What inspired you to become a personal trainer and fitness instructor?
Since the age of three, I was always in dance and did competitive dance up until I graduated high school. I went onto college and majored in dance where my main focus was ballet, contemporary, and jazz. After college, I became a dance instructor at a studio in Charlotte and also did some performing and commercials. When I had my daughter, I couldn’t do all the travel that performing required, so I became a dance instructor full-time.
Before Barre became huge, the owner of the studio and I developed our own Barre fitness program which eventually landed me in an aerial fitness studio and I fell in love with that too. Eventually, I became a Ballet Director at another studio training competitive dancers but my interest in fitness grew so I continued doing aerial fitness and became TRX, Barre, and Aerial certified. Since then, my aerial workouts evolved into something similar to TRX, it is very much along the lines of barre and yoga but with more cardio.
What brought you to St. Augustine?
Living in Charlotte my whole life, I always wanted to live in Florida. I love the warmer weather and wanted to be near the beach. I had traveled up and down the coast for years and had vacationed in St. Augustine many times so I decided to make it my home. I thought this area was the perfect place to open up a business and my goal was to open up an Aerial Fitness Studio with my friend and business partner. After finding a space in Ponte Vedra that could accommodate the aerial silks, planning the build out, and hiring contractors we realized it would be much more expensive than anticipated. My partner had two studios in Charlotte and having just opened the second studio it would have been too much of a strain. We are still great friends and I think it worked out for the best because as much as I love Aerial Fitness, I now realize that I enjoy a variety of workouts and would rather have a space that I could do it all in.
Where do you teach in St. Augustine?
I’m currently teaching at Anytime Fitness by the Shores. I’ve been there a little over a year now and it’s been great. I do personal training, small group training, and fitness classes…so a little bit of everything.
Do you offer personal training outside of Anytime Fitness?
I do, but the great thing is, I don’t have to. You don’t have to be a member at Anytime Fitness to come to my personal training sessions. I can bring anyone in, I can hang my silks and do aerial fitness, or 1 on 1 TRX training. Anytime Fitness and the location allows me great flexibility depending on what my client wants to do.
Right now I’m huge into functional or interval training. Working with kettle balls, medicine balls, the kind of explosive training that will get your heart rate up. I’m obsessed with “My Zone” a heart rate monitor that you wear to ensure you are training in your target heart rate zone so you can burn fat. It ties to an app on your phone or at Anytime Fitness it’ll pop up on a screen on the wall. It becomes a game where you score points every time you are in your target zone. You can set a goal for the month, you can connect with other people, it gives you accountability, and the best part is, it’s a huge motivator.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not working out?
I have an eleven-year-old daughter so I spend a lot of time with her. Since I was a dance instructor and she’s a dancer, we dance a lot. We also go to Disney twice a month, we have an annual pass and love it. Other than that I am a beach bum, I love walking my dog, a Great Pyrenese, walking the beach, and just being by the ocean.
What are your plans for your business?
I would like to start doing fitness events in the community. We did events like this in Charlotte and they had a huge following. These events are fun and it brings people together and I really think it would take off here because it is a growing city.
I always thought I would like to have my own space but I’m up in the air, I may start working on an online training program that I can offer to a larger audience instead, so stay tuned!
