by Stephen Dafoe
Group fitness classes will be available in the Morinville United Church basement this week, offering residents an opportunity to get fit in a group setting. Personal Trainer Michelle Logan is the owner of Fit Girl Athletics, a new home-based company that offers personal training in her home studio and group fitness instruction at the church.
“They’ve been great,” she said of the opportunity to offer fitness classes at the church, adding her first class there was Sept. 9. “I’m offering 10 classes a week, most of them an hour in length. There is something for everybody. I do classes for adults, mom and tot, and seniors. I’m trying to offer a well-rounded program so anyone can come.”
Though the name is Fit Girl Athletics, Logan points out the classes are not limited to women. Rather, she is the Fit Girl alluded to in the business name. “Coming up with the name, I struggled with that because my programs aren’t only for women,” she said. “I’m the fit girl. I haven’t always been fit. I’ve always struggled with weight and weight loss.”
Logan said she is trying to make her business different from those of other personal trainers and fitness instructors by offering a come-as-you-are approach to health and fitness.
“There’s no judgment. You don’t need to wear a fancy outfit. You don’t need to have any experience whatsoever,” she said. “Just come and work through the exercises. Given the small class sizes that I have, I’m often able to give a little bit more than a typical group class that has maybe 40 people. I like to work with 10 to 15, but I’ve run classes with as little as four to six people because of the nature of the group.”
Logan is involved with the annual Jessica Martel Memorial Run and played a big role in last weekend’s Amazing Race, a family event that put 15 families on a 13-pit-stop mission along Morinville’s trail system.
The personal trainer has an accounting background and came to her current occupation by become involved in fitness as a class participant in Edmonton. That interest continued when she took a class at the Town of Morinville after her second son was born. Some questions asked to the instructor lead Logan on a path to get more fit and turn her love of fitness into a business. A few months after taking the local class, the instructor, who was moving east, suggested Logan should take over.
“It kind of shocked me and I never even thought about it,” Logan said. She added the former instructor offered to provide training and instruction, and her husband Chris was a huge supporter of the idea. “He said, ‘What do you have to lose?’ So I did it. I was inspired by the instructor and the other people taking the course. It’s taken over my life.”
It is a path that has lead to a fit family and fit life for the Logan family, and an opportunity for that love of fitness to be spread to others.
“For me the definition of fit is the freedom to do what you want to do when you want to do it,” she said. “If that is getting up out of a chair unassisted, then you are fit. I try to apply that to all kinds of people.”
Plenty of classes
One of the groups Logan has helped and continues to help with senior fitness is Heritage Lodge residents – a partnership between Logan and the Town’s FCSS department.
Now in her fourth year of teaching group fitness, Logan is looking forward to teaching classes at the Morinville United Church and bringing her simple philosophy to others.
Logan runs classes five days a week. These include an early morning boot camp from 5:45 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She also teaches two mom and tot classes and two older adult classes Tuesdays and Thursdays, and evening classes Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights from 6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.
“I’m trying to offer a bit of something for everybody,” Logan said. “The hardest part of this gig is offering something for everyone so everybody can come.”
Logan is currently charging $11 for an hour class and $12 for drop-ins. Seniors are classified as those 50 and above taking the lower-impact class she offers Tuesday and Thursdays.
“It’s not necessarily seniors. You just have to join the class,” she said of the older adult class.
For more info contact visit FitGirl.ca, call 780-918-4973, or email michelle@fitgirl.ca.
