Allison Dessert warms up while son Peter, 2, watches from the comfort of his stroller early Monday in Watson Park. She and other mothers gather for Stroller Burn, a 55-minute workout in which children can be included.

Kelly Valvuena and her son Kaden, 19 months, along with Amy Shumaker and son Cole, 2, work out one of several routines during a Stroller Burn session.

Mothers with children in tow work out at Watson Park, Seventh and Kentucky streets.

Getting fit is often a top priority on a new mother’s to-do list, but it’s not quite as high as bonding time with her children.

Lawrence mom of two Shannan Seely sums it up nicely: “It’s not that you don’t want to be active, it’s that your full-time job is your children.”

That’s why Sara Kapfer-Dicker wants moms to use their children to feel the burn – the Stroller Burn.

Kapfer-Dicker started Stroller Burn, a new 55-minute workout class that lets mothers use their own children as resistance, just after Easter as a way for moms to get fit without sending their kids to daycare.

“I actually work out with a double stroller because I have two little kids,” Kapfer-Dicker says. “Moms, dads, grandparents, nannies, you know, anybody who wants to get some exercise, even expecting mothers (are welcome). I have all kinds of options and variations on all of the exercises we do so that I can make them accommodate all fitness levels.”

In four classes per week at various parks in the Lawrence area, Kapfer-Dicker leads moms in a workout that includes power-walking, skipping, jumping jacks and walking lunges with a stroller as added weight, as well as stops at strength stations where the women use exercise bands and park benches to do resistance moves.

“Some days you work legs, some days you’ll work arms, some days you’ll do a little of both,” says frequent attendee Erin Kidd of Lawrence.

Kidd encouraged Kapfer-Dicker, a fitness instructor at Body Boutique Women’s Fitness & Spa at 2330 Yale Road, to start a stroller-based class after attending a similar class with the national chain Stroller Strides before moving to Lawrence.

The reason Kidd is so excited about the idea is that she says the stroller workout classes she was a part of was a big help in adjusting to life as a mother.

“I had never been a mom before and for the first time in my life I was faced with staying home and I had always worked and that was a shock to my system,” Kidd says. “So that’s exactly what it was – it was getting out of the house and getting to talk with other moms and the support of other moms.”

For Seely, the convenience of having a mom-friendly workout already planned is a major plus in her busy life.

“You can try to organize getting together, go on a stroller walk with your friends, but this way it’s just set, so when you go, you know there will be other people there,” Seely says.

Another mom with her reasons to get out is Alison Dessert of Eudora, who was still attending class on Monday at Buford M. Watson Jr. Park although due to give birth to her third child on Friday. Dessert, who is also a fitness instructor at Body Boutique, was out doing all the exercises with the other women, all the while pushing a double stroller and carrying nine-months worth of baby weight.

“This is a nice alternative,” Dessert says. “I still lift weights and do things at the gym, take classes, but this is so nice because it’s so conducive – walking around and toning some things.”

Kidd, for one, plans to keep going through the classes while pushing her daughter Lilly, 4.

“I just really hope she can succeed in this because I think it can be really beneficial for new moms especially in Lawrence,” Kidd says. “I just think it’s so neat and it’s a great town to have this in.”