My foundation in bodywork is in personal training—strength, cardiovascular fitness, alignment, and flexibility. Over the course of the more than 15 years that I have been working as a personal trainer, however, I have moved far beyond the standard regimens of physical fitness to incorporate varied modalities into my personal training work.
In my experience, people’s fitness goals are usually contextual and shift as we begin to work together. It’s important to acknowledge goals and keep them in mind, but after a period of time, stated goals are often not a person’s real motivators. If person wants to lose 20 pounds, for example, I approach it in a more holistic way. Why has it been hard to lose that weight? How is the person’s overall health? You can train muscle and work structurally, but if the emotions and the mind aren’t engaged and willing to change, nothing will change. You cannot separate the training of the muscular-skeletal body from a person’s longings, experiences, and deeper layers.
As we age, we need strength and flexibility. Alignment and balance are crucial, so I focus on those aspects as we work together. In many gyms, exercises are conducted in cookie-cutter fashion, causing injury, because not every exercise is good for each person. Without harnessing the body’s natural alignment, it’s easy to form bad habits. I am also attentive to breath and fluidity, which are other modes of alignment. Lack of alignment generally serves to compensate for weak areas. By using principles of alignment, we allow what’s weak to come to surface and be strengthened.
I feel honored to have worked with clients who are coping with serious illnesses such as cancer, recovering from injuries or surgery, or just starting to exercise after a long period of sedentary inactivity. My multiple areas of training, physical rehabilitation work, and empathy allow me to help individuals who might otherwise feel uncomfortable or nervous about walking into a gym and working with a standard-issue personal trainer.
I train clients in their homes, outdoors, and at a private studio in Santa Monica. I like to start sessions with a check-in to see what you are experiencing on that particular day. This determines our warm-up using breath, sound and active stretching/lengthening to prepare the tissues and the body for the main part of the session. Depending on the client, the session can include yoga, meditation, and fitness. I keep sessions diverse and interesting and avoid repetition. Each training session ends with stretching/lengthening.