About Your Trainers
Kyla
Kyla started lifting weights a couple years after her first baby was born. She continued strength training through her next 2 pregnancies, but there was very little information about exercise in pregnancy at the time. She learned as much as she could and combined that with her intuition about her own body, and was impressed at how much better she felt during postpartum recovery. At 30 she went back to school to become a midwife. Working with pregnant & postpartum people allowed her to see how the way that they moved and used their bodies affected their discomforts & outcomes. She started doing more education about pelvic floor & core function, and began to expand into personal training with that as a focus. After several years of practicing as a midwife, she retired; and with Thomas’s support expanded her personal training business. Since they have different backgrounds but a similar approach to training clients, they decided to combine forces and open a training studio together. She is also an aerialist and instructor.
Kyla has taken a number of educational courses including:
- Poliquin CPT
- Katy Bowman Pelvic Floor Course
- Low Pressure Fitness Certified Instructor (Levels 1-3)
- Muscle Nerds Program Design
- Muscle Nerds Foundation Nutrition
- Muscle Nerds Hypertension
- KILO Strength Online Program Design
- Pregnancy & Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist
- Pelvis Pro
Kyla
Kyla started lifting weights a couple years after her first baby was born. She continued strength training through her next 2 pregnancies, but there was very little information about exercise in pregnancy at the time. She learned as much as she could and combined that with her intuition about her own body, and was impressed at how much better she felt during postpartum recovery. At 30 she went back to school to become a midwife. Working with pregnant & postpartum people allowed her to see how the way that they moved and used their bodies affected their discomforts & outcomes. She started doing more education about pelvic floor & core function, and began to expand into personal training with that as a focus. After several years of practicing as a midwife, she retired; and with Thomas’s support expanded her personal training business. Since they have different backgrounds but a similar approach to training clients, they decided to combine forces and open a training studio together. She is also an aerialist and instructor.
Kyla has taken a number of educational courses including:
- Poliquin CPT
- Katy Bowman Pelvic Floor Course
- Low Pressure Fitness Certified Instructor (Levels 1-3)
- Muscle Nerds Program Design
- Muscle Nerds Foundation Nutrition
- Muscle Nerds Hypertension
- KILO Strength Online Program Design
- Pregnancy & Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist
- Pelvis Pro
Thomas
Exercise has been a part of Thomas’s life for as long as he can remember. He started bodyweight/combat training when we was around 5 years old, and weightlifting when he was 10. He has been working as a personal trainer since 2002. His first certification was the NASM personal training course, which got him interested in the use of exercise as a corrective tool. Things snowballed from there, with him pursuing more continuing education as he found himself working with clients who were in pain and hadn’t found relief elsewhere. He and his previous business partner became known as the people you found after you saw everyone else. When his partner retired in 2018, he joined Kyla in opening Optimal Health’s first physical location. He is also a licensed massage therapist, specializing in fascial release work, and has been practicing circus arts including partner acrobatics and trampoline for several years.
An incomplete list of the courses Thomas has taken includes:
- NASM CPT
- Chek Exercise Coach
- Chek Practitioner Level 1
- Poliquin PICP 1& 2
- Anatomy Trains
- Various workshops about joint injuries and autoimmune disorders
- Low Pressure Fitness Level 1
- Muscle Nerds Program Design
- Muscle Nerds Foundation Nutrition
- The McGill Method 1, 2, & 3 (back pain, spinal strength & stability)