By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Upper West Side moms got a taste of boot camp Monday, and slackers weren't invited to the party.
Strollercize, an exercise class where new moms workout while pushing their baby in a stroller, launched a new series of Upper West Side classes that will take off from the Giggle store on Amsterdam Avenue and 76th Street.
Strollercize inventor Elizabeth Trindade greeted new students at the store, then put about 20 moms through their paces, leading them on a 45-minute "roll" through Central Park that included stops for push-ups, tricep dips and squats.
This is not your mother's mommy and me group, Trindade said. "It's not moms sitting around and talking, it's me training them for motherhood, the toughest assignment of them all," Trindade said.
It's clear Trindade, a 53-year-old retired dancer and mother of three, takes her job seriously. She zips alongside her students on a scooter, barking instructions such as, "Point your toes like you're wearing six-inch stilettos."
She also doles out advice, such as the right way to cross a busy intersection with a stroller. "Put your body in front of the traffic, so they hit you first, mama," Trindade shouts at her students as they barrel across 74th Street on their way to Central Park.
Student Mindy Schwartz, the mother of 7-week-old Zac, described the class as "exhausting."
"I almost cried in the first class," Schwartz said. "In the sit-up part I thought my stomach was going to come out of my body."
For tourists and on-lookers in Central Park, the class provided some comic relief. More than a few stopped to gawk and snap photos at the parade of stroller-pushing moms pausing to kick their legs high in the air.
"I love the looks we get," Schwartz said. "People are like, what the hell?"
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