Abu Dhabi’s MiniFit makes physical fitness child’s play for kids

The company has designed fitness classes for kids to help them develop healthy habits from a young age.

Clare Farrell, right, leads the young participants in one of her MiniFit fitness classes. Courtesy Ollie Farrell

The children are on an adventure through the jungle, accompanied by their mums and a large doll called Sophia. They spot a snake and get down on their mats to do a cobra yoga pose. They look up to see the sun shining through the trees and perform a sun salutation together, followed by a tree pose.

The jungle antics are part of a story-time yoga fitness class taught by Clare Farrell, a Briton, through her company MiniFit UAE. It aims to get toddler’s hearts racing and their bodies moving, as well as firing up their imaginations.

The sessions are for kids from when they start walking to the age of four, and mums can join in too. “When the kids sees their mums doing it, it encourages them,” says 44-year-old Farrell. “It’s also a way to get mums back into exercise.”

Farrell taught in nurseries in Abu Dhabi for 14 years before setting up MiniFit a year ago.

“I noticed the lack of structured curriculum for physical education in nurseries,” she says. “I could also see the growing problem with childhood obesity and the need to educate young children, by getting them into healthy habits from a young age.”

Aided by three fellow fitness instructors, she now runs sessions for preschoolers in six nurseries around the capital – Sunny Meadows in Khalifa City and Al Rahyan; Teddy Bear American Nursery in Khalifa City and Al Bateen (where the sessions with mums also take place); Children’s House Montessori and Windsor Nursery, both in Khalifa City.

The nursery sessions follow a curriculum that Farrell created.

“First, we teach them how to warm up,” says Farrell. “Then there’s a sports skill they learn that changes every six weeks, which could be a ball skill, balancing, gymnastics, tumbling or dancing. Then we do some light cardio to music to raise their heart rate – songs that relate to healthy eating.

“If we’re balancing on a beam, we want them to lean down and pick up vegetables, and then we’re pretending to make a vegetable soup. We have a stretch and cool-down period at the end, as learning to wind down is really important as well as learning how to exercise.”

One of Farrell’s students is four-year-old Emirati, Amna.

“She gets very excited about the classes,” says her mother, Moza Al Marzouki.

“It’s very good to for her to start exercising when she’s young, to give her a healthy body and help develop her character and self-confidence.”

Maintaining an active lifestyle is second nature to triathlete Farrell, who finished first in this year’s Tri Yas and third in the Dubai Ironman.

“I’ve always incorporated fitness into our lifestyle as a family, too,” she says. “My 20-year-old daughter does yoga, my 21-year-old son is a water sports instructor, and my 11 and 9 year olds love to join in when I’m practicing my classes at home.”

Clare Farrell’s tips for getting the kids active at home when it’s too hot to play outside:

Turn your lounge into an obstacle course

Get the kids to crawl under a row of chairs, jump into and out of a hula- hoop five times and throw a beanbag into a laundry basket.

Try keeping a balloon off the floor using a fly swat (or your hands)

You can make up some passing and catching games to go with it, such as bouncing the balloon using only your legs.

Home-made bowling

Set up a pyramid of plastic cups, then bowl a ball at it and take great delight in watching the cups come crashing down.

The details

‘MiniFit with Mummy’ sessions cost Dh50 and start next week at Teddy Bear American Nursery’s Khalifa City branch on Mondays and at Al Bateen branch on Wednesdays:

• 9am: MiniFit Munchkins (walking age to two years)

• 9.30am: MiniFit Movers (two to three years)

• 10am: MiniFit Storytime Yoga, for walking age to three years.

• After each 30-minute session, there is 30 minutes of soft play.

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• Contact the other venues for details of their sessions