My Essentrics® Journey
This photo was taken when I was first certified. I’d ordered some pre-choreographed workouts from head office to celebrate and step out of the first (and only) pre-cho an apprentice is allowed to teach. I was so proud of myself. That was 7 years ago. Wow!
As I’ve said before, I’m so happy to have this practice in my life. It’s become a part of me that I know I won’t be able to let go of. It helps me get through my day with ease, gives me courage to use my body in new and old ways (hello cartwheels!), and has made me steadily more in tune with my body.
I’ve wanted to write this post for some time to give you, the reader, a perspective on how my body and my life have changed with the help of this program. It can be daunting trying something new for the first time, or even deciding to commit to something, though I think that decision comes from an unspoken agreement between you and your body that you’ve found something that your body craves, needs, and can’t live without. For me, that thing is Essentrics, and I want to share my story with you.
WHY I STARTED PRACTICING
There are a lot of factors that come into play when we talk about movement - age, activity level, injury and limitation, and more. I want you to know, off the bat, that though I may have started practicing Essentrics partly for fun in my mid-late 20’s, I also knew my body was far too restricted, flexibility and stability-wise. I needed a gentle form of exercise that was going to improve my posture (I was hunched over at my desk too much and my back was always tight), give me energy (I was falling asleep at my desk after lunch), and improve upon my level of athleticism (I hadn’t yet started regularly practicing yoga or cycling, and all I was doing was walking). I was unfit.
I took my first class in 2011, but I didn’t start regularly practicing until 2014. That first class had me intrigued, and though they were offered on-site at my then job, I couldn’t continue due to schedule limitations. A few years later, I was fortunate enough to have a weekly class taught in the fitness centre at my office building at the time. I really enjoyed that first class back in 2011, so when I saw it was being offered at work I couldn’t not sign up. I became a regular student, practicing once a week at the gym and taking semi-regular classes from the same instructor at other studios. I immediately started seeing improvements and felt amazing after each class. I started to understand that this was something my body couldn’t live without.
IMPROVEMENTS TO MY BODY
When I was a regular student, my instructor (now an industry mentor and friend) was always my cheerleader. Along the way, she’d comment on my flexibility, changes to my body shape, and my improving practice. These didn’t happen over night, though. I’d been practicing with her for a couple months before we both started really noticing a shift. What was happening was my body was responding quickly and significantly to the program, even though I was only practicing 1-2 hours per week. Yowza! My muscles were lengthening, my posture was improving, I was certainly getting stronger, and as a bonus my weight was dropping to a more healthy level.
I can’t attribute all the changes to Essentrics, as I was also practicing yoga 2-4 times per week and in the thick of overhauling my diet to a much healthier regiment. However, I do know that it played a big part in just a few short months. But dammit if it wasn’t hard work.
The program itself isn’t overly strenuous. It’s low impact with high yield, but it takes a lot of rewiring and reworking of the brain and body to get used to a new way of moving. Many students see immediate results that, with regularity, turn into life-altering changes. Sometimes it’s ridding a body of nagging arthritic pain, other times it’s as seemingly simple as giving a person more energy and confidence in their body. I was the latter.
I’d become complacent in my relationship and in my desk job, not actively moving my body to stay healthy. I couldn’t move the same way I used to and I was only 30. I was tired of going to the osteopath and having them tell me I have the body of an 80 year old. (Clearly, I had some work to do!) I wasn’t in it to lose weight, but knew that was a side effect of exercise. I just knew I felt like a shell of my former self and that there had to be a way back to feeling great. I was ready to really take care of myself physically, which, in turn, helped me emotionally and mentally, as well.
TEACHING JOURNEY
Remember that industry mentor of mine? One day in early 2015, she talked me into becoming an instructor. It didn’t take much to convince me and I wasn’t nervous to teach. I’d seen the positive effects it had had on my life, so I took the next natural step in helping to broaden the community and my own practice in Toronto (where I was living at the time).
I hear a lot of stories, especially from people who’ve chosen to become instructors, about how this program has changed, and in some cases, saved their lives. The program hooks you. Once you start to see shifts in your body, sometimes unimaginable ones, you want to know how it works and you want to spread the good word. Hence, my purchasing the Level 1 instructor’s manual back in the summer of 2015.
My intention was to learn and train while also in school for holistic nutrition, though that didn’t pan out well. School took precedence and was very intense, so I continued to practice Essentrics on my own time without forcing myself to blow through the instructor material. Although, it did help my physical practice to start understanding the mechanics behind the program, while at the same time learning about the body more intensely at school. Everything went hand-in-hand, which for me was very important. I’d chosen to redirect my life, to adopt an overall healthier lifestyle, which included both what I was eating and how I was moving.
Back then, learning on my own time was enough for me. A couple years later, though, in the fall of 2017, I dove back into it. I’d been practicing Essentrics via the online video subscription, but that wasn’t enough for me. I was stepping into entrepreneurship and wanted to take Essentrics along with me on the journey. I dove back into my apprentice teaching hours, went waist deep into the material, and recruited all my friends to take class from me. It came back like riding a bike. Shortly after, I’ve received both my Level 1 and 2 certifications, attended two more live teacher training workshops (my first being back in the fall of 2015). I also taught in the two largest cities in Canada - Toronto and Vancouver - before landing in Toronto where I grew my schedule to five in-person classes a week while holding a 9-5 job.
Enter Motherhood
After having taught regular classes in the big city for over a year, the dreaded C-thing happened (you know, 2o2o) and classes were forced online. At the same time, I decided to ‘visit’ my parents back in Niagara Falls where I’m from and now live. I continued teaching online and although I would have loved to partake in Level 3 and Level 4 in-person workshops in Montreal that same year, they were cancelled due to restrictions.
So, as studios began to close up, I moved my students to my own personal practice online and continued to love teaching.
On the day I expanded my online schedule, I slipped on the stairs and landed on my QL muscle in my back and couldn’t walk. I took six weeks off of work to heal, and thanks to my osteopath I did (he was my wizard). In that time, I got pregnant! My partner and I decided to start a family and it happened fast. Months later I stopped teaching classes to give myself a few months before our newborn arrived in order to prepare.
After she came, and a year later, I achieved my Level 3 certification while teaching regular in-person classes yet again in Niagara Falls. I geared classes toward the same demographic that Level 3 focuses on - those who are healing. I just so happened to choose to work with new moms (like myself) and those with limited mobility (like I was after falling on the stairs).
When I got pregnant with our second child, however, I knew I wanted more of a respite from teaching before she came. So, I got a little selfish and focused more on family life until I knew I would be ready to teach regularly again.
And here we are…2025, one year after our second girl was born and I’m back at it teaching moms again and anyone wanting to strengthen. I’m again using the focus of where I’m at right now in my training (Level 4, the last one) and helping bring all facets of this amazing practice together.
WHAT I’ve FOUND MOST CHALLENGING
Teaching has been eye-opening and extremely humbling. Every time I think I have things nailed down, I find another aspect to focus on. From learning the material of the pre-choreographed workouts and teaching groups or individuals, to selecting music and reading my audience, all the way to marketing classes and helping students achieve their goals, teaching is hard! Ultimately, it is equally as rewarding, which is why I do it.
Both as a student and as an instructor, the most challenging thing has been adapting to moving in a completely new way and finding a way to cue that movement to my participants. As a student, it took a long time to translate the instructor’s cues and generate the proper movements within my body. It’s equally as challenging on the flip side of that as an instructor, having to find the right words that help students initiate those movements on their own while attuning my cues to their specific needs.
While training and learning this program as a student, it takes a lot of mental work to grasp the way your body should be moving and where you should be feeling your movements throughout your body. Because Essentrics is a full body workout, you’re always either moving your entire body at once or using it in its entirety in some form or another. The work never stops and it takes time to comprehend what the program’s trying to achieve and how to do it.
There’s a lot of cueing, too. Instructors barely break from talking during a workout, dictating movements (which change rapidly), providing notions of where you’ll feel a stretch in your body (which take time to identify), and reminding you to breathe and watch your alignment (always). It can be a lot to take in as a student and a lot to remember as an instructor, but I tell ya…it’s worth the challenge!
MY BIGGEST TAKEAWAYS
Before trying Essentrics, I didn’t know what I was missing. Now, if I skip it I feel at a disadvantage. Especially in postpartum. My body knows. It’s constant work to try to stay limber, strong, and energized, but hey, that’s life and anything worth having doesn’t come easy. I will say that it does get easier the more I learn and practice. Again, like anything in life. To this end, one of my biggest takeaways is being able to recognize that my body responds to what I’m doing when I do or don’t practice in a deeper way.
I said above that I’m now more body aware than before. That means many things, but to me, it specifically pinpoints how I want to move on any given day in order to make myself feel better. It allows me to recognize when something is unsafe to do physically and understand how to correct what I’m doing to make it safe or not do it at all. I can feel the details of my muscles in all areas of my body - along my spine, down my hamstrings, through my fingers and hands, and into my neck and head - identifying more specifically which ones are tense and how to move to make them feel better. I listen to my body and appreciate all that it does for me, including helping it stay strong and agile.
In addition to all of that, Essentrics has carried me through the most physically challenging and demanding season of my life, which is motherhood.
Nothing will rival it.
Picking up and carrying small children throughout the day, pushing a stroller or pulling a wagon full of little people and stuff, nursing and co-sleeping in awkward positions so babe doesn’t awaken. All the things take a small, but cumulative toll on the body and I’m beyond glad to have Essentrics to rebalance me wherever I am, whenever I need.
It’s also carried me through my biggest injury (noted above) and transformed the way I hold myself, move, and feel. It’s a lifestyle and for me, nothing will compare.
As I say in the title, this is a journey. A never-ending one at that. One that I’m really proud of and eager to continue. Along the way, my life and career have taken many paths, but one thing remains…I can’t let go of Essentrics!
