Mother’s Day ‘sweat factory’

It’s shortly after 6am and one by one, women are trekking in at least, in twos or threes.

Clad in fancy, colourful but different outfits, most of them are carrying bottles of water as they head towards one direction.

It’s Mother’s Day holiday in Malawi and for some women, it’s the best moment to start the day with special treats from their spouses, kids or loved ones.

But for these 100 plus ladies, it was a bit extraordinary way to start such a day; it’s time to sweat it out.

So, part of the Bingu National Stadium was turned into an aerobics space loaded with women in their comfortable outfits that resonated with the rising golden sun.

By 06:45am, the place is on fire; hordes of women have converged at one place with one goal; sweat it out until you can’t anymore. After all there’s no sweet without sweat.

From jumping Jack’s, skipping without a rope, to squat jump, split jump, alternating knee lift among others, the women worked really hard throughout the session.

Following their trainers; Tamara Chafunya, Mariam Matola and Mike Gelson, the ladies took the routines seriously with some of course struggling while others it was with so much ease.

What made the workout more interesting and fun was the accompanying high tempo music.

From a far, one would mistake the aerobics with a party or some entertainment event as the music was just so good, that even some women could not resist it but throw in a few dance moves.

It was visible from the onset that the women for once, forgot about the everyday struggles that come with motherhood, plus juggling it with career or business.

It was a session where they just soaked in the moment with little or no care at all about the next person, even what lies ahead after everything.

Organised by the Sweat Factory Fitness Studio, the aerobics ended with some ladies walking away with different prizes for winning challenges.

At the end of the two hour session, Matola who runs the studio hailed the ladies for being awesome.

“This is good and I hope it encourages you ladies on your fitness journey,” she said.

MBC journalist Mirriam Kaliza said “the session was good as it was one of the ways of unwinding.”

As one by one or in groups the ladies walked out of the venue, one thing was for sure, it was a Mother’s Day sweat factory session.