My story picks up in the spring of 2003. Just as a reminder, we are still primarily a fitness studio but also offering a handful of yoga classes all taught by Steve, me or my protégé, Andy.  I decided it was time to train others to teach yoga, so I took my yoga teacher training manual and started developing my own in house yoga teacher training program. The response was incredible. I think the first training we held had nearly 20 bodies in it.  I was so new to yoga and yet I had my story to tell of how yoga had changed my life and I wanted to train others to do the same. To this day, I share this message with my yoga teacher trainees. There is so much to learn about yoga that it can be overwhelming, but the objective of Yoga Teacher Training is simply to develop the tools to be able to share how yoga has impacted your life with those around you. So that’s what I did.   Now I have more trained teachers…but then we needed more space.Read More

Today my story continues with how yoga came to BL…remember up until this point, BL was just a group fitness studio. So jump back with me to last week when I explained that for the first 1.5 years of owning BL I was riddled with pain. After seeking out the advice of 12 different health professionals, the message from one particular person clicked. His name was John Gifford and he had a practice called Myotherapy. I ran into him at the other gym I had been working at and he suggested I read a book called Healing Back Pain by John Sarno. My family was getting ready to go on a trip to Hawaii and I didn’t want to go because I was in so much pain, but I did go, and I read the book on the long flight over. I was convinced that the words on the page were 100% describing me…I walked off the plane and enjoyed my family trip for 10 days completely pain free. Hard to believe unless you had experienced first hand. The gist of the book was that most chronic pain is a result of our stressed out brains. And that mental tension could actually cause and perpetrate physical pain. Looking back it is so clear to me that my fear of failure, of not being able to successfully juggle the care of 3 daughters while running a business for the first time in my life was the cause of the pain. And the fear of not being able to physically do my job and teach classes was actually causing those muscles to tighten up more and lock in that chronic pain. So of course, I came home from Hawaii and the pain started back up again.  I read Sarno’s second book that helped me understand how to apply these techniques to my everyday life AND my dear friend, John Gifford then suggested taking a yoga class.

I have to admit when he told me to try yoga, I thought to myself…”why would stretching have anything to do with helping my brain to relax???” Ha!! Little did I know. I took my first yoga class on a Friday at 12 noon from Johnny Kest in Southfield (sorry if you’re having trouble keeping all the “Johns” straight, but these are the 3 Johns who were instrumental in changing the trajectory of my life). I even remember the posture I was in…dragon, a hip opener…when a light bulb went off in my brain. This wasn’t just any lightbulb, this was a lightbulb accompanied by a huge realization and what some might refer to as ugly tears. I wept. But it was a good cry…like someone (that would be ME), was giving myself permission to be just as I was. I didn’t have to be the perfect mom, run the perfect business, have the perfect body. I didn’t even have to wait to be pain free to be happy. It was an epiphany that it was ok to be “perfectly imperfect.”  After that…I started doing yoga regularly and guess what? The pain not only went away but stayed away.

 I decided if yoga was such a gift to me then I wanted to share it with all the BL fitness peeps. This is when I ran into Steve coming out of a yoga class in that Southfield studio (I know too bad his name wasn’t’ John). I chatted with him about teaching at BL and well the rest is history. Thinking this was maybe 1998 ish that we started offering yoga at BL in the fitness room.  I took Steve’s classes at BL and then when he had a conflict, I ended up needing to sub for him…so I decided I really needed to get trained to teach.  So in 2001 I went to Tulum Mexico for an intense Yoga Teacher Training program with Johnny Kest. We added more yoga classes but then also needed more teachers. I started by training one of my fitness teachers, Andy Smith. I took my training manual and trained her one on one after hours. It was still not enough. The fitness folks were hungry for more yoga so in 2003, I took it upon myself to start my own Yoga Teacher Training program.  And here is where my story will pick up next week…

So I’m picking up where I left off with the evolution of BL.   It’s 1997 and I’ve just purchased BL.  I have a partner named Karen.  We have 17 classes…90 students in our Rolodex…and I’m thinking just a handful of teachers including me, Chris and Karen.  Side note here…notice that I said “thinking” in that last sentence, because remember this was 25 plus years ago and some of the memories are a bit foggy.   As Chris and I have tried to reconstruct the details, we have asked others like long term clients, and Ricky, who was a member of BL way before I even owned it, and Briana who basically grew up at BL.   How about some of you?? What memories do you have…what details do you remember that we might have forgotten?? You can respond to this email or reach out to us on social media on our Throwback Thursday posts.  We would love to hear from you.Read More

I just got back from a hiking trip out in Sedona.  There were a couple of take homes from this trip that I’d like to share with you!!

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So today I’m picking up where I left off on the evolution of BL.  But I just need to back track a smidge to fill you in on a few more details.  It’s the fall of 1996 and I am still running the program at World Gym as well as teaching for the previous owner of BL.  Some of you might even recognize the names of some of the teachers who were working for me way back then…Beth, Toni, Neil, Karen and, as I already mentioned, Chris.   Ok, so when Luann (previous owner of BL) approached me to ask if I wanted to buy BL, World Gyms aerobics program was struggling.   Long story short the timing was perfect.   I said yes to buying BL…World gym ended their aerobics program…paid me to take their group fitness clients with me and I moved my staff of teachers from World Gym to BL!!!!Read More

2022 marks 25 years of my owning Body Language.   Crazy hard to believe!!  One of the ways we are celebrating this 1/4 of a century in business is by sharing the evolution of BL on social media every Thursday.   Throwback Thursdays.   Chris is digging out some old pics that paint a picture of all the fun we’ve had over the past 25 years.  Be sure to check them out.  Just LIKE us on Facebook and/or FOLLOW us on Instagram to take this trip down memory lane with us. The social media snippets will be the cliff note version and my antics will give you more of the details of this 25 year journey.Read More

As many of know, BL offers many layers of wellness.  In addition to having over 60 fitness and yoga classes per week, we offer nutrition counseling, massages and facials.   Here to offer you a message on skin wellness is our very own resident esthetician, Jamie Oldfield…Read More

So, I am piggy backing off a recent social media post in which Chris (who manages our social media) references a client she chatted with after class. It was this client's first class back since before Covid and she shared with Chris that she cried in class because she didn’t realize how much she really needed this. She said she was anxious and nervous to even show up. She had convinced herself that her neighborhood walks and basement workouts were enough... and said that after today she realized that this is where she really needed to be…”with people and in an environment that will help me grow again.”

I am re-sharing this for a couple of reasons: 1) Because I know not everyone does social media and 2) Because it is a powerful message and I know there are others out there that need to hear this. In fact, the latest wave of past members who are trickling back into BL have similar stories. You got into a new routine at home and enjoyed the convenience of working out whenever you wanted to. Maybe you are even doing classes from our class library and getting Team BL right in the comfort of your own home. BUT what I am hearing more and more of, is that at some point, it’s just not the same…or just not enough.

By coming back into BL, you get the motivation of the teacher leading you and the other students around you. You have the commitment of being game on for the whole class (instead of taking a break to throw in a load of laundry or being distracted by the text messages…I know you do this because I did). AND…most importantly, you get to be surrounded and supported by this amazing community we call Body Language. There is a reason why we all landed in group fitness or in a yoga class in the first place. There was something that each of us craved and valued above and beyond the workout or the stretch and that is being connected with others!!

Oh and get this…just in case you need one more reason to walk back through the front doors of BL…Connectedness makes us healthier!! I 

recently attended a Nutrition Seminar entitled “Understanding the Gut Brain: Stress, Appetite, Digestion & Mood".  One of the take homes from this 6 hours of continuing education was that Social Support and Social Connectedness is strongly linked to increased quality of life, less mental illness, better gut health and even increased longevity. When we feel isolated and alone, challenges in our life often feel unsurmountable. But, when we are surrounded by others and feel like we are part of something bigger than ourselves, we can make it through those challenges with more ease and without sabotaging our health.

So there you go…welcome back to all of you who have made this leap and to those of you who are still hanging out in your basement, here’s to hoping this email is that little nudge that gets you out of the house and back working out and practicing yoga surrounded by your BL peeps!! Your body and your brain will thank you!!

Can’t wait to see you on your mat and Cheers to re-connecting!!

Andrea

As a Registered Dietitian I get asked many of the same nutrition questions over and over again. The majority of these questions are generated by the media: sensationalized ways to lose weight or a product or program that is being sold that’s going to be the quick fix to all our weight loss problems. Oftentimes I hear chatter about some friend or family member who lost “all this weight” by following the latest and greatest weight loss gimmick and then everyone around this temporarily skinnier person mindlessly jumps on their band wagon.Read More

The other night at our Book Club, there was a discussion question about how a character realized that in order to truly experience peace in life, something has to give: your expectations or your circumstances. The character stated that once she came to this realization, in an area of her life, she felt truly liberated.Read More