New fitness studio in Alice Springs focuses on bringing bodies back to neutral
AFTER recovering from a lifelong musculoskeletal hip condition, Alice Springs resident has been inspired to open her own fitness studio with a focus on a form of exercise that gets bodies back to neutral.
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AFTER recovering from a lifelong musculoskeletal hip condition, Alice Springs resident Bae Hooper has been inspired to open her own fitness studio which focuses on a form of exercise that gets “bodies back to neutral”.
Bae was born with hip displacia, but did not realise until much later in life when it got much worse at 28.
After spending a year coming to terms with the diagnosis, Bae started going to Body Balance in Alice Springs.
Body Balance is a pre-choreographed fitness class that mixes elements of yoga, pilates and tai chi to improve strength, balance and flexibility.
“I was used to being a physical person so I started going to body balance once a week,” she said.
At the beginning, the rest off the class would lap her with the sequences before she had the chance to put one leg forward.
“As painful as it was, afterwards the feeling of release was fantastic so I did that once a week and after three months, things started to feel good.
“After six months I started teaching.
“I became a group fitness instructor for about eight years and taught 15 classes a week.
“This was after being told I’d need a hip replacement to fix it.”
At age 34 Bae got a hip replacement after walking become too painful, but she wasn’t holding back from riding and paddling and other forms of fitness.
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This is what led her to her love of body balance, which she started teaching in 2004.
“I did all the pilates training courses after that and have done a lot of yoga training.
She said the choreographed style of Body Balance meant that the type of fitness was “really well researched”.
“There’s good music, and you’re always going to get a full class with a full body workout and stretch rather than teacher go off on a tangent.
“I love teaching people how to get back into neutral. I want to get people’s bodies to where they are supposed to be before they spent the last 10, 20 to 30 years working and life.
“We put it back to where it’s supposed to be and then all your joints will naturally work again.”
She opened Maet Studio this month, and offers different forms of pilates, a roller class and outdoor training.
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