‘They don’t feel like they’re doing it alone and so that team part has been really awesome’
Nearly every morning at 5:30 a.m. Tracey Gairns Brioux throws on her workout clothes and checks in with the world.
After spending many years sweating next to everybody else in the gym, the 37-year-old mother of four is working out in a different way — hosting a live, online 30-minute workout show for people to sweat it out in their own home.
“I’m not a morning person so that was super scary for me,” Gairns Brioux said about starting her online fitness business.
“But when I log on and then I see people joining me live it is so motivating to me.”
After 11 years teaching fitness classes, Gairns Brioux got the idea for the online class when she noticed that a lot of people (especially moms) didn’t have enough time in the day to get a workout in.
Staying home with kids is a big plus
This, combined with the birth of her fourth child, motivated her to fulfil her dream of working at home, creating her online business reset: breathe Fitness in September.
People who want to work out with Gairns Brioux pay a monthly fee of about $50 and have access to a private Facebook live video of the workout. They can either join in with her at 5:30 a.m. or save the workout for later.
There have been some challenges in hosting an online workout in her own home, however. Between power outages and lost connections “you never know what’s going to happen,” Gairns Brioux said.
In the end, getting to spend time with her four young children was one of the biggest motivations for Gairns Brioux to start the business.
And sometimes the two worlds meet as her children, now and again, wander in to help her finish her workout — something you just have to roll with, she said.
Since the business began, what’s surprised her most is the amount of solidarity and community among those in the fitness program.
“When people are done of their workouts they generally comment, sometimes they post a sweaty selfie,” Gairns Brioux said.
“I sort of underestimated the power of community and what that does for them. Even though they’re doing it on their own they don’t feel like they’re doing it alone and so that team part has been really awesome.”
She recently hosted her 100th class and is looking to grow her business so more people across Atlantic Canada can take part in the fitness class.
“The power of having the online community is that you’re kind of unlimited in how you can grow,” she said.
“I still kind of feel like I’m living a dream, to be able to do this.”
