By Ty Walker
The Mountain Times
As her slogan says, Mo Haddon wants to make the mountain community “A Bit Mo Fit.” For the past 10 years, Haddon has made it her business to help men, women and seniors get off the couch and into a more active lifestyle.
“Exercise is medicine for your body,” said Mo, a local personal trainer certified by the American College Of Sports Medicine. “People don’t realize how important it is. You do a lot of it when you’re little and it’s called play. But when you put the word workout next to it, it becomes a job.”
Mo instilled a strong exercise ethic in her own family. She moved with her family from New Jersey to Timberline Rim to raise her three sons in the fresh open air and the outdoors of the Pacific Northwest. She speaks proudly of her three grown sons as athletic and outdoorsy.
Mo worked at Timberline Lodge as a waitress for 25 years so her boys could enjoy the clean mountain air skiing down the slopes of Oregon’s tallest mountain. All three maintain active lifestyles, just like mom. Her oldest son grew up and joined the Army Special Forces, she calls her middle son “Mr. Outdoors,” and her youngest son holds a world record in skydiving.
When her last son started his senior year in high school, Mo faced a midlife crisis. With all her sons soon to be out of the house and on their own, she reached a turning point and didn’t know what direction to go.
So she decided to go back to school, at Portland Community College Sylvania campus, where she took a class called transitions, which guided her toward doing something related to her lifelong interest in fitness. She earned a degree in exercise science and became a personal trainer.
“People don’t realize how much exercise will save their lives mentally and physically,” Mo said.
Mo’s one-on-one personal training sessions are by appointment at clients’ houses or at her home studio in Timberline Rim. She also teaches fitness classes a couple times a week at the local senior center.
She uses a variety of weights, steps, medicine balls and stability balls to help clients with their balance. Mo has received positive feedback from customers who have improved their balance through her training techniques. Mo has prevented them from falling down hiking or stepping on rocks in the treacherous terrain of the mountain.
She said osteoporosis patients report having bone growth return to normal after training with her. “That’s inspiring,” Mo said. “That makes it all worthwhile.”
Mo said she sees about five to ten clients regularly, including one woman who has been training with her for a decade. A Bit Mo Fit has grown steadily over the years thanks in part to advertising in the local newspaper and word of mouth.
“I was working in a gym near Thriftway until COVID,” Mo said. “After COVID, people didn’t want to go back to the gym, so I decided to build a little studio in my garage. I had to do something.”
Working with seniors, Mo said her goal is to keep them from falling and to help them move up and down off the ground so they can play more easily with their grandchildren.
Mo is currently accepting new clients. For more information, call A Bit Mo Fit at 503-706-3537 or email mtmoknows@gmail.com.