Laura Hotopp

Fitness has been a part of my entire life and my passion for it continues to grow as I discover new ways to widen my horizons and try new forms of fitness.  Not only do I enjoy the exercise portion of my fitness journey, but the members and class participants become friends.  The relationships I've built over the years motivate me to be better and keep improving.  You'll see from my experience, listed below, that I have 30 years of industry knowledge and I'm more excited about teaching classes now than when I started.  Trends have changed, music and class formats constantly change, the technology changes, and my body has changed over the years as well.  I embrace the challenge of learning new fitness choreography to stay current and relevant in order to draw in members and make their exercise time as exciting as possible.  

From 2014 - 2016 I was the Group Fitness Coordinator at Innovative Fitness.   Not only did I teach classes daily, but I oversaw all the Group Exercise and Aquatics programs and staff.  In order to start teaching some water classes and other formats, I obtained my Group Ex certification in 2019.  In January 2020 I became the Fitness Director at Aurora Wellness Center.  At this time I obtained by Personal Training certificate from NASM since it was a requirement of my role.  I was managing the Group Ex Department and the Personal Training Department.  Shortly after that, COVID closed all clubs down.  I kept things going by videotaping myself teaching classes from home and sharing those with members.  Due to this change and many licensing changes, this prompted me to create my own classes such as HIIT, Boot Camp, Sculpting, Core & Stretch.  I found I really enjoyed that challenge and I began to let go of some of the other certifications that I was no longer using. 


Currently, I am teaching classes at the Princeton Club.  I still teach Body Pump and Cycling but in addition, I cover Kickboxing, Define (sculpting), Crunch (core), and HIIT.  I continue to take classes from other Instructors at Lifetime so that I stay fresh and current.  That is how I found this opportunity with Fitness Pro Travel.  Another Instructor suggested this to me.  Since I'm very close to the empty nester stage in life, it's the perfect time for me to embrace this new chance to further widen my fitness skill set.