Our Staff
Our entire staff, from instructors to management to reception, has completed the Restorative Exercise Specialist course so they can assist you with a deeper understanding of how your body works!
As Program Director, Anna integrates all her educational, professional and personal experiences to implement the movement, health and science of the Restorative Exercise Institute. She is a Business Management Graduate from the University of La Verne , has trained in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland , was a collegiate level gymnast and gymnastics instructor, and provides massage therapy to select clients.
Anna’s experience with her mother’s illness provided a very personal lesson that good health is more than just managing disease with surgeries and medicine.
“With over six years experience in pain relief and injury prevention, I recognized that Restorative Exercise was a missing piece of my wellness puzzle. It’s mind boggling when you start to recognize that the diseases we suffer as a nation are largely avoidable!”
While completing my BA in Women’s Studies and Studio Arts I continuously participated in my true passion – exercise! My search for holistic methods to heal lower back pain and prevent chronic headaches led me to the Restorative Exercise Institute. The wealth of information I gained from completing the RES training program has enabled me to identify and change the habits that have inhibited my wellness in the past.
Developing a greater awareness of my own physiology has been incredibly empowering and I am excited about sharing this new-found knowledge with others.
Our Instructors
Michael earned his B.A. in Psychology and Communications from Loyola Marymount University. Two years of intensive post-graduate study at the American University of Complementary Medicine earned him certification in 2006 as Ayurvedic Medicine Practitioner.
To satisfy the movement aspect of Ayurveda, Michael completed a course in Tantra yoga in Rishikesh, India, but he found that the system as presented was incomplete. After training as a Restorative Exercise Specialist, he now understands why different yoga poses are prescribed medicinally, and has witnessed the healing of his own body and mind after 25 years as a weight lifter and competitive soccer player, and numerous unsuccessful visits to health professionals.
“For an athlete, or for anyone whose job demands a lot of physical movement, I can’t say strongly enough how essential it is to study the biomechanical principles behind Restorative Exercise. Back pain, wrist pain, foot pain – what great indicators that you still have more to learn!”
After getting my AA in English, I began a long career as a Court Reporter. Many hours of sitting began to take its toll. I’ve always enjoyed an active lifestyle; hiking, tennis, waterskiing, snow-skiing, and it has caused me pain and discomfort in the past. Since joining Restorative Exercise and diligently following the program, I’ve been relatively pain-free. It’s wonderful. I decided to take the very first training program Katy Bowman
offered, and I’ve been helping people find their best body mechanics since then by either leading classes or privately. Life and learning needs to be fun, so I try to keep my clients laughing all the way to health!!
In addition to teaching at RExI, I am also the anatomy instructor at KALI Institute for Massage and Somatic Therapy. I have 500+ hours of massage education in various techniques and 10 years of teaching massage and beginning anatomy (which has been quite the education!!).
I maintain a healthy mind and body through the practice and application of Restorative Exercise to all my activities. Living an examined life/practicing what I “preach”/promote. To be of service to all, especially my family and friends.
20 years of practicing massage has demonstrated both its value and limits as a therapeutic tool. Habitual movement patterns, poor motor skill, stress and/or misalignment are common problems I see in my practice. 60 or 90 minutes of bodywork can reduce pain, increase range of motion and reduce stress, all worthy, useful though often temporary goals. If the root causes for these conditions are not addressed, the same conditions are sure to reoccur. I am convinced that Restorative Exercise is the missing link, connecting the short term beneficial effects of massage with the long term goal of a healthy, balanced (more) optimally performing body. I have arrived at this conclusion after 20 months of intense personal practice and from feedback from my clients. Often dramatic results occur from small and simple changes in alignment.
The basic exercises assess motor skill, balance, strength and flexibility in key areas/joints of the body. A diagnosis emerges of problem areas. This leads to a prescription: areas or movements that demonstrate the lowest motor skill, balance, strength and flexibility are at the top of the list for practice. Diligent practice restores function to these areas.
I started in the medical field as a respiratory therapy tech and moved onto massage therapy in 1994, feeling that I could actually help people in a more holistic way. I eventually went back to school to earn my B.S. in Exercise Science – Kinesiology in 2007. I have always felt that the more you learn the better able you are to help yourself and others. I had been seeing the same types of injuries/complaints in my clients who would feel better after their treatment but it wasn’t solving the actual problem. With the goal of changing the scope of my practice I came across Restorative Exercise. Katy Bowman had been my biomechanics professor at CSUN, so I checked it out. That’s when another piece of the puzzle fell into place for me and I knew that this was something that could really help to solve those issues I was seeing in my clients, as well as myself!
I had been a marathon runner, avid hiker, and gone to the gym for weight training as well as doing Yoga. I thought that I was balancing my exercise program but I kept getting injured. I had knee problems (ran through the pain), plantar fasciitis, a Baker’s cyst, tendonitis in my right elbow and headaches – so much for balance.
Restorative Exercise has helped me with my knee problems – no more tendinitis and I feel so much better. I can now pass on the knowledge that I have gained in Restorative Exercise to better help my clients attain their goal of wellness.
Breena has been in the fitness industry for over 10 years. She has served as a fitness program director, group exercise instructor, and personal fitness instructor. In addition to her Restorative Exercise™ (RE) training, Breena is also certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, and has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from UCSB.
“With 10 years in the fitness industry, and a history of mind/body education and philosophy, I was searching for the missing piece or missing connection. There is so much misinformation, contradictory information, and misunderstanding. With Restorative Exercise™, Katy has put all the disconnected pieces together. I knew immediately that she had the answers I had been seeking. In the process of learning RE, I have learned what incredible things my body can do and how much power I, and each one of us has to make life-transforming changes in our physical bodies, which in turn transforms our lives.”
Theresa arrived in the Santa Barbara/Ventura area in 1983 and attained her Ph.D. at UC Santa Barbara and took full advantage of the outdoor recreational opportunities at her doorstep. Study of the marine environment and the ecology of its spineless creatures, as well as participating in sports such as cycling, intra-mural softball and triathalons were Theresa’s passion until the chronic pain from over-use injuries became intolerable. Theresa started attending ReXI classes on the recommendation of her massage therapist, and she’s now using the Restorative Exercise program on a daily basis to address chronic sacro-illiac and cervical spine pain, as well as internal rotation of her hip and shoulder joints. Theresa was an immediate convert to the RE program and decided to embark on the instructor program to help others who suffer from chronic pain.
“My message to people who suffer from chronic pain is to address it head on, and commit to long-term wellness. Incorporating the Restorative Exercise program into your daily routine will result in positive changes in how you move/sit/stand/walk, improve your sense of well being, and reduce pain.”
Susan is a Ventura County native and has taken full advantage of the area’s many outdoor opportunities. She earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Environmental Studies from UCSB and continued her formal studies at Cal Lutheran University by taking graduate level courses in education. She taught high school mathematics before earning her certification as a Pilates Instructor. She has worked in the fitness industry in this capacity since 2004.
“The seemingly divergent paths of my past have now converged through the philosophy of Restorative Exercise. I am now drawing on my lifelong passions for science, teaching, and athletics to help others discover the confidence and joy of healthy movement.”
REXI Official Photographer
Cecilia Ortiz
thepixelchick@mac.com
