BRIDGETTE ALI
Bardon’s gourmet grocer and café, The Bardon Shed, will be teaming up with female-only fitness bootcamp program, Coreliving, to promote healthy living for their customers this weekend.
The free event will be held this Saturday September 21 at 6:45am at The Bardon Shed on Runic Street in Bardon, and will feature a 45-minute female fitness session run by Coreliving.
The session will be based on Coreliving’s regular workout programs and requires no registration.
The Bardon Shed service manager and social media coordinator Amanda Osbourne and Coreliving director and personal trainer Amy Abrahams said the two companies came up with the idea through mutual interest in promoting a healthy lifestyle.
“[Amy] that we’re working with runs a female-only fitness club in the area,” Ms Osbourne said.
“She’s been a regular customer since we’ve been open and a lot of her clients from her classes are customers, too,” she said.
“We thought there was no better way to engage the local community than with a local.”
Ms Abrahams said program that Coreliving ran was based around community and women.
“So, I love any opportunities to bring those two things together,” she said,
“I also train all my clients in this area, and so the Shed is a local hangout for a lot of them, [and] I like that they have great fresh fruit and vegetables available,” Ms Abrahams said.
“So, basically, I just wanted to bring all my clients that haven’t been to the Shed to a great hangout, and to experience some of their fresh fruit and vegetables,” she said.
Ms Abrahams said she hoped making the event free would help to attract participants outside of Coreliving’s clientele.
“Our program really is based around community, so I love offering free sessions for people who may not normally get the chance to train,” she said.
Ms Osbourne said the timing of the event was mostly aimed at the convenience for Coreliving’s clients.
“[Coreliving is] predominantly aimed at mums who can’t get to the gym or need to bring their kids because they can’t get a babysitter,” she said.
“So, we joined together for the women and mums who can’t always get time to themselves [during the week].”
Ms Abrahams said Coreliving had previously collaborated with various local coffee shops, but had never worked with them on site.
“[We’ve] never done a session at their [businesses] premises, so this is exciting to be able to actually train on site,” she said.
Ms Osbourne said The Bardon Shed had involved itself in the community previously, although this would be the store’s first fitness event.
“We a do lot with school fetes,” she said.
“Next year we’re looking at getting involved with having a stall at some [fetes] and selling fresh fruit and veggies to the kids, [as well as] obviously donating money and catering to the schools.”
Bardon Shed employee Isabelle Fitzgerald said she thought the event would be popular within the community.
“I think it’s a really good, interesting idea that management has come up with,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
“I live in the area, and I know how popular the store is with everyone here, so I think us teaming up with Coreliving will be great for everyone involved,” she said.
“A lot of our weekend early morning customers are ladies stopping for a coffee and food after going to the gym or for a walk, so it’s perfect.”
Event participants will also be rewarded with a free fruit cup at the end of the session courtesy of The Bardon Shed.
“We believe that there’s nothing better than a workout and fresh fruit after it to boost your energy,” Ms Osbourne said.
“We just want to promote healthy living.”
Ms Osbourne said both The Bardon Shed and Coreliving were willing to make the event a regular occurrence.
“If it’s really successful and we have a lot of mums that come down and are really happy with the workout, then we will look at doing more of them in the future,” Ms Osbourne said.
The Bardon Shed store manager Barry Osbourne said he believed the event would be a success.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun, it’ll be good for both of us [as businesses] by getting involved with the community together,” Mr Osbourne said.
Ms Abrahams said she hoped the event would consist of new and familiar faces, as well as provide a successful social occasion for all participants.
“I hope we have a really fun morning bringing together lots of local women to move their bodies for the morning and then hang out afterwards for fruit salad and a coffee,” she said.
“It would be great to get some new women to experience the group fitness program that we run, and also showcase the Shed to those clients of mine who haven’t been before.”