When enrolling in my free trial class at My Gym in Exton, I thought, "how much different from Gymboree can it be?" The answer: COMPLETELY different.
The set up of My Gym looks like an actual gym, but miniaturized. There are padded floor mats, miniture basketball nets with tiny basketballs, a balance beam, slides, a trampoline, ladders to climb and even a rock wall. Not that I expected my baby to do a spiderman routine...at least I hoped that wasn't on the agenda. I can't imagine another toddler belaying with their short attention spans. My Gym impressed me with its dedication to being a gym and not just a romper room for babies. They appeared serious about fitness.
We started the class with the usual circle time but instead of just silly songs, there were actual stretches for the baby. The gym instructor taught us how to flip our babies in the air, and we had the babies walking and jumping too. It was very labor intensive.
After circle time, the gym instructor created an obstacle course of tunnels, spring boards, padded stairs, ramps, and balance beams for the babies to explore. This was again, a lot of activity for the baby, but she made it around the circuit twice.
I was expecting this to be it, but then the instructor brought out a long knotted rope attached to the ceiling for babies to swing from like Tarzan. I honestly couldn't believe any 9 month old would be capable of doing this. Heck, I could never climb a rope in gym class myself, but some babies actually did it! I was more than a little impressed.
The next activity was practicing handstands while grasping these push-up bars. My daughter really loved this and flexed her biceps and triceps while upside down and impressed the hell out of the instructor. That's our girl!
As if this wasn't enough, The instructors then brought out six swings and connected them to chains extending from the ceiling (I had wondered what the chains were about, but seeing that they looked like the set from a horror movie, I didn't have the nerve to ask). Babies got into the swings and had a blast!
Finally, after an hour of activity, it was circle time again. They sang songs and played with a puppet, but we left early. Our child was exhausted. Ifyou have a kid that won't nap...I strongly suggest My Gym therapy. We were n the Tiny Tikes class (if you click on the link, you can see a video...but it doesn't do the class justice.)
Now the bad part: the price. If you go to their Fall Enrollment Night, they'll waive the $75 Lifetime New Member fee and get $10 off the first month of classes. I'm not sure if it's $72 per class...I hope not, I'll have to get back to you on that. The website isn't the clearest about the price, and I didn't stick around to get the sales pitch. However, even if it's that expensive, you do get your money's worth!
I'm going to check out Gymboree in Collegeville to see what they have to offer next. Until then, happy exercising!
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