Valerie BARBOSA

Valerie Barbosa is a passionate CanFitPro certified group fitness instructor and personal trainer, with a strong background in biology due to her college education. Although she had practiced sports (swimming, running), she became a fitness enthusiast in 2006 while she discovered the LesMills system in the USA. Shortly after moving to Canada for professional reasons, she decided to take up the challenge of becoming one herself.  In addition to her full-time job as a researcher, she got educated to become a group fitness instructor specialist (CanFitPro) and took the exam in New Brunswick. Immediately after becoming certified she had the opportunity to start teaching cardio-kickboxing and dance-based classes (including Zumba) at the Atlantic Fitness East gyms in Morell and Souris (Prince Edward Island, Canada). After gaining some experience with 2-3 classes per week, she started offering classes at community centers around her living area (Tracadie Cross and St. Teresa in eastern PEI).  

After getting her initial Zumba certification, she went one on getting trained and certified for additional specialties, including Zumbatomic for kids, AquaZumba and Zumba Gold (for non-conditioned participants). These trips to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick allowed her to meet various Zumba education specialists and provided her with an excellent opportunity to build up a network with other Zumba instructors.  In 2011 she successfully organized her own fund-raisng  Zumbathon to benefit the Canadian Red Cross.

In 2010, in order to take her training to the next level, and enrolled in the CanFitPro program to become a personal trainer. She successfully completed the exam and had the opportunity to work on a voluntary basis with two clients from the AFE gym to gain some initial experience.

In March 2011, Valerie recently moved from Canada to Merida, in Mexico. She has been interviewed at a gym in the city and is planning on starting her work as both a group fitness instructor and a personal trainer there very soon.

During her stay in Canada, she had the opportunity of nurturing other passions and hobbies. Running on the trails across beautiful PEI, she got inspired and took part in the island marathon in 2009. She also maintained her artistic activities and discovered some new techniques such as pastel drawing. Finally, she made a point in continue traveling (Canada, USA, Mexico and Europe).