And those strollers come in very handy when the high-intensity workout these moms follow requires laps around the parking lot.
Stroller Strides was founded in 2001 by new mom Lisa Druxman, who was looking for a way to stay healthy and in shape after the birth of her son.
With hundreds of locations nationwide, the franchise has been featured on television programs including “The Today Show,” “Access Hollywood” and on CNN, and its website stresses that one of the program’s goals is to “inspire moms to reach optimal health and well being.”
Fit Pregnancy magazine reported in its February 2005 issue that Australian researchers found evidence that “among new moms who’d been diagnosed with depression, those who completed a 12-week stroller-walking class showed fewer symptoms than those in a mom/baby play group that didn’t involve exercise.”
Kristi Murray of Costa Mesa has been teaching the Stroller Strides class in Corona del Mar three times a week for the past year-and-a-half, and will be taking some time off in the next month to deliver her second child — a girl, due in October.
Stroller Strides policy requires that instructors take six weeks of maternity leave before they can resume teaching their class.
Murray said attendance in her class can range from five to 25 moms at any time, but there is a core group of six who are there consistently, and that the class is special because it is a much harder workout than others she has been a part of.
None of the moms in this class suffered from any severe forms of depression, but all reported feeling sleep-deprived, overwhelmed, anxious and isolated at times after the birth of their children.
