Fitness fun: mums and bubs bootcamp
Anything is possible when a mum of triplets sets her mind to it, as Beverley Hadgraft discovers in a new community project in Canberra.
RISING up behin d Canberra’s famous War Memorial is Mount Ainslie. Despite the 4 kilometre steep climb, the views make it a favourite with walkers, including a large group of mums. On any day, you’ll see 30 or 40 of them, most with a baby (or two) strapped to their bodies, an older child running on ahead.
They may be sharing a joke, having a deep conversation or catching their breath while their mates urge them on. All ages and nationalities, the other walkers must wonder at their bond. It is this: they are members of Mums Exercise Group Australia (MEGA), a fitness phenomenon that started in our national capital and is set to sweep the country. Every week, its 5500 members can choose from a variety of workouts including bootcamps, yoga, boxing, running clinics, Pilates, power lifting, Zumba dance and aqua exercise. They can join triathlon, netball and soccer teams, or sign up for a running race or Miss Muddy-style obstacle event.
Yet here’s the amazing thing – MEGA is free – with every session and health challenge devised
and led by mums who give their time voluntarily.
Linda Berjaoui’s first thought when she heard about it was typical, “This can’t be free. It looks fantastic!” At the time, Linda, 36, was paying $100 a month for a gym she could attend only twice a week. Now the mum-of-five does at least eight MEGA sessions a week.
“Instead of running on a treadmill looking at a wall, I’m in the fresh air around a lake or up a mountain,” she says. “I can have my baby with me and I don’t feel I have to be a size eight with abs! In the school holidays, even my older kids join me on the walks. They grumbled at first, but now they love it and it makes me think we need to do more of this. I want them to know there is more to life than sitting in front of an Xbox.”
Like so many good things in this world, MEGA evolved organically. It began in August 2014 when new mother of triplets Jennelle McAppion realised she needed motivation and mates if she was ever to get out for a walk, so asked other mums to join her.
Within a month, the 20 or so walkers were keen to try other forms of exercise, although, ironically, they were almost derailed by their very first excursion as Jennelle suggested a mums’ and bubs’ aqua exercise session. The women were walking, running and sidestepping round the municipal pool, holding their babies close and familiarising them with the water, when they were ordered out due to a “conflict of interest”.
“I said, ‘How can it be when you don’t run anything like this? I’m not charging anyone. I’m not instructing anyone, we’re just mums in a group’,” Jennelle, 31, recalls.
Fortunately, although that session was cut short, every other venue and organisation since has welcomed MEGA’s mum-power, offering facilities free or with massive discounts. Mostly, though, the women just meet at a park or lakeside spot. Some groups are led by a qualified trainer or physiotherapist, others have facilitators with a strong background in a particular activity. Experts offer the group leaders technique tips and Jennelle, now MEGA’s Principal Director, also has ambitions to offer scholarships for those who would like to get accredited qualifications.
A Sport England study two years back found that while 75 per cent of women wanted to be more active, they were worried about being judged. Many were concerned about appearance and physical ineptitude, and mums feared being criticised for building muscle when they should have been building Lego.
Perhaps another reason for MEGA’s success is that it blows those fears out of the water, or as one member succinctly observes, “It’s not judgey wudgey”.
Fellow Director Becky Cormack is testament to that. She went to her first MEGA bootcamp in January last year – and spent the entire session hiding in her car. “I was too nervous to join in,” she recalls. “Pregnancy changes your body; you gain confidence in one sense, but then you look in the mirror and you don’t recognise yourself any more.”
By the time Becky stopped fretting, realising that MEGA mums were all standards and sizes, and couldn’t care less about Mummy Tummies, the session was nearly over. She went back and was hooked.
“The women were so welcoming. There were babies in prams in the
shade of a tree, toddlers running around, older kids putting out witch’s hats and mums strapping their babies to their bodies and doing the whole class like that.”
Angela Cheung, another Director, was running the session with her own baby strapped to her front. “We were doing squats and in the middle of explaining, she suddenly popped her baby on her boob,” Becky remembers.
“When you’re a rst-time mum, breastfeeding in public can be really daunting, but there was Ange in front of everyone, doing squats and lunges with her baby attached. I thought, ‘I love this place.’ I walked away feeling I was me again. I thought, ‘I am going to be okay. I can be t and a mum at the same time.’ I hadn’t taken any time away from my baby. She was with me.”
A keen hiker, Becky went on to organise MEGA walks that have ranged from climbing Mount Ainslie to sevenhour half-marathons through the bush – mums carrying babies on their backs.
Becky gives back all her spare time to MEGA, her reward being the tales of transformation from the members. Whether they’ve lost weight or found con dence, their response is the same: “This is the world I’ve been waiting
“I thought, ‘I love this place.’ I walked away feeling I was me again. ”
for and never thought I’d t into”.
While MEGA has clearly put the fun back into tness, it is not afraid to tackle the serious issues that may affect mothers as well. One early member was Tara Costigan, who had been breastfeeding her one-week-old baby when her former partner Marcus Rappel murdered her with an axe. She had issued a Domestic Violence Order against him only the day before.
Jennelle suggested a walk around Lake Burley Grif n to raise money for Tara’s three children. Initially, she expected around 100 mums. On the day, nearly 6000 people turned up. “It was really meaningful for us to do that,” she says.
MEGA is now an advocate for the White Ribbon Foundation, providing information on where to get help as well as supporting those in need. Equally, MEGA’s four Directors have been endorsed as PANDSI (Post and Ante Natal Depression Support and Information) ambassadors, trained to recognise the symptoms and offer advice, although just coming to MEGA to share frustrations and fears is a great antidote for depression, especially when combined with exercise.
Laiza Langshaw, 27, has experienced both traumas. She was living in a refuge and on anti-depressants when she joined MEGA. Now she is con dent, t and supporting other women, whether that be carrying their babies if they’re struggling up a steep hill or returning to her old refuge to lead exercise groups for the women still there. “The smiles on their faces are priceless,” she says.
Laiza credits MEGA with “giving me back my mojo. They always accepted me for who I was. No one ever questioned me,” she explains. “But being in a refuge doesn’t make me different. There may be professors and CEOs and public servants in MEGA, and I may be at the other end of the scale, but they’re mums and have sleepless nights just like me. And that’s why I love it. Without it, I would still be battling my depression. Now I can’t believe how much energy I have.”
Jennelle’s triplets are now two. She’s back working pretty much full-time at the Department of Defence as well as developing MEGA. Why does she do it? It’s not the money; she has no intention of ever making it a nancial business. The most she can ever imagine charging is a small fee a year to cover public liability. “The recognition, support, love and friendship I’ve made through this group far outweighs anything money could buy,” she says.
If you’d like to start a MEGA branch in your area, visit facebook.com/ImaMEGAmum or email info@megamums.com.au.