NEWBERRY — The women of Newberry have a new option when it comes to work outs — Females in Action (FiA) has made its way to Newberry to help make women stronger in every aspect of their lives.

FiA launched in January 2013 in Charlotte, N.C., and has spread to other towns and states. In South Carolina there are groups in the Lake Murray area, Summerville and Rock Hill, just to name a few. FiA has now made its way to Newberry, under the umbrella of the Lake Murray chapter.

Cayci Banks spearheaded the campaign to bring the workout group to Newberry.

“I have some friends that were in the Chapin group. I was like, I really wish that was in Newberry because my friends just raved about it. I had twin girls a couple of months ago, and I needed something to really push me to get motivated to really get back in shape after having twins,” Banks said.

The FiA groups in Chapin meet at 5:15 a.m., and Banks was not able to attend at that time coming from Newberry, so she decided to bring a group here.

“I just looked into it, what it would take to get one started here. We had to have interest of at least 20 women, so I had to get the names and email addresses of 20 women. Within literally 24 hours I had more than that, the interest is just more than I could have hoped for,” she said.

Banks got the word out through Facebook, she went to a Newberry Moms group and posted about FiA, that is where she got the initial 20 names.

“I thought, hey I am a mom who needs to lose baby weight, so maybe there are other moms who feel the same way,” Banks said.

Banks also needed some women from the Chapin group to come and lead the group for a couple of weeks. This way they can not only lead the group, but also teach the Newberry women how to lead a workout group themselves.

Within a week, Banks had everything she need to bring FiA to Newberry, and on Aug. 8 the first workout took place at Newberry College.

“Every workout so far has had 30 plus women. I have just been really excited about the turn out, I was thinking we would start out with a group of ten, and then we would build from there, but on day one we had over 30 people,” Banks said.

According to fianation.com, the purpose of these free workouts is to help women experience a physical and personal growth that radiates through the rest of their day, enabling them to be better daughters, sisters, employees, spouses, friends, bosses and mothers.

“The mission is to make women stronger in all aspects of their lives, we are obviously encouraging exercise and that kind of thing, but in the process we are also building confidence, building leaders and although we are not focused primarily on one faith, there is a faith component to our workouts,” Banks said. “At the end of the workout we will have a devotion, or pray for everybody for the rest of the day or week, so there is that component as well.”

The FiA workouts, which are boot camp style, are peer led. Banks said this is one way they are building leaders.

“None of us are experts, none of us are trained to be fitness instructors, but everyone is stepping up and taking part in the leadership of the organization. That is what makes it fun, every workout is different,” she said. “I know for me that is one thing I love about it. When you go to the gym, you get bored, it becomes this routine, and for me I get bored easily. So that does not keep me engaged, but this is different every time because it is being led by different women, and they all have different styles and different things they like to do.”

At first, the workouts were being lead by women from the Chapin group, but now women of Newberry have signed up and are leading workouts.

The FiA workouts are designed to be for all women, no matter their age, faith or fitness level. Banks said they have women who have not worked out in a decade, in their 60s and some who just graduated from college, and all of them have different strengths and abilities.

“Great thing about FiA, we adapt, listen to your body, listen to what you can do. If you cannot do that full push up, do the push up on your knees, if you cannot do push ups at all, just keep moving while we are doing push ups,” she said. “We really encourage each other, and encourage everyone to attend, we can make it fit for you, we can work with everyone.”

During the workouts FiA will use their surroundings. During the early morning workouts at Newberry College they will use the steps at Holland Hall, as well as the ledges at the fountain.

The group meets three times during the week, 45 minute workouts on Monday and Wednesday at 5:30 a.m. and an hour workout Saturday at 8 a.m. Banks said they chose those days and times so that they would not overlap with their brother organization F3.

“Another reason I was surprised to have that many women out there, I did not think that that many women would get up and moving that early, but for women it is the best time of day to workout,” Banks said. “Kids are still asleep, if you have kids, I am actually able to get home and shower before my kids are out of bed. For women, earlier workout time does work, and that is what I have seen so far.”

Another component of FiA are nicknames. When women first come to a workout they are called FNG (friendly new girl), and that same day they will receive a nickname.

“And they say after that, when you have a nickname, you are a part of FiA,” Banks said.

If you are interested in learning more about the Newberry FiA group you can find them on Facebook (FIA NEWBERRY).

FiA will meet at Newberry College three times a week for boot camp style workouts.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_DSC_8120_1.jpgFiA will meet at Newberry College three times a week for boot camp style workouts. Courtesy photos

The FiA workouts involve using your surroundings, which include running up the stairs at Holland Hall.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_DSC_8164.jpgThe FiA workouts involve using your surroundings, which include running up the stairs at Holland Hall. Courtesy photos

The Newberry FiA groups have had around 30 women for each early morning workout.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_DSC_8144.jpgThe Newberry FiA groups have had around 30 women for each early morning workout. Courtesy photos

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@civitasmedia.com