There’s something about a person who’s been there, done that when it comes to fitness. You know, someone who was active as a kid and teen, then got slapped in the face with adulthood and the changing metabolism and fitness woes that can come along with it. Someone who dabbled in this and that in an effort to find a workout that actually got results without boring her out of her mind, until she finally stumbled into Freestyle, where she’s been ever since. Someone like Erin Stiehler, our mid-morning Total Body fitness extraordinaire.
This girl is totally relatable, and that always helps when you’re looking to someone for fitness inspiration. After an idyllic youth spent hiking mountains and skiing lakes, with an eleven-year side of tumbling and stunts thrown in for kicks, fitness suddenly became a chore. “Fitness used to be a friendly neighbor I visited whenever I felt like it,” Erin explains, “and then suddenly it was this screaming landlord banging on my door that I had to deal with. For some time there, my experience with fitness was really forced and unhealthy. It was a lot of work for no result.” She quit it all cold turkey before trying a few different gyms and workouts. Then she started boxing and Rick Reeves brought her into the Freestyle fold. “I loved it,” she says. “Muscles were popping out, my heart rate was up, and I was actually enjoying myself.”
Fast forward a few months, and she became an instructor of the very classes she had been taking. That means she was able to incorporate her favorite techniques and elements from those classes while putting her own spin on things. “I try to be personal and relate to each of my attendees, target full body or large muscle groups in workouts, and of course, we almost always box,” she says. “I always focus on ‘pushing’ people with encouragement. This is my first experience as an instructor – I’m so grateful for the opportunity – and my goal is to experiment, get in a good workout and stay lighthearted through this learning process.”
Erin worked at a clinic for women with eating disorders and saw first-hand the damage that unhealthy obsessions with diet and exercise can do. “Obsession can be all too common in the fitness world,” she acknowledges, “and this is specifically why Freestyle is my home gym. It doesn’t command obsession with weight loss, there’s no pressure to strain ourselves for the ‘perfect figure,’ and there are no extreme or unhealthy regimented diets. It’s a location that empowers men and women, whatever their lifestyles, body types and eating habits, and gives them a dang good workout that will meet those bodies and health levels wherever they are.”
Good stuff, right? Check her out Thursday mornings at 9:30. First week is always free, and this is one instructor who loves making new fitness friends.