Olivia Hammerschmidt - Yoga & Pilates Teacher

Starting with my first injury at age 9 I broke 2 of my left toes, later on my left side of collarbone, years later again 2 ribs on my left hand side and a few years later a meniscus tear on my left knee! Did I mention I am accident prone?! All these injuries over time were pulling me forward and giving me bad posture and my left side was much weaker than my right hand side. It has taken work with both pilates and yoga to fix all this, and now I need to still maintain it. Sleeping on my left during pregnancy then carrying him on the left and not having the time to train anymore flared up the old left-hand side weakness and poor posture.

As much as I would love to go to Tough Mudder and Spartan Race now, I’m not going to undersetimate my propensity for injuries and teaching 5 days a week I can’t risk being immobile! The good news is…the pilates and yoga have made me physically stronger and corrected the left hand side imbalance. I enjoy helping others gain their rehab goals so much as I know what a relief it is to be strong and have more symmetry with better posture.

I aim for my classes to have participants feeling better than when they walked in. Yoga classes are invigorating and rejuvenating, enhancing the individuals’ overall wellbeing.  Teaching both Japanese yoga, mat pilates along with modern exercise science techniques, these classes are great for strengthening, sculpting and improving posture. These classes are unique and in demand due to the rehabilitative nature specifically drawing in exercise science techniques that I have been trained in by my Physiotherapist and Chiropractor colleagues.

I teach a fair bit of corporate pilates and yoga in North Ryde, Macquarie Park, Ryde, St Leonards and Parramatta Business District.

As an accredited Japanese Yoga teacher, registered with Yoga Australia and International Yoga Teachers Association (IYTA), Olivia is also an accredited Mat Pilates teacher (Beginners, Intermediate & Advanced), a Yin yoga Teacher (Levels 1, 2 and 3) and a Buteyko Breathing Practitioner (Cert BBM). The Buteyko Breathing classes help enhance sports performance as well as to help address anxiety, panic disorder, chronic stress and insomnia.

I particularly enjoy helping people with sleep issues. I’ve been working with patients from Woolcock Medical Institute for  over 2 years now – those experiencing insomnia – sleep onset, sleep maintenance and early morning waking.

Olivia teaches pilates and yoga at The Fitness Edge at Ryde-Eastwood Leagues Club, Next Gen Ryde, Function Physio (Function Playground) Gladesville, Pinnacle Spine & Sports, Concord and Royal Rehab Putney. On Mondays, you will find Olivia in the office at the oldest Yoga Teacher’s association  – International Yoga Teacher’s Association (IYTA) as part-time Post Graduate Course Manager for Yin yoga, Restorative yoga and Pre & Post Natal yoga and also manages IYTA’s Social Media platforms.