Katie Gray Yoga & Fitness

Katie Gray Yoga & Fitness

5.0Exceptional(9 reviews)
Offers online services
Offers online services

About

I am an "experienced" 200 Hr-Certified Yoga Instructor (over 1,000 teaching hours post-training) and Registered Yoga Alliance Teacher (Yoga Alliance Designations ERYT-200 and YACEP - Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider), Certified Gymnastics Instructor (USA Gymnastics) and will be finishing my ACSM Personal Trainer Certification this month. I also have a bachelor of science degree in Biology from Loyola University Chicago.

I offer Private Yoga Lessons and Personal Training, including Aquatic Personal Training. I'm available to travel for sessions in the downtown Chicago area, giving you the option of the comfort & convenience of your own space in any of the fitness facilities/common areas in your apartment, condo building, workplace or hotel, OR I can provide the training site, my Streeterville building where you can work out at a brand new fitness facility, including indoor/outdoor pools and yoga studio and WellBeats Studio. I have taught group fitness classes (Yoga, Bootcamp, Total Body Conditioning, Spin) at several downtown high-rise residences (73 E. Lake, Axis Apartments & Lofts, The Streeter, 600 N. McClurg/333 E. Ontario, Jones, etc.) and I also have several private clients I work with in the downtown/Streeterville area. I specialize in stretching/flexibility development, building lean and tone muscles, body alignment awareness, posture improvement and balance enhancement. Flexibility is crucial for proper body alignment, stress relief and muscular balance, and stretching reduces tension, increases range of motion and helps prevent injury. I can design a tailored workout plan OR create a personalized yoga practice for your individual body abilities to meet your specific needs and to help you attain your fitness goals, building on your strengths and focusing on your desired improvement areas, while taking into account any illness or injuries (previous and current) and both work around them, as well as help rehab them in their recovery period. I have overcome my own past injuries from my athletic career, and I have personal experience and understanding of how to properly strengthen the body after an injury and during recovery. If you've tried yoga before and found some of the language or environment intimidating, or found the poses challenging, you can learn how to safely navigate traditional yoga postures to rehabilitate areas that need extra attention, through use of props and modifications to support your body and protect your joints and increase your range of motion and bring the body into balance. Whether you are a beginner looking to just learn the basics, or an experienced yogi looking to deepen and improve your practice to the next level, private yoga lessons and personal training can just someone who works out regularly but wants to work on stretching, increasing flexibility, strength, & conditioning, or if you're seeking the mental benefits of a yoga practice, learning breathing techniques/pranayama practices as tools for stress management and anxiety reduction, through meditation and mindfulness techniques, Experience a sequence tailored to your physical, mental and emotional needs, and enjoy a class that is distraction free from other students, where you can focus on your own practice. By personalizing your program you will attain optimum results faster and more efficiently.

I have been teaching physical fitness in some form since I was 16 and still a gymnast myself. I enjoy the challenges of both private and group sessions, but especially private lessons where I can tailor a program to an individual's specific needs, goals, limitations/injuries and strengths to create the best possible outcomes while educating about future injury prevention.


Highlights

1 employee
7 years in business
Serves Chicago , IL
Offers online services

Payment methods

Credit Card, Cash, Venmo, Paypal, Square, Apple Pay, Stripe, Zelle

Social media


Specialties

Yoga type

Customers with no preference, Bikram yoga, Kundalini yoga, Vinyasa yoga, Ashtanga yoga, Hatha yoga, Iyengar yoga

Goals and interests

Increased flexibility, Help with injury/pain, General fitness (e.g., weight loss, toning), Relaxation, Meditation

Experience level

No experience, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Number of students

1 person (one-on-one with instructor), 2 people, 3 people, 4 people, 5 people, 6 people, 7 people, 8 people, 9 people, 10 people, 11 people, 12 people

Student age(s)

Child (under 13), Teenager (13 – 18), Adult (over 18), Senior (over 55)

Photos and videos


  • Reviews

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    BF

    Brynn F.

    Overall, Katie has been a joy to work with! Katie guides me and my husband in our various levels of yoga: I’m a bit more advanced, as Ive been doing yoga for years; my husband was a beginner (had taken one yoga class in his life) when we started taking lessons with Katie. She is able to accommodate each of our levels and make it both enjoyable and challenging for both of us. Katie has expanded our practice and we continue to learn from her. Her instructions are easy to follow and clear and she provides the right level of verbal instructions, adjustments, and demonstration.
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    August 22, 2019

    FR

    Frank R.

    Katie has been giving me private yoga lessons for a couple of months now. She takes the time to personalize the sessions to my needs and limitations. She is patient, highly professional and a great teacher. She’s really great and I wholeheartedly recommend her.
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    July 30, 2019

    EJ

    Estelle J.

    Katie is the best Yoga teacher I have ever had. She is extremely good at teaching and patient but knows how to make sure you consistently improve. I can’t recommend her highly enough.
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    May 22, 2019

    CL

    Caroline L.

    I had always hated working out, I was sedentary, but I figured it was time to get into shape. I had absolutely no experience in yoga before meeting Katie. It actually scared me a little because I am a very non-flexible person. Before starting yoga, Katie inquired about my experience, my health, and my goals to ensure I would get a personalized and adapted training. This really boosted my trust in her!
    Its now been over a year that Ive been working out with Katie and I love it! The one on one set up for is really helpful to be successful. Working out with Katie is extremely stimulating; she doesnt just sit there looking at me sweat, she works out with me at the same time. Her ongoing demo is also very helpful, as it helps me understand the exercises, how they are done properly. Katie is experienced and talented enough to watch me at the same time, ensuring Im doing the work out properly, not loosing my form, and not quitting a little early, even when Im tired!
    Working out with Katie is great because its very diverse. Yoga, personal training, cardio, name it, it never gets boring because there are so many options! I really enjoy working out with Katie, shes great with beginners but can also handle people who are more experienced. I highly recommend her as a personal trainer and/or yoga teacher!
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    January 17, 2019

    JF

    Julie F.

    Katie is trained in so many different disciplines and she worked a variety into our sessions. She also pushed me to go beyond what I thought I could do and, to my great surprise, I was almost always able to do what she asked. I will add that she realized I had limitations and did not push me beyond what she saw was my limit. Katie has a delightful personality, which made the sessions even more pleasant. I have hated exercise my entire life (Im 72) so for me to sing the praises of a personal trainer is saying a lot!!!
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    October 21, 2018

    SJ

    Sham J.

    This was my first time doing yoga and Katie made it a wonderful experience! She has great energy, clear instructions, and doesn’t take her self to seriously. 10/10
    ... Show more
    September 15, 2018

    Frequently asked questions

    There is a bit of paperwork that must be filled out prior to any kind of physical activity, particularly for clients who do personal training. Once all their forms are filled out and they are medically cleared for physical activity, there are two different processes the client will go through depending on if they are choosing to do private yoga or personal training. If you are doing private yoga, you will have a yoga session with me where I ask you to follow my lead and go through a specific set of asanas (poses) to watch how your body forms these shapes and any noticeable areas of needed improvement or areas where you excel/show great proficiency. From that point, I will come up with a plan of daily or weekly asana practices that focus on your desired improvement areas whether it be physical areas (core, arm toning), or areas like overall mood elevation and greater relaxation, while emphasizing your stronger areas as well as working on your areas of needed improvement. If they are doing personal training, their first session will be an administration of an ACSM standard fitness test. While there are different ways to administer this test (especially based on clients with special needs), the most basic form is: 1) taking resting heart rate and blood pressure 2) recording height, weight, and using calipers or a fit bit scale to determine total body fat percentage 3) push up test 4) some type of sub-maximal cardio test, like the Rockport walk test or the Queen step test 5) flexibility test using the sit-and-reach box method

    Testing these 5 basic areas, along with your filled out forms and a face-to-face conversation/interview about personal training and what your goals and expectations are should give me a better idea of how to plan your workouts and come up with an exercise prescription detailed completely to your body's abilities and what your health and fitness motivation and desires are.

    I am an experienced 200 Hr-Certified Yoga Instructor with a Vinyasa Specialization (from Yoga Six Gold Coast Chicago) and Registered Yoga Alliance Teacher (Designation ERYT-200 and YACEP - Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider), with well over 1,000 teaching hours experience. I'm also a Certified Gymnastics Instructor (USA Gymnastics) and Professional Member of USA Gymnastics, and will be finishing my ACSM Personal Trainer Certification this month. In terms of formal education, I have a bachelor of science degree in Biology from Loyola University Chicago.

    $75/hour for private yoga instruction and $75/hour for personal training. I have a special for new clients where they can purchase TWO one-hour sessions of yoga, personal training, or one of each for $100 (savings of $50!). I also have a detailed price list for purchases of duo, trio, and quad semi-private lessons, packages of sessions (saves a LOT of money to buy sessions in packages), and large (more than 4 people) group class pricing. Email me if you are interested in that list and I can send you the PDF.

    I have always been involved in physical activity and teaching in some form. I was a gymnast from the age of 5-17, then when I retired from the sport, I started working as a gymnastics coach and ballet instructor for over seven years. I discovered yoga about four years ago and fell in love with it and have been practicing ever since then. I became a certified yoga instructor last year and started doing both group and private yoga classes, and now I continue to do those as well as personal training sessions and group fitness classes in downtown high-rise residences.

    In both my group and individual classes I have worked with clients who have a wide range of fitness levels and physical abilities, from complete fitness beginners, to athletes looking to enhance performance by increasing flexibility and strength while improving alignment and muscle balance, to older adults looking to prevent or treat arthritis, low back pain, improve posture and reducing the risk of falling. My youngest client is a 3 year old who does private gymnastics classes and my oldest client is 86 who takes part in one of my weekly group fitness classes. I have worked with both male and female clients of all ages and abilities, including ones with illnesses or injuries that I was able to tailor a fitness program to meet their special needs while improving their overall health.

    Recently, I was able to teach a class to the housekeeping staff of a hotel, and despite some initial hesitation due to religious beliefs and language barriers (none of them had ever done yoga before), I was happy to see that eventually so many were willing to at least try and participate, and it truly seemed to make an incredible impact on them. It often seems that the people who need yoga the most are the least likely to have access to it, so I found it incredibly rewarding to observe savasana during that class and see the total relaxation and softness come over them and know that no matter what else was going on in their day, at their job, or in their life, they had a few brief moments of peace and meditation for themselves.

    I would first look the instructor up online on the official websites for Yoga Alliance, ACSM, NASM, or other similar accredited certifying agencies to make sure they actually have the certifications they are claiming to. After that, I would ask for at least one phone or email reference from a current client asking what they thought of the instructor. I would then either read up on their bio or talk to them on the phone or via email to get an idea/sense of what their training philosophy and style is, and if you think it would be a good fit/match for you.

    You should definitely decide beforehand what YOU are looking to get out of the yoga instruction or personal training before seeking out instructors. Write down your thoughts, ideas, goals, and what you think your personal strengths and weaknesses are before even talking to an instructor. That way you have a set list of your expectations beforehand, and start your search from there. Also, put some serious thought about how much time realistically (how many days/wk and hrs/day) you are willing to commit to both training with the instructor AND on your own, and if that amount of time is commesurate with what goals you want to accomplish. I often have seen clients come in at the beginning over-eager and overdo it in the first few weeks, then completely drop off because of burnout, injury, or frustration with not seeing immediate results. It's better to commit to a realistic amount of time and work out with your trainer the best schedule for both of you and that keeps you on a steady track of progression instead of a rollercoaster of highs and lows. 


    Services offered

    Yoga
    Meditation