By Heather Mallows
Three mornings a week, drivers slow down to get a better look at a group of 12 to 30 women pushing their strollers along the Rideau Canal.
“I keep saying we’re going to cause an accident one of these days,” says Lyne Burton, Ottawa’s strollercising founder.
Strollercising is an exercise program specifically designed for new moms.
The women walk or jog while pushing their strollers along the canal paths, stopping to do stretches, squats and, in the summer, sit-ups.
The strollercisers are learning how to get back in shape thanks to the guidance of fitness and lifestyle consultant Kerri Morrison.
“Strollercising is geared to post-partum recovery,” says Morrison.
She says the group works on rebuilding abdominal muscles and joint stability. “Your joints are put under a lot of strain when you’re pregnant or when you have a new baby to hold all day,” she says. “A lot of our exercises, like postural exercises, are geared to the muscles that are being pulled forward from breast feeding.”
Morrison has been teaching the group for more than a year. Before starting, she did some of her own research on how to help new moms get back into shape.
“If you’re attending the program regularly, you’re going to see massive improvement in just a couple of weeks,” she says.
Women from all over the city participate. Centretown resident Sandra Downs has been enrolled in the program since October. “I lost a lot of weight,” she says. “I feel fit, I feel energized and I feel healthier.”
Downs says the fact she can bring seven-month-old Robert along is a big bonus.
“I used to go the gym three to four times a week (before having her baby). But how do you bring a baby to the gym?” says Downs. “If I didn’t have this, how would I work out?”
Downs says she was surprised at the intensity of the workout.
“When I heard of stollercising, I thought it was a group of women just walking along together,” she says. “But sometimes, you’re sore afterwards,” she says with a laugh. “But it’s a good sore.”
The program runs out of Burton’s Boomerang Kids Consignment Store on Bank Street. “I had read about strollercising in a magazine while I was pregnant,” says Burton. “And I thought, why not do it as a group with a professional instructor?”
The idea took off. “We get huge crowds,” says Burton. “Even in the winter!” And each year, the group holds a Strollerthon to benefit the Children’s Wish Foundation.
Downs and Morrison say the social benefits of stollercising are just as important as the physical ones – or maybe even more so.
After each session, the moms – and their strollers – invade a nearby Starbucks. “The group provides an amazing support system,” says Downs. “When something happens, I can ask for help. I find out that I’m not the only one.”
Morrison says many moms have continued to strollercise after their maternity leave is over.
They meet on Tuesday nights, maintaining their social ties as well as the exercise. “I try to reinforce how important it is to continue exercising,” says Morrison. “They should make themselves a priority even though they are a mom.”