We teach fitness of the body, mind and spirit
The Center for Women’s Fitness was founded by Carolyne Anthony in 1994 out of a sense of frustration at the lack of programs designed for women going through pregnancy (as she herself was) and the postpartum period. As an ex professional dancer, active in running and swimming, she found a serious lack of information surrounding one of the most life changing events in a woman’s life. This has started the journey of creating comprehensive exercise programs and teacher trainings around the world that help women balance their physical, emotional and spiritual bodies through all stages of life.
Story of The Center for Women’s Fitness
Carolyne’s search for effective and safe programs for pregnancy led her to find the late Sylvia Klein Olkin, author of The Positive Pregnancy Fitness and Postpartum programs in 1991. Carolyne eventually became a Master Teacher for Sylvia before Sylvia’s untimely death.
Inspired to learn more, Carolyne started to study under well known midwives in her community and certified to be a Birth Doula with Patty Brennan, studied the pelvic floor with midwife Amanda Smith (who did the illustrations for her books). Carolyne attended births and helped women recover postpartum for several years.
As a new mother and pregnant again for the third time, Carolyne set about trying to balance motherhood with designing and teaching the pregnancy fitness program. Opening a home studio worked well in those early years. The time was spent refining the prenatal program that was to become the highly acclaimed international Pre and Postnatal Health and Exercise™ Certification.
Carolyne was first introduced to Pilates in 1982 as a professional dancer in London. Her first teacher was Alan Herdman. She then went on to learn from Real Isacowitz of BASI- where her pre and postnatal program became a part of his advanced education offering. Next in line was a certification through Polestar, PhysicalMind and The PMA. This led to designing programs specifically for Pilates culminating in The Pre and Postnatal Pilates Specialist™ Program. She has also certified as a group fitness instructor with AFAA and AEA.
In 2004, Carolyne began thinking about ways in which she could enhance the postpartum period for women and began her journey into her native Malaysian culture of massage and binding of the abdominals after birth. She discovered that this technique is instrumental in aiding in the recovery and prevention of diastasis recti- a condition that many postpartum women suffer from. Finally in 2011 The Gentle Birth Project™ was born.
As Carolyne experienced her own life changes, she has kept up with her education and has continued to develop movement programs specific to the female anatomy and physiology. Out of the prenatal program has come her Support your Floor™- Pelvic Floor Health, The Center Method for Diastasis Recti Recovery™ and her Pilates for Menopause™ programs for fitness and Pilates instructors.
Carolyne teaches from the whole body perspective – the physical, mental and emotional bodies. As an advocate for women, she uses movement to empower and educate women about their bodies through every stage of life, understanding that without mental or emotional health there can be no physical health. Her training in Esoteric Healing has helped her understanding of the subtle bodies and how to integrate them into movement using breath and gentle rocking. This along with her training as a John Barnes Myofascial Release Practitioner, led to the development of the popular Rocking and Rolling to Release™ course.
The Center for Women’s Fitness Today
Today The Center for Women’s Fitness leads the way in Women’s Health Programs by offering The Women’s Health and Exercise Specialist Certification™ and The Women’s Health Pilates Specialist Certification™ . The Center has over 3000 teachers in 41 countries with 30 faculty members and host sites worldwide.