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Date: 5/2/2023
LUDLOW — Movement Terrain opened its doors on March 10 in stockhouse 218 at the Ludlow Mills, 100 State St,, and owner Brian Miller said everything is going great so far.
Movement Terrain offers unique youth exercise classes that will challenge the kids through obstacle courses while they also build their confidence.
The company offers youth warrior classes for kids aged 6 to 8, 9 to 12, and teens.
Miller said, “The classes are a combination of training like the show American Ninja Warrior and parkour body movements.”
He added, “I love when, especially a new kid comes in and they see some of the obstacles they see on American Ninja Warrior. That is one of the things why we really wanted to make sure we have some obstacles there that are achievable so they don’t leave defeated.”
Children can expect to work on monkey bars, beams, ropes, rings, cargo nets, a warped wall, and many other obstacles, according to Miller.
There is also an outdoor obstacle course at Movement Terrain along with open gym sessions.
“The obstacle courses are a little more attainable for your average person signing up that has any sort of physical ability whereas American Ninja Warrior is real physical movement with a lot of grip strength and upper body eccentric,” Miller added.
Each session is seven weekly classes designed to build upon previous skills and focus on maximizing obstacle efficiency.
Movement Terrain also hosts multiple events including birthday parties, nerf wars where kids can run around the building with nerf guns or a parents’ night out event where kids and be dropped off the run around while the parents can enjoy the night off.
Parents’ night out will be on May 12 from 6 to 9 p.m.
“We listen to our customers. They want to be able to run around and play on the obstacles, they want to be able to a nerf war battle. We also have a large AstroTurf area where we set up games for them like dodgeball, relay races, tug of war. We feel like it is well rounded especially for a range of abilities to have a good time,” Miller said.
You can register for classes, open gym, events or birthday parties at movementterrain.com.
Classes are capped at 22 students, so Miller said to make sure to register early.
Miller said that Movement Terrain is a great place for children to get active while also gaining confidence from the classes.
“It is a little less competitive and demanding and is a little more fun. We do team building stuff. Their benefits are their strength, their agility and their love for being active so we keep that going for them. For a lot of kids that come to us, they haven’t found their place in team sports. As much as we have a group of kids in class, things are individual accomplishments and goals,” Miller said.
Miller added that at the end of each session, kids have the option to take a wristband skills assessment. He compared the system to the different color karate belts in martial arts but with wristbands.
When it comes to the goal of the gym, Miller hopes that kids have fun.
“At the end of the day, we think of success is that the kids had fun. We know they are working hard; we know they are learning techniques, we know they are gaining strength and flexibility and all these things but at the end of the day we want the kids to leave happy and excited to come back.” Miller added.
Movement Terrain was in Wilbraham for seven years before Miller decided it was time to move to a new location in Ludlow.
Right before the move, Miller decided it wanted to focus his full attention on youth programs. He used to offer CrossFit and adult classes at the Wilbraham location.
“We dropped both of those. The main reason was most of our clientele was kids and we wanted to really pick a focus and do that thing well instead of diluting what we do. I felt like I needed to pick a focus.”
Miller said he has always been involved in fitness and the idea of starting Movement Terrain came from attending an outdoor obstacle course race.
He said, “I never experienced such a team building, fun atmosphere. It was something that people really wanted to do that was a bit different. I am someone who seeks adventure instead of picking up a weight and putting it down. I started searching to see if there were any places around there that did obstacle course training at the time. It led me to develop and open Movement Terrain.”