My inspiration for Bounce Bébé stems in part from the time my husband and I spent living on the Upper West Side of New York City, aka Baby Central.  I decided to take my Personal Training to another level and in a different direction: a workout geared towards mothers with their toddlers.  I immediately set out to obtain advanced certifications in youth training.  Almost as soon as I completed these certifications, my husband and I found out that we were going to have a child of our own.  Then another big change, we were moving to Hawaii.

 After Cruz's birth…Okay, I want my body back.  Please put everything back where it was before my baby, and now!   As soon as I could, I began power walking and toning exercises.  I saw results, but I wanted and needed more.   I knew there were other moms out there that wanted the same thing I did.  Now that I had my own baby, I realized I would have to alter my original idea of a mommy and toddler class and create a class that I could do with my son.  

One morning, while calming Cruz in one of his favorite ways, gently bouncing on the fitness ball, it dawned on me, “This is it!!"  I would create a class using the ball to help myself and other mothers regain their core strength.  I made fliers and e-mailed as many moms as I could and soon the classes grew.   To lead a class  and to witness giggling, bouncing babies and their moms, who were finally able to get a great workout, it was a dream come true.  These classes were absolutely adorable and quite hilarious, really.   It just made sense.  Mom got to have an hour of intense core work with total body strengthening and her baby was a part of it all.  Brilliant!  Bounce Bébé was born.  The wonderful thing about using the exercise ball as a tool is that any fitness level can benefit from it.  The exercises can be for the beginner and the advanced.  With the ball, you get an amazing core workout, which is low-impact as well.  Bounce Bébé is a workout that gets right to the core, delivers fast results and is a healthy way to spend special time with your baby. 

Perry “P.K.” Longno has been a Personal Trainer for five years with the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).  She holds advanced certifications, through NASM, in pre-natal, youth and seniors.  She is also certified in Group Fitness through Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA).   P.K. has been teaching aerobics and dance classes for almost 20 years.