How long have you been teaching Pilates/Yoga? Pilates 4.5 years, Yin Yoga certified for 8 months
What is your favorite exercise to teach? My favorite Pilates exercise to teach is too hard to answer so I’ll go with the Short Box series on the reformer. I like how this series teaches different body shapes and helps people understand the Pilates mat work. I call it the “everything series” – and I love helping people understand it and hopefully learn to love it as much as I do.
What made you decide to teach Pilates? When I started Pilates Mat Teacher Training, I wasn’t sure if I was doing it for me, to take a deeper dive, or if I would actually teach. Once I got started practice teaching and had practice clients feeling better, having fun, and understanding the work – I was hooked! I signed up for intermediate Reformer training and kept on going until I had completed the full trainings.
Give us some info about you! Where did you grow up? What brought you to the Iowa City/North Liberty area? I grew up on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities and visited the Ped Mall downtown Iowa City with friends during high school, so I was familiar with the city to a point.
I was a three sport athlete growing up and through college. I originally started college in the athletic training program, but took a class in genetics and immunology and switched over to Biology. When I graduated college with a Biology degree, I was looking for anything in the Sciences. I saw an ad in the newspaper for a biotech company in Coralville looking for scientists to manufacturing DNA. I sent off my resume (via snail mail), interviewed, and took the job. I lived with a couple friends of my brother in North Liberty until my husband moved out here. I’ve been at that company since 2001.
Give us one fun fact about you! What is something about you that might surprise your students? I am a huge fan of classical music and I love when common songs are redone as classical. I started listening to classical music when I was about 12 (6th grade).
I have been listening to the same Hauser album “Classic” on repeat while I fall asleep for months nows. It’s consistent and soothing.
I love writing and editing work instructions (standard operating procedures). I love creating trainings and manuals, too. I have been a trainer in biotech for over 20 years and I have always loved finding out how people learn best and then tailoring training to them. I believe everyone learns in a different way and we need to make adjustments to help people learn the way they can best absorb the material. I use a visual, auditory, reading, and tactile method to support learning experiences.
I believe this prepared me to help my autistic child.
Any hobbies? Besides Pilates and Yin Yoga. I love drinking coffee and READING. I love Star Wars – all of it. We’ll pop it on while we are doing other things and have it playing in the background. Getting tattooed? Is this a hobby? LOL. I have 10 tattoos and have tattooed over 18 times. I love tattoos!
