Fit4Mom Aiken builds community of moms around fitness

TAYLOR BELTZ, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·2 min read

Jul. 28—Lida Bard brought Fit4Mom to Aiken to bring together a community of moms in the area through fitness.

"It's for everybody, wherever you're at," Bard said. "We're not here to lose weight, we're not here to judge, we're here to be strong and healthy."

Bard was traveling over an hour to Augusta for her Fit4Mom exercise classes after having her first child in 2019. The long commute made it difficult for her to keep going to the classes, Bard said.

In 2022, she decided to bring Fit4Mom to Aiken after finding out the classes were part of a larger franchise.

"So, the whole point of it is, it's not just to say, 'let's go work out and see you later,'" Bard said. "It's to build a mommy village. Do mom's night out and playgroups and a book club or you know, just create a community for moms."

In April, Bard finished filling out the paperwork and she started hosting her Fit4Mom classes in July.

Fitness has always been a part of Bard's life since she used to run marathons, she said. Part of the process when getting started with Fit4Mom was learning how to teach these fitness classes, Bard said.

"Honestly, I'm having so much fun with all of it," Bard said. "Like I prepare for class by putting the exercises together. Like I think that's fun. I think it's fun to come out here and interact with everybody."

The classes feature a variety of exercises at various time intervals. Bard will lead the class in one set of exercises for a set period before switching to another set of exercises.

Right now, many of the routines include strollers as a part of the exercises since the moms that participate have young children, Bard said.

"The founder started this stroller class when she had her child," she said. "And so, once you get that down and kind of build it up, there's other formats you could do that don't have strollers involved to bring in moms who are at a different stage of life."

The best way to get involved is through Facebook at Fit4Mom Aiken and every new member gets their first class for free, Bard said.

On Friday, the class was Barbie themed because of the new Barbie movie opening in theaters. This class was one of the bigger classes with nine people, she said.

Bard said she has gotten more people interested in the classes since starting as people spread the word.

"It's going to grow," she said.