Featured photo: Marquita Adams pictured with salsa instructor Ibis Fernandez at Latinx Technology Center
Written by Tanya Terry
The personal fitness journey for Marquita Adams, fitness coach and founder of Harambee Wellness, started in 2008-2009. She fell in love with fitness and decided to become an instructor, with encouragement from one of her own Zumba instructors.
Fast forward and Adams became a fitness instructor in 2011, and started Harambee Wellness in January 2017.
“I have a passion for helping other people fall in love with fitness itself,” she explained.
Adams started Harambee Wellness specifically because she wanted to cultivate a community of people working together for their health goals.
“At the end of the day it takes community to help support that,” she said.
Harambee means “all pull together” in Swahili.
“I couldn’t think of a better way to describe what Harambee Wellness is all about.”
Adams offers “fitness parties” at least once a quarter.
“It’s a whole environment of music and instructors. The whole vibe is different because it challenges you to step outside your comfort zone. But you leave the experience feeling motivated.”
Adams’ group fitness classes are being offered on a rolling basis. Even in her boot camp class, she believes in pushing participants to do what they are capable of, without yelling at them.
Adams also started doing live cooking demonstrations in 2019 on Facebook Live from her kitchen at home. Since then, she has been invited to go into various businesses and organizations to do cooking demonstrations. The purpose of the cooking demos is to show how simple it is to prepare healthy foods.
Through Harambee, Adams also offers corporate wellness and consulting. Through these services, she works with different businesses and organizations to develop fitness programs for their staff, students or groups.
Adams has held a physical activity event for children and families at Coolidge Park Gymnasium. She held her free summer fitness series at various outdoor locations throughout the city of Flint, including Civic Park Centennial Pavilion, Sarvis Park and Brennan Park.
“My goal is always to create an opportunity for a person to learn lifestyle habits, rather than just develop workout routines or just providing a meal plan. My hope for Flint residents in 2022 is that the barriers to exercise are further reduced. I try to do my part through Harambee Wellness in reducing barriers to exercise by providing free fitness programming throughout the summer. Hopefully, we’ll be able to expand it even further to different parts of the city because I really just want to see people be healthy, feel comfortable in their bodies and have an opportunity to live their best lives.”
For details, visit harambeewellness.com
