We are Urban Agility!!

Fitness is a part of a normal life, which also includes family, work and social obligations, and the occasional unplanned insanity.  We don’t reach for perfection – we reach for improvement.  We don’t compete with others – we compete with our own selves.  The most important thing is that if you show up and do your best you will learn to get up when you fall down.

Urban Agility workouts will help you:

• Build physical and mental strength and cardiovascular endurance
• Have fun with your fitness
• Learn techniques that aid in injury prevention
• Train for specific goals, sports, and events
• Help you achieve realistic results and real functional strength – holistically and without pills or potions!

Recent Testimonial:
I’ve always been lazy about exercise, and sort of hated myself for it. I made myself go to the gym from time to time, but it was always work, always a negotiation. I wanted the benefits of being fit, but didn’t know how to make myself do the work.

I started taking a circuit class with Susan on the recommendation of a friend. The class was as good as any gym class can be – nice people, varied exercises, and good music. The thing I liked the most about it was Susan. She designed the class well, gave expert corrections with just the right tone, and talked through the class with the perfect combination of distracting anecdotes and inspirational wisdom. I took the class every week and became extremely fond of her, both as an instructor and as a friend.

In March, she invited me to her birthday party the following June. It was going to be a normal party, except we were also encouraged to run a 5K, which she was going to organize. I’ve never been a runner and that distance sounded like a lot to me, but I wanted to make her proud (she has that effect on people) so I agreed to do it.

I would have to train if I was going to run that distance, so I started practicing on the treadmill twice a week. I hated it, of course, but I hate the feeling of failure more and wanted to be successful on the big day. I knew I had a lot of work to do before that was possible.

By the time the party rolled around, I was ready. Susan, along with all of her friends and some of the people from the class who attended, were very supportive and encouraging of me. I am pretty sure I came in last, but it didn’t matter. People who knew what a struggle it was for me to finish that run were so genuinely proud of me, I almost cried.

Another thing happened along the way – I started hating running less. I kept running on the treadmill. One day, I ran my usual three miles and realized I still had some energy, so I kept running. I ran four miles! The next week, I tried to run four miles, and I ended up running five! Then, I tried running outside – it was so much more fun than the treadmill. I ran six miles and felt great afterwards. I started to do the math… if I could increase my mileage by one every week, I could get up to 13 (half marathon) by the time of the Oakland Running Festival. I decided to go for it. Just as having the goal of Susan’s 5K to train for motivated me to run regularly, this mental commitment brought all my training into focus, and I practiced religiously. Regular running was no longer a negotiation, just a fact.

On March 26th, 2012, I completed the Oakland Half Marathon in just over two and a half hours.

Three weeks ago, I ran the full marathon.

I’m a different person now than I was before I met Susan. That’s the effect she has on people – she inspires them to change their lives, not by dispensing advice or espousing rules, but through empowerment, example, and by constructing opportunities for people to reach beyond their abilities and discover what they are capable of. She is more than a trainer – she is a transformer. She helped make me the happy, healthy woman I am today.

Thanks, Susan. You’re amazing.

-Shoshana