New Business: FITTOGETHER moves families

By BECKY DAY

Posted 2 years ago

Thorold now has a new place for parents and children to get fit together. Families in Motion- Fittogether opened their new studio doors on September 5 in the Richmond St. plaza.

Rhegan Favell, Owner and Program Director, created the business in 1999 when she was expecting her first child, Abbey (now 9). She continued adding programs as son Will (now 5) was born, and as the children grew.

“It’s been a family business and it has given my children a base for sports,” she said. “Research shows that parents are vital role models in healthy lifestyle outcomes for their children. Many of our programs provide parents with a vehicle to teach their children healthy lifestyle habits by allowing them to be their child’s visual role model in the classes”.

Favell first offered the program at Fitness Alive in St. Catharines.

I couldn’t get out of the house with a small child,” she said. “So I started offering prenatal courses and baby steps and people kept asking for them and here we are.”

Fittogether is about keeping Niagara families in motion together. It takes the latest fitness practices and turns them into interesting group classes that inspire and enhance participant’s quality of life.

Fittogehter has seen 10 years of growth and has proven that there is a market of happy parents and children out there looking for a place to get fit together.

“There’s not a lot out there that offers the parent and child programs,” said new Mom, Marybeth Finlay. “Other programs are one dimensional and have music and play. This is interactive, there’s movement, music, play, fitness, fun and it’s social. It’s everything combined into one hour.”

The Fittogether studio offers sports, dance and music programs as well as movement classes, mommy and baby fitness, daddy and child classes, prenatal, women’s fitness and family classes. Some of the classes include: Body for birth, Fitt and wiggle. Fitt strollers, Wee wigglers, Stay and play, Go groove and Women’s classes. These programs fill a need for young family group fitness in the Niagara Region.

“I really have enjoyed the time with Myella,” Finlay said. “It was something I was looking for. I’m off on maternity leave. I have a year. I’m off for her and I want to spend time with her. It’s active, healthy and she’s learning. It fulfills my needs socially and physically and her needs developmentally. It’s the best of both worlds.”

The fall registration is for a four month session. Many classes are tax deductible up to $500/year per child through the children’s physical activity tax credit.

The classes are designed to appeal to a variety of interests for active and inactive people.

“FITTogether’s goal is to help children and families associate physical activity with fun,” said Favell.

“It’s a casual environment,” added Finlay. “We’re all moms (and dads) and we want to be there for each other.”

For more information, contact 905-988-FITT, email contact@fittogether.ca or visit www.fittogther.ca