ABOUT
BOBBI ZEMO

Let me start by telling you who I am.

I am a child of God. I am an Infinite Being living in a human body and I bless my consciousness, spirituality and my humanity. I have many titles: a woman, a mother, grandmother, a life partner, a sister, a friend, a Pilates and fitness trainer, a cancer survivor and a veteran but these titles do not define me. I am constantly growing and changing. I have lived my life the best I could. My path has been and still is to learn, to grow, to be more aware and to be more conscious. I am an infinite being, a divine being and through my choice I create my life.

This book is a collection of facts, feelings, thoughts and beliefs about things I have personally experienced through working on myself or working with someone else. This book is my personal journey. Things I have experienced, studied or been shown through my professional, personal and spiritual life.

I have learned that every moment of everyday is a gift. This book is a compilation of the realization of those gifts. Gifts that have brought me to my greater good and I believe they are gifts that should be passed on for the greater good of all.

Let me tell you how I got into the fitness field. In 1991, I was in a car accident that left me with soft tissue injuries in my neck and back. I had no idea what soft tissue injuries were or how to heal these injuries. Prior to the accident, I had been working out on a regular basis at home and at the gym. When I turned 30 I felt it was a necessity. During my treatment for the soft tissue injuries to my neck and back I was told I should do some type of low impact aerobics everyday. I really did not know what low impact even meant. I decided to try an aerobics class at the gym. I had never taken any classes and now I had these soft tissue injuries to my neck and back. The first class I took was a Step Aerobics class. I felt like I was moving so fast across the step that I was going to go flying across the room and hurt myself worse. I knew I was not helping my body by taking this class and in fact I was afraid that I would hurt myself worse. I left the class knowing this was not for me. Next, I tried a Hi/Low Aerobics class. This class was also very fast. There was a lot of jumping and there were a lot of arm movements over the head. I stayed in the back of the room, off to the side, and moved at my own pace. The instructor jogged up to me and asked me, “What was wrong?” I said I had some injuries to my neck and back. The instructor just turned and jogged back to the front of the class and continued to teach without saying a word to me or to the class about what you should do if you are injured or have limitations.

I knew there was something wrong with these classes but I did not know enough about fitness to know what it was that was wrong about them. Now, I know that both classes were too fast. The step class was taught so fast that it was not safe. You could not maintain good body alignment or good control of your movements and if you can’t do that, then what is the point. The Hi/Low Aerobics class was also fast and it was mostly high impact, which is very hard on the joints and spine. The arm movements over the head should have been limited. Bottom line was that neither class was for me. The best option for me at the time was to walk. I also bought a beginners Hatha Yoga video and started working out with the video 3 to 4 times a week.

I realized that I had to take control of my healing process and I was going to do whatever I needed to do to get back to my healthy self. I realized through all of this that I wanted to learn how to teach fitness classes for people like myself, people who had injuries and were trying to get healthy or people who either had never worked out or people who had not worked out in along time. I think the worst thing for anyone is to walk into a fitness class and feel like they failed at the class. If we succeed, we feel good and it makes us want to continue. If we fail, we walk out of the class and never come back. It took about 2 years before I found out about an organization that I could get certified through to teach aerobic classes. Aerobics and Fitness Association of America; (AFAA) is located in California and I heard that this was a good place for me to start. I contacted them and signed up for their aerobics workshop and certification. They sent me all the materials and I studied for 2 ½ months before attending their weekend certification. At this point, I had never taught a class but I knew that I wanted to learn how to teach a safe and correct class before I ever attempted to actually teach a class. I wanted to be able to teach a class where everyone would be able to work at their own level and feel successful. Somehow, I knew that was what it was suppose to be about. When the weekend arrived for the certification, I was very excited to learn how to teach a safe and correct aerobic class. I had to take both a practical and written test. I passed the written and failed the practical. One month later I retook the practical test and passed it.

My first job was at an all women’s gym. I was nervous but I just got up there and gave it my best effort. I always taught my class so that everyone in the class felt they could do it no matter what their fitness level. Of course, I had no idea what “staying on the beat” meant. Eventually, I was able to teach my class to the beat of the music. It took a few years, but I just kept at it until it got better and better. It was hard for me because I had no music or dance background but I saw it as a challenge and it made me a better instructor.