Fitness Through Life Transitions: Finding Community Support in Women's Fitness
From time to time, we all find ourselves in new stages of life. For me, I was out of grad school, married, working a professional job, and suddenly realized my friends had all slowly moved out of town. Social events and opportunities for new friendship were dwindling, and I realized things were changing. I often thought “I wish I had someone to hang out with”. As an avid outdoors woman at the time, I regularly went to the gym, ran outside, and hiked and backpacked with my husband. I went through an extensive training period to prepare for a climb on my first 14’er (short for a class of mountains at least 14,000 feet in elevation) in Colorado, and when I returned home, I thought “What’s next? How do I mix up my fitness routine?” I found an event listing on Facebook for this group called “FiA- Females in Action”. They met early in the morning in downtown Johnson City, TN hosting outdoor workouts led by individual volunteer women; perfect for my work schedule and location. I sent a message inquiring about time/location and got a prompt response. When I pulled up to the line of cars along Commerce Street the next morning, it was dark and a little spooky, but I remained cautiously optimistic that these weren’t just crazy people waiting to kidnap me. Just before 5:30am women started getting out of their vehicles and grabbing dumbbells and mats, smiling and chatting, and I got out of my car and joined them. It’s now been over 4 years, and I keep showing up to meet with this group of women early in the morning for workouts. But this isn’t about me, this just explains how I wound up becoming a leader of this amazing tribe of women- FiA is not about any individual woman. It is about all of us.
FiA and FytFeed: Challenging Women to be Their Personal Best
FiA: More Than Just a Workout Group
You see, FiA is more than a workout (a classic FiA tagline). At FiA, we are a workout group, but we turn into close friends. We are women from all stages of life, with different fitness levels and goals, but we are all equals. Every woman gets a unique nickname which acknowledges her unique characteristics. We consistently show up not only for ourselves, but for each other. The commitment of these workouts, in all seasons of life and changes of weather, reminds us that we are never alone; it reminds us that we can do hard things; it reminds us that we are stronger as a group; we are truly better together (another famous FiA tagline).
The History of FiA and its Growth
Females in Action (FiA) was started 10 years ago by a small group of women in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their husbands were involved in a group called F3, and these women were inspired to form their own community of women who would get together for workouts, socials, and community philanthropy. FiA Nation, as it is now known, is made up of 95 regions in 26 states, and 2 countries (the US and UK). Each week there are over 550 free workouts. Our local region, FiA Northeast Tennessee, was the first region founded in our state and has been involved in the launch of the other 4 regions in Tennessee, and most recently Waynesville, North Carolina. We will celebrate our 6th “Fiaversary” in August 2023.
As our region has grown and evolved, we have developed and participated in a variety of fitness related challenges and events including our own fitness tests, 30-day challenges, New Year goals challenges, local relay races and obstacle races (hello, Goliath at the Gorge!), and more. Our challenges have been a staple in keeping us motivated and making things fun.
FytFeed App: Enhancing FiA Challenges and Community Support
We most recently have been utilizing FytFeed as a means to increase engagement, competition, and community. We love that we can keep our challenges private so that we feel comfortable sharing individual fitness data, or we can share publicly if we choose. Recently, we’ve been able to combine both using public fitness challenges with an access code. Sharing pictures and stats is a fun way to keep competition going. We also love the opportunity to use our FiA nicknames and spread some awareness of our group.
We are always interested in sharing our mission: forming a community of women dedicated to making each other stronger in all areas of our lives through activities that include bodies, minds, and hearts. The FytFeed app and its mission of forming supportive communities and fitness motivation perfectly fits with our mission, and it has been an awesome tool for us to incorporate into our challenges. The FytFeed app is user friendly, and the app developers have been a pleasure to work with as we have built our custom global challenge. We look forward to our continued relationship with FytFeed, continued growth in our local community, and growth within our FiA region.
Take Your Next Step In Women's Fitness!
- Join us for a unique fitness experience that will not only challenge your physical abilities, but also uplift your spirits and foster lifelong friendships. See links below!
- Take the first step towards becoming your strongest self and join FiA today.
- Download the FytFeed app and start participating in our fitness challenges to become a part of our supportive community.
If you’re interesting in running your own challenges on FytFeed, email hello@fytfeed.com today for a free demo and consultation with no obligation!
For more info on FiA NeTN, check out their website! www.fianetn.com
Huge thanks to “Summit”, FiA NeTN regional leader, AkA Holly Dockery, who wrote this blog!