Urban Recess was founded in 2000 as a women’s sport and fitness company with one simple but powerful idea: movement should be fun, sustainable, and life-enhancing — not something that burns you out.

 

As athletic and fitness trainers, we saw firsthand how traditional training models often left women exhausted, disconnected from their bodies, and eventually disengaged. The pressure to perform, push harder, and follow rigid systems was taking the joy out of movement. We knew something had to change.

 

Urban Recess was born from a desire to bring women back to a time when moving, sweating, and exercising felt natural and joyful. We looked to one of the most universally loved moments of childhood: recess — a time to play, laugh, release energy, connect, and simply be. By re-introducing play, creativity, and community into fitness, Urban Recess transformed workouts into experiences women actually looked forward to.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Urban Recess grew into a multifaceted training company offering interval training boot camps, Ab Flex, Pilates, personal training, team-building clinics, and signature classes inspired by elementary school recess games. These programs didn’t just improve fitness — they rebuilt trust with the body and redefined how women related to movement.

 

Over two decades of hands-on experience, coaching thousands of women through stress, transitions, injuries, burnout, and life changes, ultimately shaped what has now evolved into my current training model.

Today, that same philosophy — playful strength, intelligent structure, and sustainable results — has been refined into a modern, highly personalized training approach designed for women navigating real, complex lives.

 

I now work:

• Online with clients across the USA

• Online and in person in the Netherlands

• With a special focus on expats, who are often managing relocation stress, cultural shifts, changing routines, and identity transitions alongside their physical goals

 

This training model blends strength, mobility, conditioning, and mindset, all tailored to where a client is right now. It’s rooted in decades of experience, but built for modern life — flexible, supportive, and deeply human.

 

What began as Urban Recess has become something broader:
a way of helping women feel strong, grounded, and at home in their bodies — wherever in the world they happen to be.