Want to spend more time with your kids? BESTFIT SPEAKS to  @julianacamposlondon about ways you can stay fit and healthy together.

Juliana Campos has already established herself in the fitness industry for her unique, Brazilian inspired fitness programmes. She has worked with royalty as a personal trainer and fitness consultant and she has made waves across the world with her fitness flair. Her latest fitness venture is her highly popular mother and daughter training sessions.

Being a busy Mum herself, Juliana knows exactly how difficult it is to fit exercise into a hectic schedule. With the constant juggling of work and family/childcare commitments, sometimes it just isn’t possible to get to the gym or go for a run. Juliana wanted to solve this problem and also give mothers and daughters the opportunity to bond over a shared interest.

Juliana says: “Being healthy and looking after myself has been a big part of my life from an early age. It was important to me to be able to share my love and knowledge of exercise with my daughter and start her on her own journey with fitness. I would much rather be able to educate her sensibly on fitness and nutrition than for her to try and imitate celebrities who are not necessarily living healthy lifestyles.”

Training together

Her JCfitkids classes help to inspire children from a young age with a focus on having fun but also to instil a positive, healthy attitude towards managing your own fitness. Daughter Isabella loves the fun sessions that they do together. The sessions are inventive and children really enjoy themselves, doing things like being pushed along in a giant tyre! It is very playful and exciting, so it is a great way to start to understand the benefits of exercise.

When time is so limited in this busy world, being able to spend quality time with your children and fit in exercise can seem impossible. Juliana had experienced this problem herself but also had a lot of conversations about this with other mums.

“When I was at the school pick up or generally talking to mums, they would always say to me how they wish they could spare the time to workout. They would see me walk over in my fitness gear and complain how they just don’t have enough time in the day to even think about exercise. So I told them how I incorporate fitness into my time with my daughter. Some people look at me as if they think I just take her out for long runs but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I have tailored the fun fitness session around activities that Isabella loves doing, things she would go out and do with her friends. She is always asking when we can next fit in a session!”

These conversations with other mums led to Juliana exploring whether the mother and daughter sessions would be popular. The next time a busy mum complained about not having the time, Juliana invited them to take part in the sessions to see how much they would enjoy it.

Lack of time no longer an excuse

“Lots of mums spend hours each week taking their kids to swimming lessons, or gymnastics etc. and that is great if the kids enjoy that. However, it usually involves mums or dads sitting waiting around for hours every week. What if you could find an activity that keeps you both fit and you can do it together, no waiting around? For me it is the perfect solution to exercising when you live a busy life.”

Juliana’s workouts are energetic and lively; there are lots of smiles and laughter throughout the increasingly popular mother and daughter sessions. She says “It is
great for kids to be inspired by their mother to see how great exercise is when you are doing something that you really enjoy. As well as helping to manage weight, there are so many benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. If children can understand that from an early age they will carry it with them throughout their life.”

The Brazilian influence makes Juliana’s sessions quite unique and also brings a bit of Samba style and culture into the mix. Her workouts cleverly combine the use of your own body weight with resistance training, core strengthening and posture alignment. She also does dance classes with her daughter, for those mums and daughters who want to try something a bit different to the fitness sessions.

Juliana was an accomplished gymnast and swimmer as she was growing up and has also been practicing the martial art of Capoeira for many years. As if that wasn’t enough she is also a professional samba dancer! Juliana combines all of these skills and experience into her different fitness programmes
to provide a truly invigorating and fresh approach to fitness. Her mother and daughter sessions are her latest conquest in changing the fitness industry and helping more people to add enjoyable fitness routines into everyday life.

Images supplied by Alexis Prappas. Brazil images taken in Bonito.