A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
Hi!! My name is Chris and I am a movement educator inspired by yoga and Pilates. I have completed 16 different trainings, some of which have been profound in not only in my practice but in my life.
Growing up, I never wanted to overly exert physical effort. It sucked. I hated gym class and I still do. I would find any excuse to avoid being seen doing anything physical because to be quite honest, I was shy and very embarrassed. It wasn’t until I was 17 that I walked into a yoga class by chance and for the first time in my life, I really felt my body. I then enrolled in my first teacher training and started to study the Ashtanga yoga method. I began teaching yoga asana when I was 19.
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I began studying with some of the best teachers locally (I am so lucky to have them nearby) and learned from some of the best teachers in the world! After a few years of (in)consistent daily practice, I made first trip to Mysore, India to study the Ashtanga Yoga method at what most ashtangi’s would refer to as ‘the source’; Sharath Yoga Center (formally KPJAYI) to study with Paramaguru R. Sharath Jois who is the lineage holder of Ashtanga Yoga. Since then, I have made yearly trip to study in Mysore (with the exception of the pandemic year of course) and I feel so grateful for those invaluable experiences and the many incredible friends that I have along the way.
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After years of yoga being my only discipline, I started to seek out other modalities such as Pilates, Functional Range Conditioning and weightlifting to help compliment my asana practice and be able to bridge the gap of what asana didn’t include. I wanted my yoga practice to have longevity and be able to sustain it in a way where it felt good in my body. It really gave my asana practice a resurgence of stability. I started to pursue my Pilates education with one of the most esteemed Pilates educators, Leslie Parker at Mindful Movement Centre in Toronto. Through Leslie, I continued my comprehensive contemporary Pilates certification (mat, reformer, Cadillac, chair and barrel).
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In 2021, I decided to study classical Pilates to understand the "roots" of the practice under Lili Viola.
Somewhere along the way, I thought it’d be cool to start learning how to do a handstand (because I really hurt myself once trying to just jump up) and I began working with some of the best circus performers and coaches in the world: Nicolas Montes de Oca, Andrii Boderanko and Yury Bozyan.
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As a lifetime student, I am constantly learning and wanting to evolve and become a more efficient teacher for my students and to feel good in my own body.
Soooo, what can you expect when we work together?
When I teach, I bring what I learned along the way and share it where it is respectful to how I’ve been taught but useful and enriching for you. In my yoga classes and teacher training courses, the heart is yoga and the ‘bones’ are informed by mindful movements like Pilates, FRC and various other tools that I’ve experienced that can really help optimize how you feel when you move!
In 2017, I began to curate a yoga teacher training course that would be a compendium of what I’ve learned and experienced so far and am so proud of my teachers who have completed my program.
Movement has changed my life and I know that it has the potential to optimize your’s. It started as something aspiration that revolved around my life and now it has become something inspirational that my life revolves around.
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In 2022, I decided to start the Flow House Movement Co as a compendium of my years of teaching into one spot where I can offer everything I am passionate about into every session that you attend.
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The studio is equipped with state of the art equipment (reformers, towers, chairs, spine corrector, ladder barrel & pedi pole) from Balanced Body, Gratz Pilates & Pilates Design.
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Currently in Hamilton, I am in the only studio to offer sessions with both contemporary and classical apparatus.
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