ALY DAVEY
SPIN INSTRUCTOR
Aly’s passion for health and fitness started quickly after being introduced to the gym. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease she has done the best to give back to her body by creating healthy habits. She became a BCRPA Group Fitness Instructor in 2013, a Schwinn® Indoor Cycling Instructor in 2014 and has been instructing since. Her favourite formats to teach include Spin, HIIT, Strength and Total Body Conditioning. Through her years of experience in fitness and continuing education, she is confident in her gained skillset of helping people with their healthy lifestyle goals.
After a 10-year hiatus from the island, she returned to Nanaimo to complete her diploma in Sports Management with Vancouver Island University and is now in her 3rd year of a bachelor’s Degree in Recreation Management through Langara. Once she has completed her degree, she is pursuing a career as a Recreation Coordinator. She hopes to always further her knowledge and passion with healthy living. Up next, you’ll find Aly completing nutrition and fitness for older adult courses.
She is both excited and honoured to be a part of the Zen Revolution team. She looks forward to welcoming everyone into the studio and getting to know you all with energy, enthusiasm and of course a little sweat.
CAROLYN MCPHERSON
BARRE + SCHWINN SPIN CERTIFIED + 500-HR YOGA TEACHER
Carolyn completed her first yoga teacher training at AyurYoga Eco-Ashram in India in 2014 and has been teaching yoga full time since then. In 2016, she returned to the same ashram and stayed there for almost one year to work, study, and teach. During that time, she lived a completely yogic lifestyle and deepened her knowledge about yoga philosophy, meditation, and Ayurveda. She also completed the advanced 500-hour teacher training course. Additionally, she has become certified in yin yoga teacher training course, Ayurveda therapy and Barre.
Carolyn can teach many different styles of yoga and likes making her classes accessible for all levels. She has taught yoga all around the world, including in Angola, Zambia, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and more. She is excited to have now settled in Nanaimo and is looking forward to sharing her passion and diverse experience of yoga with the community here.
Aside from yoga, Carolyn enjoys many types of dancing, outdoor sports, travelling, quilting, reading, and cooking.
JEAN MEDLEY
SPIN INSTRUCTOR, PERSONAL TRAINER + STRENGTH COACH
Jean started off her fitness journey swimming and running. Having never picked up a weight until her mid 20s, she instantly fell in love with weight training and living a healthy, active lifestyle. She became a BCRPA certified personal trainer in 2013 wanting to share her passion and knowledge for fitness as a healthy lifestyle.
After a year of personal training, the call to adventure came. Having not stepped on a bicycle in years and not letting her vision disability get in her way, she decided to challenged herself by biking over 10 000 kilometers (unassisted) through Mexico for two years. She realized through her own experience that we, as humans, have way more access to physical and mental strength than we believe we do.
Upon returning to Canada and moving to Powell River she obtained her group fitness and indoor cycling certificates through BCRPA.
Now calling Nanaimo home she is thrilled to be a part of the Zen Revolution team and to share her love for physical activity, music and sense of community with the Zen community!
KARIN KRONSTAL
KEISER + SCHWINN CERTIFIED FOR SPIN, GROUP FITNESS + BARRE INSTRUCTOR CERTIFIED
A lifelong cardio enthusiast, Karin became a certified group fitness and spinning instructor in 2005. Quickly, she became an evangelist for the benefits of indoor cycling for everyone from the serious cyclist to the complete novice.
Karin has taught bootcamp, dance and cycling fitness classes in Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax, and is pleased to join the awesome team at Zen Revolution.
She looks forward to bringing her positive and energetic teaching style to the studio, and to yelling things like, "That's not sweat on your brow, it's the fountain of youth!"
KIM KRIEGER
SPIN CERTIFIED, STRENGTH COACH + PERSONAL TRAINER
Athleticism is not something Kim has always embraced. In school, she hated gym class with a passion. She and her friends would constantly cheat on school runs, she’d “forget” her PE strip at home (she's sure her teachers saw through her mysterious illnesses that always coincided with gym). She even joined a soccer team in grade five, only to quit on the same day because there was too much running involved!
Kim counts herself lucky for the friendships and mentorships that have taught her that there's no one way to enjoy moving. You don’t have to go to the gym, you don’t have to join organized sports, and you certainly don’t have to run if you don’t want to! Regular physical activity has become an indispensable tool not only for her physical and mental health but also for self-discovery.
Now, after a short but successful career as a doula, Kim is honoured to share her passion for and knowledge of movement with others at Zen Revolution, offering spin classes as a certified Spinning® instructor and strength classes as a BCRPA-certified personal trainer.
SARAH LANE
SPIN + BARRE CERTIFIED + 200-HR YOGA TEACHER + STUDIO OPERATOR
Sarah is a CanfitPro Fitness Instructor Specialist, certified Schwinn Indoor Cycling instructor, certified BARREabove instructor and a certified 200-HR Yoga Teacher now working on her 500-HR Yoga Teacher Training through the Red Door Yoga Studio, in Nanaimo, BC.
Sarah’s love for spin started in 2001 when she started attending SPINNING classes at World Gym in Taichung, Taiwan. She fell in love with this great, high-energy, cardio-pumping, low-impact workout immediately. She was lucky to find a community of like-minded spinthusiasts who used SPINNING to train for their epic and well-planned Sunday road biking journeys throughout Taiwan's countryside, which she was lucky to have been invited to join.
Born in Port Alberni and growing up in Victoria, Sarah carries Vancouver Island culture in her heart. Having travelled extensively and having had the experience of living abroad, in Australia twice, Taiwan for three years and Thailand for a year, she is globally aware.
With a background in business and gift in planning, Sarah ran a conference planning business for a decade, planning and executing conferences across Canada and obtained her Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 2017. Spin helped her overcome the pressures and stress of one of the top five most stressful jobs (Forbes 2017). Realizing the pressures, and unwanted stress of this profession while raising a family, Sarah felt it was important to re-evaluate professions. Opportunities moved her in to health, wanting to chase spin, the tool that had helped her maintain a healthy mind set during a decade of high-pressure work. Being a fitness instructor ensures one always gets their exercise!
In her time away from the studio, she enjoys spending time at their cabin at Spider Lake, growing food, playing vinyls and cards, and dancing and singing with her family and dog, Jazzy. She values supporting and being involved in Nanaimo’s artistic community through service on the Board of Directors for the Nanaimo Art Gallery.
Follow what you love to love what you do. Let's roll!
GUEST TEACHER: JULIE HORWOOD
YOGA THERAPIST + YOGA NIDRA GUIDE
Julie is inspired to support others to find more balance, joy and peace through her teachings. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from over 30 years as a registered nurse, and 12 years as a yoga teacher and yoga therapist. Over the past 6 years, exploring mindfulness through stillness and gentle movement has led Julie to develop a Restorative yoga and Yoga Nidra practice.
Yoga Nidra is an amazingly restful, healing practice. A guided meditation exploring layers of the body (Koshas) leads to a state similar to deep sleep. A 30-minute practice is said to be equivalent to 3 hours of deep sleep. Yoga Nidra can improve the quality of sleep, providing a much needed tool for many of us. Restorative Yoga is the perfect avenue for developing a mindfulness practice and preparing the body for yoga Nidra through breath, body and thought awareness. Yoga Nidra following a Restorative practice is like the icing on a cake, offering a truly deep rest before heading back into the daily routine.
We would like to welcome Julie to our community, and thank her for sharing her knowledge with our community. Julie runs her own yoga studio - Six Persimmons - if you don't catch her for a Yoga Nidra at ZEN, her doors are open to our community, there, too!