Erin Paruszewski earned her success the hard way: by healing her own chronic pain, then choosing to ignore the naysayers and build an innovative fitness franchise to share what she learned. There is little we respect more here at Tune Up Fitness® than a self-made movement boss! So we are excited to share Erin’s story.
Strength, mobility, and cardio are the three pillars of Erin’s functional fitness franchise called Alkalign Studios. However, education and consistency are at the heart of the studio ethos. Without knowing why you’re doing something, it’s hard to stay motivated. Without consistently practicing, it’s impossible to get sustainable results.
After tearing her ACL at 15 years old, Erin was still motivated to perform at a high level as a runner and Triathlete for the next decade. But by 25 she was riddled with aches and pains–driving her to seek better solutions to manage the discomfort.
She wound up, fatefully, in a class with Tune Up teacher Matt Sharpe featuring self-massage on the Roll Model® Method therapy balls. Now, over a decade later and the mother of two, she lives pain-free and has become a specialist in mobility–the exact piece she felt was missing in her own recovery journey.
Erin includes self-massage on therapy balls in her studios as part of a comprehensive approach to fitness. She encourages her students to take responsibility for their self-care and fitness, but it isn’t always easy, as you’ll hear in the interview below.
Listen to Erin and teacher trainer Ariel Kiley as they dive deeper into what it takes to find the tools to heal oneself, the words to inspire others, and the courage to build your dream business.
INTERVIEW AUDIO:
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I totally relate to Erin’s story…except that my journey started much later than hers! As a preteen and teenager, I labelled myself as “unathletic” and actually dreaded gym and any other exercise! I had a mild case of Osgood Slatter’s in 6th grade and I remember feeling thrilled that I got to sit out of gym for 6 weeks! If someone told me today that I had to restrain from physical activity for 6 weeks I would have a hard time with it. It is also amazing that back then, the treatment was to abstain from activity whereas today I am sure that I would have been prescribed physical therapy at least. In my 20’s I started running and ultimately stopped because of knee issues (which probably could have been avoided if I knew then what I know now). Speaking of physical therapy, I embrace Erin’s approach of incoporating physical therapy into her classes. Physical therapy is mostly viewed as a temporary prescription to “fix” a temporary problem. However, once the PT exercises stop, the problem often comes back. PT is functional movement that can be incoporated into regularworkout routines. As a functional yoga teacher and soon to be Tune Up Fitness® Certified Instructor, I think that most of the moves I guide my students through could fall under the PT category!
I enjoyed hearing that the business was motivated from self experience. The three pillars are nice, however hearing how they play a role was better, knowing, practicing, equals results.
Great interview! I enjoyed hearing about Erin’s journey from healing from her own injury to building a community of healing for others!
This article is very interesting!! I love the similarities between working out and movement exercise. The way that the roll ball method is explained is very easy to understand.