The Fit Mom Project

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Hey everyone! My name is Nicole and I am SUPER excited to join Natalie and Fitness Reviews to bring you reviews on local fitness studios from a beginner’s perspective!

Like a lot of moms in Orange County I have a lot going on…I am a mom to two toddlers (1.5 and 3) and a business owner. I have zero fitness background unless you count chasing toddlers, which in my opinion, should be considered as an olympic sport. Are you a beginner too? Are you hoping to find somewhere to get active now that your kids are back in school? Are you down for the winter prep for summer bod lifestyle?

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Do any of these sound like you?

  • The thought of running outside in the daylight makes me want to eat cake.
  • My kids are my excuse but they should be my reason.
  • I don’t know where to start to find myself a studio that is right for me as a beginner.
  • I am not motivated enough (yet) to go to the gym on my own, I need some guidance and motivation.
  • I am intimidated by most gym settings because of all the models and Ryan Reynolds look a-likes running around while i’m there.

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If you said YES to any of these you want to pay close attention to this series!

I am going to be searching high and low for local Orange County fitness studios- anything from yoga and pure barre to HIIT workouts and I am going to try them out FOR YOU. Okay, for me too. I am going to be honest, raw and thorough in my reviews, focusing on these 5 key points for us beginners.

  • Affordability– What are the package prices, what do they include? Are there drop in classes? Special deals for new sign ups?
  • Availability– If I need to go during a certain window (in my case, my son is in preschool from 12-3 monday through friday) is there a wide range of class times to fit a mom/business owner’s busy schedule?
  • Difficulty– As a true beginner it’s always going to be difficult to start something up but will these classes leave me feeling like road kill on the side of the road, thus scaring me from going back?
  • Variety– Are there levels? Different kinds of classes?
  • Intimidation factor– This is HUGE for me. I don’t like walking into places and feeling like I am the newbie. Do you feel welcomed? Encouraged by others around you?

I am stoked for this journey and the fact that I get to share it with you all! Please follow along and join me for classes! I am ONLY trying out studios that have free trials and the length of each will be specified!

Follow on instagram @thefitmomproject to see where i’ll be! Join me for a class, ask anything you’d like! This is going to be fun!!

Total Training Fitness – Laguna Hills

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I got a chance to take a class at Total Training Fitness in Laguna Hills. The owner, Tammy Neiman, has been a leader in the outdoor boot camp fitness , running a very popular, Irvine based one for nearly a decade, and has now opened her first indoor location.

It is beautiful inside – brand new, state of the art, with treadmills across the board. The classes are run in groups of 15-20 people. It is a circuit, you will be on the treadmill for five or six minutes and then swap out on the floor for weight training. and go back and forth between the two. This is a great workout if you’re someone who tracks your heart rate and try to get that extra caloric burn – you can full sprint on the treadmill, and then use heavier weights, and try to increase the rounds completed. You can also scale the workouts given to make it more intense if you would like.

The trainers are not only extremely motivating but are highly trained and experts in the in their field. Your form will be addressed and corrected. This is not common in most boot-camps and circuits, they are usually run like aerobics classes with everyone doing the same workout. Here the trainers are there to help, but the workouts are also projected from a Power Point on a TV screen so that you always know what to do next.

The Breakdown:

Skill Level: Although this is a circuit/boot camp style workout, it is aimed at the older, less fit population. You’re not going to walk in and see an instructor in a sports bra, flexing their six pack (not that there’s anything wrong with that), they are more concerned about getting you through your workout and getting to reach your full potential. No one is going to be yelling at you, drill instructor style, to bring “beast mode”.

Injury: They won’t address your injury or fix it, but they can work around it.

Daycare: No daycare is offered

Music: Loud! It has a set volume, and though it is turned down while the instruction is given, when the workout begins it is turned up to a set level they have for all the classes.

Final thought: Overall a great experience, a lot of fun energy, and they do a great job.

Pilates Plus – Yorba Linda

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This morning I travelled up to Pilates Plus to take a “Mega Reformer” class from a good friend, Natalie Da Rosa. It wasn’t what I would call traditional pilates, instead they incorporate the “Lagree Method”. Traditional pilates is hyper focused on every minute detail of your movement, which is wonderful but can also leave you wanting more. Lagree simplifies the movements to maintain proper form and gives you a killer workout through slow methodically times exercises. It was Awesome!!

 1) Space/Facility:  This small boutique studio, opened two years ago, and has a very chic upscale feeling to it. White brick walls, polished concrete with a few pops of color, it is a very clean space with 10 “mega reformers.” The upbeat modern music motivates you when those movements get tough!

 2) Quality of Instruction:  the queuing of the exercises adequate for a beginner as well as for someone advanced. My friend Natalie just received her Pilates certification, and so with this class I was intending to support her and check out the studio, and it was awesome! I think Pilates in general does a really good job training their instructors – I have found that the instructor training is usually spot on in tePilates rms of queuing, biomechanics placement, and overall structure for the client.

 3) The workout itself: Lagree Pilates is the method, it is low impact and easy on the joints, but it will push your muscles hard. It is focused heavily on lower body and core exercises, and they burn out one limb before moving on… so you will do 8-10 exercises of 60-90 seconds all on one leg before you rotate to the other leg.

4) The friendliness of staff: Jamie is the owner and is very involved in every process of her studio like client intake and teaching. Everyone is extremely friendly, its definitely a community vibe, all the members seem to know each other very well and chit chat before and after the workouts.