Testimonials

20 Sep 2009

I would like to write a letter on behalf of the volunteer fitness instructors at Ramstein South Fitness Center. I write as a stay-at-home mom, a fitness enthusiast, and also as an experienced fitness instructor. I have both a BS and MS in Exercise Science and I’ve worked with over 12 different Olympic Sports as a Sport Biomechanist at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. I have 15 years experience working in different gyms, community groups, and schools in a health and fitness capacity. I currently teach workshops for military-related individuals in Europe who wish to be certified as personal trainers.

I have been working out at Ramstein South for over two years and have participated in both the free and paid classes. My preference is to attend the free classes because, well, they’re free. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the volunteer instructors were as good as, if not better than, the paid instructors. One instructor, in particular, stands out. Tricia Groenheim’s free classes are unique in that they are not just riding a bike to the rhythm of the music, they are training sessions. Germany is cold, dark, windy, and rainy in the winter – all winter long – which makes for unsafe outdoor riding during a good portion of the year. Two winters ago I was training for a triathlon, and being a new arrival to Germany, did not realize how many rides would have to be indoors. Tricia’s class kept me in good enough shape to keep me on track throughout the winter. From an instructor and instructor-trainer perspective, Tricia’s teaching abilities far exceed those of other instructors I’ve seen. I have encouraged her to become an instructor-trainer herself so she can more effectively share her experience and knowledge with new instructors.

From a stay-at-home mom perspective, the free classes are taught at convenient times during the day and provide a social group that keeps me motivated to attend class. The sense of camaraderie keeps folks exercising who might not do so otherwise. Germany is so gray in the winter that it is more common here for people to get the winter “blues”. Exercise and a social group who is expecting to see you at an exercise class are two ways to keep individuals both physically and mentally healthy.

From a personal training perspective, many military wives wait until a month or two before their husbands return from deployment to get into shape. Having enough affordable, accessible, convenient exercise classes and even personal training sessions taught by credentialed instructors might encourage these same wives to exercise as a lifestyle instead of cramming it in, in anticipation of a husband’s return. Physical activity should be an lifestyle, not an event!

One area that is lacking in every military gym I’ve frequented to date is some form of child care while parents work out. A few gyms have a small, hot room with a treadmill or two and perhaps an elliptical machine with a small area where children can play while their parents exercise. While it is commendable that there is “something” for parents, if the military would like to truly promote physical activity as a part of a healthy lifestyle, it needs to provide parents with adequate facilities. Period. “Something” is better than “nothing”, but the military can do better for families.

I truly hope the military will take to heart the requests for adequate affordable exercise opportunities for military personnel and their families –kids, included. I also volunteer as the Donations Coordinator for the Wounded Warrior Ministry Center at the Landstuhl Hospital and I was very pleased to hear about the opportunity to work with these same service members in an exercise capacity. Hopefully, this program will begin soon and benefit those who need it most.

I look forward to hearing about the progress of this Family Fitness Proposal. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or request any clarification.

Sincerely,
L




3 August 2009

[To Whom it May Concern],

Throughout the past year I have been involved in a Fitness for Moms class. Because of the availability of this class I have been able to give myself the time to improve my own health and well –being. The format of the class allows me to bring my young son along. When I joined the class, I never could have imagined that this time would also become a teaching tool for me as a mother.

For one hour a day, three days a week, I have a chance to show my son the importance of exercise and how easy it is to live a healthy lifestyle. I hope that by engaging my son in these activities at such an early age, exercise will become a life long goal. By having this program available it gives my military family the opportunity to combine fitness and togetherness. In the meantime, without trying to rush him out of childhood, I will cherish this time we spend together.

Sincerely,
A






August 2, 2009

Dear Sir or Ma’am,

I would like to express my deep appreciation and enthusiastic support for the family fitness programs offered at Ramstein Air Base, specifically mother-and-child fitness classes, stroller-integrated fitness classes, and kids yoga. These programs have made a huge quality-of-life improvement in the lives of myself, my children, and my active-duty husband.

While most fitness programs in the military focus on the active duty member, or offer classes for those adults who can attend child-free, those programs are just not feasible for the mothers of young children without significant child-care costs and logistics. Many moms are isolated, depressed, and frustrated, knowing that they should “get in shape” but feeling most avenues are inaccessible. The mother-and-child classes, on the other hand, clear the way for moms who are eager to get in shape and live a healthier lifestyle!

It has been said that the mom is the “gatekeeper” for the nutritional health of her family—controlling the food that is purchased and brought into the house, preparing the meals, and teaching her children how to make (good or bad) food choices. When this mother is offered quality, accessible fitness programs it has a cascading effect on her entire family, not only in the area of physical fitness, but also nutrition and mental health. I have personally experienced the linkage of these areas – fitness, nutrition, and fighting depression – and the positive effects that these mother-child fitness programs can have on an entire family. I strongly believe this will positively affect my children and generations to come.

I strongly encourage your support in expanding these opportunities. It only makes sense that healthy moms modeling healthy habits to her entire family will save valuable health care costs in the future, and act as an important element in growing healthy families.

Sincerely,
C
Colonel, USAFR (Ret)
Stay-at-home mom of 5






4 Aug 2009
I am a stay at home mom to 2 girls who are 4 and 20 months. My husband is a logistics officer in the Air Force and we are stationed in Germany. My husband has been TDY or deployed over half of the time that we have lived in Germany, so finding time to work out has been difficult. When I found out about the mom and me fitness classes, it solved my problems. It is the only program I could find where I could bring my kids. There is a very small parent room at the gym, but between waiting on machines and trying to keep my kids from crying it was a waste of time. I had to stop attending the classes because of scheduling conflicts. I was very excited to hear that Renee was still doing the classes and was starting to offer more. These classes are very important to me. I feel that they give me time to focus on myself, while also indirectly teaching my kids the importance of fitness. Since my husband is gone so much, I like that they are with me in the classes. I am the only stability in their lives, so I don’t like the idea of dropping them off at a babysitter. Being with a group of other moms who know what military life is all about is also a plus. In January I will be starting an internship and will not be able to attend the classes anymore. This saddens me deeply. I want to continue the classes, but there are not enough resources to offer the classes at several different times. I have already started wondering if these classes will be available at our next base.
N






3 Aug 2009

I tried going to the gym by myself, but with a kid that's not as easy as it sounds. I was never able to get a good work-out, because my son would cry for attention.

When I heard about the fitness for moms, I was so excited. I wasn't alone. There were more woman struggeling with the same issues. It gave me a feeling of being understood.

During an one-hour class I'm able to have some time for myself. Get that work-out my body needs and all that without having to leave my child behind. While the moms get encouraged to work hard, the kids get the oppertunity to play with each other.

Another important factor is that while our children see us working out, they will get used to the fact that fysical activity is an important part of all our lives. That we need it to stay healthy. Parents are still the biggest roll models and I happy that we get the chance to show them a great life routine.

Kind regards,

E







3 Aug 2009

To whom it may concern,

I am fourteen years old. I was introduced to this program in the fall of 2007 when I was diagnosed with OSgood Schlatters disease in my knees. My bones grew too fast and my muscles could not keep up, making physical activities and impact sports painful for me. Still wanting to keep exercising, I started looking for a low impact activity that i could do without the pain. Yoga for children was perfect for me. It allowed me to stay fit and active while I was doing something new and something that I now enjoy. I continued in this program for two years until the end of this year, simply because my family was moving.

Also, I have participated in the core conditioning class in this program as well. The summer after I joined Yoga for children, my Osgood's had disipated so I decided to try out the core conditioning class. I loved this class because I was able to become stronger while I was having fun with my classmates and instructor. This class pushed me to work harder and excede my limits. I also continued in these class until we had to move this year.

All and all I beleive that the Yoga for children and fitness for moms and children are extremely significant because they open up many varieties of exercise for a wide range of people. They are great programs that allow people, such as myself, to do something different that you will love.

Sincerely,
R







3 Aug 2009

I just wanted to add an account of how family-geared fitness at Bamberg affected me:

Not only was knowing that you could take your small children in their carrying device to the gym (after having been told NO WAY after first PCSing there) refreshing, but knowing that other moms in the same boat would be there and therefore not be as "judgemental" about my state of fitness was such a relief. I am so glad that Ginger got that started!

However, a few "family friendly" additions were made that truly need to be tweeked. Every child comes to an age where they still fit, size-wise, in a stroller, but no longer WANT to stay in it for the duration of a workout. Bamberg added hourly care AT the gym to remedy this. Sound good right? It was a good IDEA, but was implemented poorly. The first problem was the hours of operation--Tuesday through Thursday, 8 am-11am. While the actual hours were not bad as this was when most classes started and enabled parents to drop off older children at school first, the DAYs of operation were poor--only 3 days a week! Two of those days were days that women's groups me at the chapel--another major support of emotional, spiritual, and mental strength during stressful times. So any woman--the primary users at that time of day--who wanted to begin an (at least) 3-day a week fitness regimen while having their child be cared for by professionals AT the gym, AND take advantage of chapel support groups could not. No one should have to chose between their physical and emotional/spiritual fitness.

The final straw in this programs user-UNfriendlyness was HOW to actually use it. CYS implemented the program to ensure that all caregivers were certified and trained properly and to also ensure that all children using the program were properly registered with them (and therefore properly vaccinated and otherwise healthy.) Yet, CYS Central Registration told its constituents that in order to use the program, they HAD to purchase a punch card at Central Registration and attend a class (even if they had already attended the hourly care introduction). The class was only offered a couple times a month and the punch cards could only be purchased in in $80 increments, with no guarantee of a refund if not all funds were used! Contrary to that, the actual providers at the gym told some people all they had to do was simply drop their child off there and use their "deployment punch card"--the card given monthy to spouses of deployed soldiers who are entitled to a certain number of hours of FREE and reduced-price child care. My husband has been deployed and those free hours via the punch card were wonderful and so needed, however, what the providers at the gym were doing was discriminatory to those of us, who at the time, had spouses who were not deployed. No one should be told NO to fitness because of their soldier's deployment status. In the end, each patron should have been given a card from central registration to show each time they dropped off the child that served as proof that the child(ren) were registered. Payment could either be taken there, or at Cent. Reg. but in smaller increments.
The bottom line here is that programs such as these really need to be regulated under one Army agency and be MUCH more user friendly. It is my feeling also that ALL Army bases worldwide should offer the SAME level of childcare/family friendliness. I realize that not all Army fitness facilities can house a space for hourly care, but surely something could be worked out with the Hourly care facility on each post, should this be the problem.

Whether or not FAMFIT uses my little story is fine by me, I just wanted to put it out there. Many thanks for all you are doing!

A





3 Aug 2009

[To whom it may concern]

I have known Ms. Renee for two years. I took her core conditioning class and yoga class to help train for the upcoming cross country and track seasons. Her classes have helped me in ways I never thought possible. Not only did it help prep me for the training to come but it also kept me fit and healthy during the off season. I would recommend these classes for anyone who wants to lead a healthy life. I hope that this letter helped.

Sincerely,
P






2 August 2009

To Whom It May Concern:

I've been taking Mommy and Me classes for almost a year. I started taking classes when my daughter was approximately 6 months old. It was around this time that my family and I moved to our new base here in Germany.

As a new mother, I find myself becoming more aware of the choices I make. I want to set a good example for my daughter. What better way than taking an exercise class that allows me to bring her and also finds ways to help incorporate her into the workout? As I began my search, I found the perfect class-Stroller Aerobics.

The class was probably one of my favourite things to do every week. I looked forward to it as did my daughter. I found myself losing weight and gaining a positive attitude. Being a military spouse can be stressful and having an outlet to talk to other moms in the same situation (raising children overseas, dealing with deployments, long work hours, etc) while exercising was exactly what I needed. Now that my daughter is older, we are taking a more basic Mommy and Me aerobics class that does not involve strollers but is even more fun. I am slowly starting to see her beginning to understand the importance of healthy choices. She chooses healthier foods and will even sometimes try to stretch with us at the end of class!

I love that I am able to not only bring my daughter to these classes, but also that I'm helping show her the positive effects of a healthy lifestyle. With so much childhood obesity in today's society, I'm concerned for her well being. Studies show that maintaining a healthy diet in collaboration with regular exercise helps children intellectually as well as physically. That being said, I think there should be more options for all children, infant and older, as well as mothers to exercise together. It's a great bonding experience and helps create healthier, happier families.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,
A