Gym instructor fosters women’s workout space for women

Published 9:51 am Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Women often struggle with body shaming.

If a woman is too tall or muscular like the Williams sisters, voluptuous like Jennifer Lopez or full-figured like Adele, it easily leads to a lack of confidence.

Even Wyatt’s Gym instructor Crystal Moulder said she lacked confidence before dropping 80 pounds and teaching four classes a week, mostly to other women.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

For about an hour per class period, she provides a positive environment where women enjoy themselves free of shaming while being encouraged through song.

“It makes me feel great to be able to have that many women come and enjoy your class and have fun and feel good about themselves,” Moulder said. “I have so many people tell me all the time and tell me how much they love the class and how much it makes them feel better about themselves.”

Moulder’s classes have seen as many as 70 people, all enjoying themselves in a safe environment.

So much fun was had that women would get lost in the music and break off into their own solo dances or lean up against their neighbor during the hook of a song. One woman continued to dance out the door as she left the class early.

“It makes people have confidence and that’s a lot of the problem with a lot of women, they don’t have that confidence and self-esteem. It feels good to give them that in return because I didn’t at one time.”

Throughout her Tuesday circuit breaker class, women danced to contemporary hip-hop accompanied with routines.

The routines, Moulder said, help target problem areas women put emphasis on, opposed to the biceps, chest and back areas men are typically worried about.

When class ended, women gathered around and conversed about their lives and pop culture, which has been an ancillary benefit of her class.

“Everybody is so friendly,” she said. “A lot of the women feel like they don’t fit in anywhere, and they feel like they can come in there. There’s such a variety of people that they feel like they fit, like they don’t have to meet a certain criteria to come to they gym.”