Get fit with your family and Olympic swimmer Felicity Lemke

Posted on 16 August, 2019

Thanks to an ACT Government Participation Innovation Fund grant, Galvanized Fitness will offer a dedicated 10-week program for parents and their kids.

As the owner of Watson gym Galvanized Fitness, Felicity Lemke knows a thing or two about working out.

For a start, she competed at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games under her maiden name, Galvez, winning two gold medals as part of the women’s aquatic relay team.

Felicity moved to Canberra from Sydney after her first Olympic Games to take up a scholarship at the AIS. At the time, she was only 19-years-old and had never lived away from her parents; however, she quickly fell in love with the city and its people.

“I now call Canberra my home, I have two beautiful girls aged four and six and I cannot imagine living anywhere else,” she says. “Canberra is such a great place to live, with so many opportunities.”

The idea to found her own gym came to Felicity after she had retired from professional swimming and started her family.

“I gained 30 kilograms during pregnancy. It was hard work to get back into physical activity and return to feeling fit, healthy and strong while having a young family.

“When I achieved that, I realised I could do the same for others. I wanted to start something new to build an even bigger community of people achieving positive health goals.”

This year, she applied for a grant from the ACT Government’s Participation Innovation Fund to help her offer even more support to local families through a program called FUNctional Families.

“I decided to apply because I am so passionate about creating environments where everyone feels comfortable to engage in physical activity.

“FUNctional Families provides parents with the opportunity to model positive behaviors for their kids, and the kids grow up seeing their parents practicing healthy habits and making them part of their normal life structure.”

The program seeks to address some of the major barriers for families when it comes to engaging in physical activity. It offers 10 weeks of low-cost 45-minute classes for parents and their kids, which are modifiable for different fitness levels.

Felicity’s aim is to engage people who haven’t been active recently or who may be unable to exercise because they don’t have access to childcare. It also works around parents’ busy schedules, with classes in the afternoon and on weekends.

“There is nothing nicer than parents and their children having some common interests that spark conversations.”

With this new venture, Felicity is able to combine her two passions: fitness and her family. Since she retrained as a personal trainer, she has risen to the challenge of helping others achieve their goals, no matter how big or small.

“Having been coached by so many amazing people over the years, I have learnt a lot about what motivated me and what might motivate others. This has guided me on the best ways to communicate with people across different ways of learning and approaching physical activity.”

To coincide with the first birthday of Galvanized Fitness, Felicity and her team are encouraging families to join them on Saturday 7 September to find out more about the gym and FUNctional Families. You can drop by for a coffee, a healthy breakfast and to try some activities between 9 am and 12 pm.

the essentials  

What: FUNctional Families
When: From 7 September
Where: Galvanized Fitness, 49 Phillip Avenue, Watson
How much: $5 per child, parents free
More info: galvanizedfitness.com.au