Today we’d like to introduce you to Karina Ramirez.
Karina, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My whole life I have been an athlete. I started competing with horses at the age of 8 making it to nationals and regional competitions. A fall off a horse fractured my wrist, and for rehabilitation purposes after my cast was taken off, I was told to play tennis to strengthen my wrist. Tennis ended up consuming my life slowly as my coaches realized I had “talent” to become a great tennis player. I competed through high school and was always ranked high in my division. This landed me a full tennis scholarship at George Washington University where I competed all four years in the NCAA 1 Division ranking in the top 40 among NCAA players my last two years at GW. After college, I traveled the Pro circuit briefly but a bad back and back injuries cut short my tennis carrier. To rehab for my bad back, I discovered Pilates through physical therapy, and immediately fell in love with it. Pilates changed my life. It made me stronger, leaner, more aware of my physical capabilities, showed me body awareness, proper body movement, mechanics and alignment. It healed my back pain away completely! I was thus able to start dueling in other physically demanding activities not possible for me to perform previously because of my back injury. Through a 6 year period, I trained for 1/2 marathons, triathlons, and mountaineering, summiting Potosi, a 20,000 ft. mountain in Bolivia and Cotopaxi among others in Ecuador.
I decided to get certified in Pilates because I realized something very simply: If you don’t have your health, you have nothing. Health is the most important factor here on earth. We can have wealth, we can have love, we can friend, we can have many things but if you are not healthy you have nothing. With health comes mobility, adventure, self-confidence, motivation, lust for the new, self-enlightenment and last but not least happiness.
Before I decide to open my studio and shift my career fully into Pilates, I had been working as a jeweler/goldsmith for many years as I had always had a passion in the Arts and attended The Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts in San Francisco and the Aegean Arts program abroad in Greece and Italy. My artist career as a jeweler, I kid aside with my friends, is one of the many beautiful lives I have had here in my 44 years. Getting somewhat bored of the jewelry industry, I took the step of making my shift into the Pilates world fully. I wanted to make a real difference and make people feel better physically and mentally about themselves. Give them the power of health, alternative health. And here I am today. My studio is on its 3rd year and counting since I first opened it March 2014.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It’s been really hard for me to find reliable and talented instructors to help me expand my business so being the sole “everything” that is, instructor, business owner, marketer, and innovator of kenergy has been really tough and demanding on me.
Please tell us about Kenergy Pilates.
I love to teach and make people aware of “smart” workouts through better body mechanics and movement thus preventing injuries by making their spines stronger and more flexible and targeting the core through breath and an overall balanced workout with all the machines not just the reformer. I have Cadillac classes, stability chair and tower and circuit training classes available.
I have reached a few niches throughout my Pilates career: Pregnancy, Body alignment and correction, athletic conditioning.
I really love the structure of my studio. Being an artist, I tried to incorporate an artistic look in my logo, studio, general feel and ambiance. My studio is not stale but inviting.
It’s pleasing to the eye and had great energy to it…hence Kenergy (K for Karina and energy for what I wanted to attract) I have a graffiti wall with rays representing energy flowing around the walls of the studio into a sun…. more energy!!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have found another founding partner.
Contact Info:
- Address: Kenergy Pilates
3416 NW 7th Ave
Miami, Fl 33127 - Website: www.kenergypilates.com
- Phone: 305-336-9601
- Email: [email protected]
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