Two Boutique Fitness Brands on a Mission to Nurture Moms

Mother’s Day isn’t all flowers, pastels and brunch. 

It’s a celebration of the grit and strength that all moms have under the surface. It’s a recognition of the hard work that goes into giving your best to your kids every day. It’s a shout out to everyone who is tackling the biggest challenge on the planet – being a parent.  

This Mother’s Day, we’re thrilled to feature two Mariana Tek studios with incredible missions to honor and recognize the strength of parents.

Boutique fitness can have such a significant impact on people’s lives, especially during life’s most challenging moments of transition and transformation. We see UMMA Fitness and Baby Booty really supporting moms in the moments that matter and making a point to recognize the highs and lows of parenthood. Their founders know that each mother – each parent – gives a huge part of themselves to their children day in and day out. Because of this, they strive to be a space of healing, peace, and community for these parents. 

UMMA Fitness: Meeting Pre-Natal and Post-Natal Moms Where They’re At 

Negeen Lotfi is the founder of UMMA Fitness, a boutique wellness studio in Costa Mesa, California, dedicated to supporting women through every stage of motherhood. As a Registered Yoga Teacher and certified Pre and Postnatal Fitness Specialist, Negeen was inspired to create UMMA fitness after becoming pregnant and realizing the resources to continue prioritizing fitness were lacking.  

UMMA Fitness was founded based on Negeen’s own personal experiences during pregnancy and early motherhood. Umma Fitness offers specialized yoga and pilates classes tailored to the unique needs of expectant and new mothers, and babies are welcome to join for every class.  

Hear more about the special touches UMMA provides for new and expecting mothers, and how Negeen’s perspective on Mother’s Day has changed since becoming a mom herself.

Negeen Lotfi
Founder of UMMA Fitness 

Baby Booty: Making Boutique Fitness Accessible to New and Busy Moms  

Molly Brubaker is the founder and lead instructor of Baby Booty, boutique fitness for parents, where parents can bring your baby or toddler along, but the focus is on the parent. They offer energetic fitness classes based on the everyday movements of new parenthood, so parents can focus on getting stronger physically, emotionally, and mentally in the challenging pre- and post-partum period.  

A certified Group Fitness Instructor, Barre Instructor, and Pregnancy and Postpartum Exercise Specialist, Molly created the program to provide a space for parents to make their health a priority in their busy parenting life and enjoy the types of classes they took before becoming a parent. Baby Booty offers 10 types of workouts, allowing parents to exercise without needing childcare. Each class is structured as a workout followed by social time for parents and their babies or toddlers.

Molly shared more about the community Baby Booty strives to offer parents of young children, and the inspiration she gets from seeing her clients care for themselves while balancing parenthood.   

Molly Brubaker
Founder of Baby Booty 
 

My Visit To Baby Booty 

 When I was looking into Mariana Tek studios to write this article about, I was thrilled to find out that one of them was close to me! I signed myself and my 3-year-old son, Cameron, up for a Signature class with Molly at Baby Booty’s Dedham Studio. 

I won’t lie – typically my workouts are time to myself, and the idea of bringing Cam along made me nervous. But when I walked in the door at Baby Booty, it was a welcoming environment for both of us. There were toddlers and babies there already, chilling in a cozy dedicated play area with all types of toys and books. 

Cam was excited to try something new as he always is – he’s a curious, active kid. He immediately rolled out a mat and was ready to go! 

During the class, every child and parent was able to take what they needed out of it. There were moments when Cam was engaged and mimicked lifting the weights with me – and moments when he was running around yelling. And both were totally okay! Some moms had their babies on blankets in front of them, while others were wearing them during the workout, adding significant resistance to all the barre moves.

After the workout, we sat down for a quick social circle. Babies got bottles and toddlers got snacks as the moms talked about what made them ‘feel like a badass’. The answers ranged from parenting wins, to strength training, to accomplishments at work. It was such a special touch to able to stay and have that conversation with women who may not know much about each other, but share the bond of motherhood.  

Take a Class at UMMA or Baby Booty

If you’re in the Boston, MA or Portland, ME area, I highly recommend checking out Baby Booty. You can view their full class schedule here and follow them on Instagram at @babybootyworkout! 

If you’re in the Orange County area in California, UMMA Fitness offers a range of sculpt and yoga classes for pre- and post-natal wellness. You can view their full class schedule here and follow them on Instagram at @UmmafitnessOC!