Meet Carolyne Anthony of The Center for Women’s Fitness in Rogers Park and Edgewater

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyne Anthony.

Carolyne, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I founded The Center for Women’s Fitness in 1994, not with any forethought of becoming a teacher training facility but really to keep teaching while bringing up my (then) two daughters. I renovated my basement into a small comfortable studio and began teaching my friends and neighbors anything from fitness to ballet- you name it, I taught it. While setting up the studio I became pregnant with my third daughter.

My intention back then was just to make a little pocket money, keep my interest in fitness going while being a stay at home mum. Little did I know what was ahead of me.

My business grew rapidly. I listened to the stories. There were women who did not feel comfortable going to a gym, or Pilates studio with the body they had. Apparently, my take on exercising during pregnancy made sense, my fitness programs were fun and effective. Why? Because my classes were geared towards women. I didn’t expect anyone to be buff or ripped. You came to class to work your body (the one you were given) and had fun doing it. You were never discouraged or made to feel lacking in any way. All shapes, sizes, stages of life were made to feel normal.

I listened to the fear of birth, the fear of aging, basically the FEAR of being a woman and I decided to do something about it.

First and foremost, I began to develop a pregnancy program that addressed the changes that were taking place and designed the exercises to support these changes rather than fighting them. After a few years and a stint as a birth doula, I realized that what we should be doing is creating movement to prepare women for the birth rather than just keeping fit. With this program underway, I had to design a postnatal program to help my pregnant clients when they returned. And they did, in droves. I began to design the postnatal programs based on the birth stories and what had happened during labor and delivery, rather than on the pregnant body.

These programs soon built into the Teacher Training programs you have today.

As I experienced my own transitions in life, from pregnancy through menopause, I began to design more programs specifically geared to the female anatomy and physiology. Armed with information from many alternative sources, my Women’s Health programs truly address being a woman, what that entails and definitely, how to exercise as a female.

As women, we have many gifts. We cannot separate the physical body from our other subtle bodies. Our emotional, mental and spiritual bodies are represented by our physical and if one is not in alignment, the others are not either. This has an enormous effect on how we exercise and my teachers are taught how to watch for this. We teach YOU how to take responsibility for your own body and health. We teach YOU how to accept and love what you have. We teach YOU that everything you are experiencing is NORMAL for a woman. Birth is not an illness and neither is aging. You can be fit and strong at 20 and be fitter and stronger at 60. I teach you to change your mind about fitness and see it as not just a physical outcome. I teach you fitness of the mind and spirit as well.

I teach you to be FEMALE.

Has it been a smooth road?
Smooth road? What exactly IS that? It has been the obstacles that have made me what I am today and I am grateful for that.

For most of us women, it is a struggle to balance home and work and everything in between. I am now a grandmother and I watch my daughter face these same struggles and I wonder why nothing has changed? But we persevere because we have to.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Center for Women’s Fitness story. Tell us more about the business.
I run a continuing education company that specializes in exercise for women through every stage of their lives. This means seeing them through their pregnancies, postpartum, menopause and just about everything else that can happen to us from breast cancer to osteoporosis.

At the moment I specialize in Diastasis Recti Repair and Postpartum healing as they both work hand in hand.

I am very proud of the fact that I have helped change how women think about their exercise routines and how they view their bodies and given them permission to be kind to themselves. By training other teachers I am able to spread that message far and wide. I have 2000 certified teachers in 40 countries now.

What sets me apart is my holistic view and my message of empowerment of women through education of female anatomy and physiology.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
As a pioneer in exercise and women’s health, I only see this category blooming and I am grateful to already have programs in place. I would dearly love to see one of my programs- The Gentle Birth Project (which teaches women about how their bodies change during pregnancy and postpartum, and what they can do to help themselves) implemented in Hospitals and Birthing Centers around the world. We are already making head way in Asia with this concept. I am also trying to resurrect the Traditional art of abdominal massage and binding after the birth.

There is a shift towards understanding more about the needs of women, how they birth, how to view menopause positively, but the change is slow. My mentors have said the same things I am saying today. Let’s hope the next generation see the effects of what we have laid down.

Contact Info:

• Address:
  Pilates Chicago
  6101 N. Clark Street
  Chicago 60660
• Website: www.thecenterforwomensfitness.com
• Phone: 1-847-525-6178
• Email: info@thecenterforwomensfitness.com
• Instagram: carolyne_anthony
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarolyneAnthonyWomensHealthandExercise/?timeline_context_item_type=intro_card_work&timeline_context_item_source=100008936982382&pnref=lhc
• Twitter: @CarolyneAnthony

Image Credit:
Matthew T. Cole

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