Stephen Dunn:
All right. All right, hey guys, what’s up, it’s Stephen Dunn with CORE Therapy & Pilates. Today I want to introduce everyone to Liz. Liz is our new Pilates apprentice, and has working with us one day a week the last couple months now, maybe two months, three months, six months?
Liz:
It’s been what, six?
Stephen Dunn:
Six months.
Liz:
Yeah.
Stephen Dunn:
Okay, one day a week, maybe two days a week?
Liz:
I’ve been, yeah two days a week, Tuesdays and Saturdays.
Stephen Dunn:
Perfect. Yeah, and coming up real soon, in the next few weeks, she going to be available for more hours, and as she’s now transitioning from her old job into her new job. So I’ll let her talk about it a little bit more about that in a moment. But with that said, I just wanted to introduce Liz to everyone, because everyone wants to know who’s the new person around the studio? But with that I also wanted to to just do a little, let Liz tell her story and tell people the why she’s a Pilates instructor and the how it became to be. So with that said, thanks for hopping on with me, Liz.
Liz:
Absolutely.
Stephen Dunn:
And give me first of all your … how did you first ever even hear about Pilates, or the word Pilates become on your radar?
Liz:
Well I went to see my doctor for back pain that I’ve been experiencing since I was a teenager, and she referred me to you all. So I came to see Julia, who used to work here, and did physical therapy with her. That’s how I was introduced to Pilates.
Stephen Dunn:
Through physical therapy. I love it. I love it. And so by going into the doctor, asking specifically how to manage back pain, or help her back pain, and some other solutions besides medications or surgical interventions, the Pilates was an alternative solution, we’ll say. Now, with that said, you were exposed to Pilates through your physical therapy. How did that lead to you becoming, to doing Pilates for fitness and then wanting to become a Pilates instructor?
Liz:
Yeah, so it took me a while to really get on board with doing Pilates regularly enough that I actually …
Stephen Dunn:
Saw the benefits.
Liz:
… saw the benefits, about the effects of it, so I started just little by little, layering in, just an intro to Pilates, and started coming probably once a week to class. Then doing privates and I had a retail job, so I was on my feet a lot. It’s really hard when you are coming and getting help, but not super regularly and then you’re going back and doing that thing that irritates your back. Whatever issue it is that you’re having, so it took me a while to realize every time I went back to work I was undoing all this great work that I’ve done. In my head, I started to think, I feel like the only way I’m really going to make this a really big important part of my life in the way that I think it needs to be for me to feel better, I want to go through the training. So that’s how I got there.
Stephen Dunn:
Got it. I love it. And that’s a very common story for someone to become a Pilates instructor because of their experience of how it helped them along the journey, whether it’s managing pain, whether it’s improving performance with sports, or whatever it is, people find Pilates for many, many different reasons. That’s what I wanted to share, is that every instructor that works with us, every instructor across the entire country and world that teaches Pilates, they go into it for a different reason. Some for their own personal gains, and some to serve others. It’s one of those things that the people that find it for the right reasons and then become trainers, those are really the really great trainers because they’re coming from the right place and they relate to the clients that they’re serving. With that said, what was the Pilates certification experience like, going through the process to get certified?
Liz:
It was awesome. Cheryl’s an incredible teacher, and it was … there are ups and downs, I felt a lot of different things in my body, sometimes not great things, but being in that routine so consistently, being able to see how cumulatively you start to feel better.
Stephen Dunn:
Compound interest.
Liz:
Yeah, and so it was a great experience. I’m kind of jealous of everyone that’s going through it right now. Watching class, and I’m like, “I want to go through that again.”
Stephen Dunn:
That’s awesome.
Liz:
But it was great too, because you’re in this group setting with other people who … everyone who I trained with was coming to it from a similar place. They’ve had such a benefit and relief in their own body doing Pilates, that they wanted to come and learn and then be able to teach people like us …
Stephen Dunn:
Share with others.
Liz:
Yeah, and everybody came with a different experience. So everybody had a different story. There was some overlap in maybe structural things that we’re dealing with in our bodies, but it was really cool to be able to learn from everyone else as well.
Stephen Dunn:
And that’s was this is about. She’s sharing her story because we all have a different story to get to what we do and why we do it. But I want to say something real quick. We were working, she was laying on my table a couple years ago, and she was complaining about standing on the job, and you may not remember this story, and she’s telling me about how she really wants to leave her field. And I could tell with the way she was saying it, that she was really interested in the Pilates program that we had, and the stuff that she had learned with working with our Pilates trainers and with PT and Pilates, and I could just tell and I just told, her, I said, “Well, you’re going to go through our training, and you’re going to work for us one day.” And she looked at me like I was crazy, but I think she was thinking it, but she wouldn’t really, hadn’t put it to words yet, and I just threw it out there.
Stephen Dunn:
Then once she told me about her job, the more I realized it’s like, “You actually have a really good job. You have a great culture, you have … there’s so much positive about where you work, except you stand up and it bothers your back.” I was like, “It might take you a little while for it to happen, but you will end up going through the training and working with us.” I guess it was probably about maybe a year and a half, two years before she went to the training, and so whenever she ended up signing up to do it, I was like, “Yeah, I had a good feeling that day, and it was a correct feeling.” But I love when it all works out. And now again, when it’s all said and done, she’s still got a little more time with being an apprentice, probably some more observation hours, and some teaching hours, before she’s fully certified, but now her journey is starting to streamline a little bit.
Stephen Dunn:
There’s a new vision and then you go with leaving the job that she’s had for years, which I think she really liked, but it did bother her back and it became a scenario that wasn’t good for her back. And now she’s going to be able to share her story with every person that comes in as our client, to CORE, on how she can help them with whatever their story is that led them to Pilates in the first place. So with that said, you got anything else to add?
Liz:
No, I’m really looking forward to meeting more of the clients that are here and teaching on Tuesday mornings and Saturdays, and now on Thursdays as well.
Stephen Dunn:
So we’ll be having some more hours for you real soon, right?
Liz:
Yeah, yeah. So it’s been great to be here and it’s been an awesome dream. I’m just ready to start working with people, helping.
Stephen Dunn:
Start sharing. And we’re grateful to have her and again, we would rather have a handful of trainers who are coming in to this world for the right reasons than the trainers who are doing it because it’s a trendy thing to do and it’s a booming business. Yeah, those are great, but if you’re coming from the right space in your heart, it becomes very easy to do this work. So with that said, thanks for sharing your story today, and thanks for hopping on …
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