Moving Picture: Gilberts trainer combines family, fitness

Two years ago after her son John was born, Stephanie Murphy found herself in a tough spot. The Gilberts woman’s love of exercise was taking too much of a back seat to the duties of being a full-time mom.

“My two biggest passions are my family and fitness, and it was really hard to find the time for fitness,” Murphy said.

Murphy had been a certified group exercise and personal trainer for almost five years when she had her first child.

Shortly thereafter, Mama Workout was born, a personal training business mainly for moms.

“It was always something that I did part-time until I had children, and now it is more of my focus,” she explains.

Murphy’s classes — Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at Judson University; Tuesdays and Thursdays at Town Center Park in Gilberts — focus on total body conditioning while keeping her clients’ children close at hand.

“Kids are always welcome,” she says. Besides giving the moms time with their children, “you don’t have to leave them anywhere and you don’t have to pay extra for child care.”

Often the children interact with their moms during the class.

“When kids are involved you always have to be flexible and open to how things happen,” said Murphy, cradling her daughter as she does sit-ups with the class.

“It has been a good lesson in terms of relaxing and going with the flow.”

The Mama Workout classes are tuned to the women who are participating, and she’s always looking for ways to improve the classes to meet individual needs of her current classes.

She says the satisfaction of knowing that she is doing something not only for her long-term health but also for her children’s health is what drives her during her classes and her life as well.

“(Fitness) is an important part of life. When you are fit and healthy you feel good, you have more energy for your other tasks in life,” she said.