This company has been a long time in the making. Throughout my life I have had the opportunity to experience a variety of activities. I trained and taught Kempo for over 10 years and hold a rank of Nidan (2nd degree black) in that style. I have spent several years in other group class settings including Ashtanga yoga and just basic stretching classes. One thing I have found is that each modality has different benefits, but they all complement each other. I am also a licensed massage therapist and have spent over 15 years doing bodywork and troubleshooting physical problems for myself and others. As I get older, I realize that my desire to dedicate time to exercise varies day to day, but as we age we need to be more regular just to maintain basic mobility and function. This is where the concept for Serenity in Movement begins.

My first and longest career has been as an enterprise IT professional in corporate america. My curiosity and desire to understand everything led me to explore many avenues throughout my career. This is the same passion that drives me in my other endeavors. So I have taken the pragmatic tools that I used everyday while working with technology and applied them to the knowledge I have gained through my study of the human body. Taking my personal experience with physical problems and pain, working through them without surgery or chemical dependence has really made me think about the knowledge I bring to bear that few people have access to. I started to question how many physical and emotional problems can be attributed to a lack of education about our bodies. The correct actions to take to prevent conditions from becoming chronic or life threatening are not always intuitive.

When I decided to leave corporate america and engage in healthy ageing and holistic alternatives, I also decided I need to share the knowledge I have worked for over the years. I want to share what I know about the body systems to improve circulation and digestion and muscle function. I want to share my love of Kempo and the confidence that comes from knowing your abilities and limitations. I want to engage my community with a passion for maintaining strength and mobility as we age. I want to provide a place where everyone who lives and works in my town can come to experience relief from their daily stresses. This may be a restful break after a busy day, or an energizing stretch to release the tension caused by holding static postures for hours on end.

Martial Arts

• RANKS - Our classes will be conducted similar to to regular martial arts workouts, but all students, regardless of experience will train together. We are not assigning rank because we are using our training to improve our own bodies, not for competition purposes. We will learn about many different arts and ideally will have ranking members of a variety of styles to improve our understanding of all the arts.
• SPARRING - We will practice with partners with limited or no contact, but will provide occasional opportunities to spar for those who wish to experience it. Retired martial artists who choose to join us will have additonal opportunities, but always in a controlled environment. I have participated as a ring judge in many closed tournaments and will run a tight ship for those who choose to engage in this type of practice.
• FOCUS - Although, you will learn to throw a proper attack and block, the movements are ultimately for personal conditioning, not fighting, self defense, or competition. We will teach all our students to prevent injury during practice and outside the studio. Our focus is on learning the concepts and practicing things like timing and distancing to gain a better understanding. Our focus will be on learning about the human body and why it moves this way and not that way. We will focus on how these movements work physically and physiologically. Ultimately, we will learn to keep ourselves safe and healthy.

Yoga

• STYLE - We will primarily practice movements found in Kempo, but this is a blended art and it contains training in moves that come from other specialties. As people with experience in other arts join us, we will add to our practice and continue to evolve and add combinations to keep our practice fresh and exciting. My hope is that we will rarely, if ever, repeat a class.
• IMPACT - Our practice can be adapted to low impact or high impact depending on your own ability and desire. I know that Yoga has this capability also, however, we are not isolating different groups. You may come to class with friends that are older or younger and want something different on a given day, but you can still come to the same class and get the very workout you personally need, and do it together.

Kickboxing

• CARDIO - I think we can agree that kickboxing is also a good exercise that is based on martial arts movements, but it has an aerobic spin. Some of us are not interested in the cardiovascular workouts anymore. Serenity in Movement is a good alternative if you want to exercise, but don't have the wind and recovery you used to.