Phyllis Hurwitz

I grew up in Philadelphia, went to a boarding school for high school, moved to Colorado for college, studied in Australia and Spain during that time, moved to Miami for graduate school, then to NYC for adventure and finally, back to Philadelphia  8 years ago with a husband and two kids. One more child later, and I decided to change careers, stop teaching 4th and 5th graders, and pursue the things in my life that I enjoyed most: health and fitness. 

Only 8 weeks into my first year of college in Colorado and thousands of miles from home, I got pregnant. I gained 30 pounds in one month, decided to have an abortion and then became numb, until I met Steve during a semester abroad in Australia. Steve was fit. He worked out every day as part of a lifestyle, a hobby, not something he did to lose weight, or impress the ladies. It was part of his life and as soon as he showed me a few moves, I was hooked. I loved pushing my body in new ways and learning how each muscle was related to all the others, how the flexion of one joint, engaged muscles I never even heard of. I began work out, learn more about food and how it could hurt or help my training. Little by little, I began to find myself again and build strength of mind, body and soul. When all of these elements came together, I finally felt alive again. Fitness had healed me. 

I continued to enjoy fitness as a way of life and left the elementary classroom for a health and PE teaching position in NYC. With children of my own at this time, I was overwhlemed by trying to balance it all and feel competant in all arenas of my life. A third and final pregnancy made me realize that I needed to slow down and re-evaluate the direction of my life. 

Eight years later and I am strong, fit, happy and healthy. I combined the things that mattered most in my life, teaching and fitness, and became a personal trainer and group fitness instructor. I still struggle to balance the my family, my clients, my classes, my marriage, my friends and most importantly, myself. I love finding new moves and new music for classes. I love creating full body, balanced workouts for each of my clients with very different needs, fitness levels and injuries or weaknesses. I love showing my kids how to eat healthy, live happy and to teach others how to do the same.

My focus in on High Intensity Interval Training. I use weights, bosu balls. bands, medicine balls, the TRX; anything and everything, however, I mostly enjoy using the body alone for resistance training and cardio circuits. I am a safety girl, who gives many alignment cues and constantly walks around to correct form. If you don't do it right, why do it at all? I teach clients to feel the right form and function, rather than look in a mirror to see it.

The key to any of my workouts is a constant focus on the breath. Teaching clients to breathe efficiently during class and outside as well, is the most important thing I can pass on. Creating and maintaining an internal awareness can prove beneficial not just for our physical beings, but for our emotional, psychological and social selves as well. In the words of the great Oprah Winfrey, "Our job in life is to find what we are good at, and pass it on to others." I am good at teaching others to be fit and firm, and my job is to pass it on to others, whever in the world they may be!