When fitness instructor Morgan Gardner-Catanese made a video praising Detroit as her new home, the 34-year-old transplant never thought the sweet moment would go viral. “I recorded that so randomly,” she says. “And it’s funny because I spent all last year focusing on social media for my businesses, like doing all these tricks and trying to finesse the algorithm. [The video] was just 10 seconds of gratitude and being happy about where I am in the world.”
Morgan Gardner-Catanese first moved to Michigan in 2021 to take a job as a bartender on Mackinac Island. She then decided to explore Detroit, moving to the city in 2022.
In Detroit, she continued tending bar and focused on building her fitness business, The Alt Fit Experience. The rock music fan named her business after The Jimi Hendrix Experience in homage to one of her favorite musicians. When she created her classes, she added his music along with Lenny Kravitz, Rage Against the Machine, and more. “I love music. I married a drummer,” she says with a laugh, adding that she recently started taking bass guitar lessons and her husband Sean plays with a band called Leaving Lifted.
A native of Illinois, Gardner-Catanese moved with her family to Georgia when she was young after her father was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons. Despite coming from an athletic family, she struggled with her weight for years.
“I was very overweight,” she says, “To the point where the doctor told me, ‘If you don’t get your shit together, you’re gonna have Type 2 diabetes.’” She added that at the time, she had no health insurance, so she had to take her health in her own hands. “I found dance fitness videos on YouTube, and I started doing those, and it worked for me. Like, I dropped 50 pounds. It was great.”
Gardner-Catanese said that the weight loss was “part of a bigger transformation.” Through fitness classes, she realized that while she enjoyed moving her body, she quickly tired of hearing the same music. “I love Pitbull and The Black Eyed Peas as much as anybody, but there is so much other music that makes me want to move, that makes me feel good, helps me emote, and like, get shit out of my body,” she says.
She founded her fitness business nine years ago, and she gives others the same advice that she took for herself. “Just move your body, take a walk, pick up something, and put it down,” she says. “Like, it doesn’t even have to be a weight — it can be anything. Just start picking things up and putting them down.”
It’s the advice she gives me when we meet up for an interview and a mini-workout. Gardner-Catanese helps me warm up to “Them Changes” by Thundercat. The pace picks up with “Rich Girl” by Hall & Oates, and Gardner-Catanese promises that as soon as I start to hate her the workout will be over. I start to hate her about halfway through “Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine, which finds me headbanging in a way I never have. Finally, we cool down to “I Belong to You” by Lenny Kravitz.
As we cool off, I ask, “What would you say to readers who are intimidated by gym culture?”
“If you are nervous about a gym, look for alternatives,” she replies. “One thing about Detroit, there are so many independent fitness classes — including mine.”
We come back to talk about her viral video, which has garnered more than 80,000 views on her TikTok page and hundreds of shares and comments. In it, she espouses on the delightful benefits of living in Detroit. “This hot dog,” she says, flashing a coney dog, “and pot being legal is the reason the Universe relocated me to Detroit.” She adds, “You can talk shit about Detroit all you want to, the music scene is popping, we’ve got these, and pot is legal. That’s all I personally need. Mmkay?”
@thealtfitexperience #detroit #bye ♬ original sound - thealtfitexperience
The hilarious short video got tons of comments including some from other people who have recently relocated to the city. “2 years in Detroit and baby this is HOMEEEE!!,” wrote one. “I moved to Detroit a year ago and I love it here!” added another.
For those of us who are from here, it can seem surreal. Our city has had a diminishing population for more than half a century. Once a city of more than 2 million, according to the latest census, there are just over 600,000 of us remaining. In fact, according to new Census Bureau estimates, Detroit’s population grew in 2023, increasing to 633,218 from 631,366. The increase marks the first time since 1957 that more people are moving into the city than out of it.
As I prepare to head back out into a snowy Monday afternoon, I ask Gardner-Catanese why, during our workout, she encouraged me to release pent-up energy in my body and permit myself to even make noise as I breathe. “it opens the floodgates for all these other parts of your life where you’re not giving yourself permission, or maybe you’re not showing up the way you should,” she says. “Or, like, maybe you are being ashamed or shy or held back.” She notes that fitness can re-form the mind-body connection. “It’s never going to be the trainer or the workout that keeps you showing up for yourself,” she says. “It’s going to be like results and the energy that you have and how you feel. So I’m like, yell if you need to yell, like, breathe if you need to breathe. This is the safe space for that.”
You can find your safe space with Morgan Gardner-Catanese at 8 p.m. on Monday nights at Studio One in Madison Heights; 28780 John R Rd., Madison Heights; studiooneyogadance.com. You can also follow her at @thealtfitexperience on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
