjoy moving their body. With a class fee of just $2 ($4 for Pilates), we aim to keep Fitclub affordable for everyone, knowing that cost is a major barrier to access for our target community. We’ve been lucky to have guest instructors who offer their time for free or at very low cost to help us accomplish this. We also as of April 2019 have a qualified Personal Trainer on staff, as Carly has completed her NZIHF Level 5 Diploma in Fitness.

Fitclub’s been running for more than five years now, and we’ve seen that our little ‘fitness whanau’ can deliver a host of physical, emotional and social benefits for the families that attend. Fitclub at the Hub is creating a strong community within itself, while reaching out and connecting with the community around us. We’re proud to be part of the Hub and of Phillipstown, and we intend to continue with our mission: becoming the best versions of ourselves and growing happy, healthy young families.