My Story

My movement journey has been paved by various injuries and an unstoppable urge for learning in the process of overcoming them. I often felt my body was too fragile to follow my pace of life.

In my late twenties, I developed chronic lower back pain and lost sensation in a large part of my left foot. I was a corporate lawyer at the time and would spend hours drafting contracts and then trying to make up for it at the gym. Eventually, my lower back gave in. My neurologist said it was part of a slow degenerative process and I’d have to get used to it.

In 2008, I quit my lawyer job to follow my passion for movement. With little sitting and consistent physical activity, I managed to restore the sensation in my entire left foot and my lower back got much better. Over the years, I developed a particular interest in working with women. Specialising in teaching pregnancy and postpartum yoga and fitness classes, I continued teaching throughout my both pregnancies.

But in my mid-30s, after two close-up pregnancies and a difficult postpartum recovery, I ended up with a 6-finger-wide abdominal separation (diastasis recti) and my back pain became a daily struggle again.

I couldn’t open a heavy door or lift my children out of the bath without my lower back screaming at me. My belly was weak and unresponsive to any training.

More than a year after my second child was born, I still looked 6 months pregnant. I literally had to buy 2 sizes larger clothes to fit over my belly!

I spent two years being able to practise only very gentle pregnancy yoga. I visited numerous physios who had no idea how to help me. I was wondering if I would ever be able to do anything but extremely gentle low-impact exercise. Even a simple sun salutation or dynamic lunges would leave me with back and hip spasms for days.

I’m neurodivergent and I love learning and understanding how things work. So, when I have a problem, I throw a lot of learning at it 🤓

Looking for answers I started learning passionately across the fields of yoga, Pilates, physiotherapy, massage and women’s health. I realised that my back pain and diastasis recti were symptoms of deeper muscular imbalances, weaknesses and compensations and a poor intra-abdominal pressure management. I would bear down at efffort rather than have my abdominal muscles engage reflexively when needed. I had a decade-old habit of sucking my belly in and lot of tension in the sides and back of the torso.

I started from the very basics, retraining my diaphragm, pelvic floor and the deep abdominal muscles, restored the pelvic and thoracic mobility, and gradually built motor control to move without creating excessive forward and downward pressure in my torso. With years of practice and drawbacks, I managed to restore a functional core and get stronger and more resilient than in my twenties.

In this period, I also trained as a personal trainer, Restorative Exercise Specialist, and shifted my focus from working with groups to coaching individuals, especially women. While wrestling with back pain and the core that doesn’t respond to training, both professionally and personally, I got fascinated with the mechanisms of injuries:

Why does an injury happen and what can we do to get out of the injurious pattern?

Digging deeper eventually brought me to an MSc in Biomechanics / Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Roehampton. I graduated in January 2021 with distinction.

Alongside my personal journey, I’ve worked with many people whose bodies don’t respond to traditional core training, especially women trapped in the cracks of an exercise culture not-tailored to women’s bodies. I got fascinated by female athletes’ postpartum return to sport, perimenopause training, the link of back pain and pelvic health, supporting people who train with history of diastasis recti, prolapse, hernias, incontinence and other pressure management issues.

I am passionate about using my knowlegde and personal experience to support people in reclaiming strong bodies that could support them in everything they want to do, from lifting their children to paddleboarding, weightlifting, rock climbing, surfing, skiing or running a marathon.

Over the years, my approach crystallised into my signature method rePower, seamlessly connecting physiotherapy with strength & conditioning training.

Each rePower journey includes three stages:

1. RESTORE - managing pain flare-ups, building core stability foundations
2. REBUILD - increasing muscle mass, core stability in dynamic workouts with added weights/resistance, progressive overload
3. REINFORCE - performance-based, sport-specific training, pushing your boundaries, injury-proofing the body

Why Movement Kitchen?

I see kitchen as a nurturing environment, a space for creating, playing and experimenting. My studio really is a kitchen – with large mirrors, a climbing frame and a variety of exercise props. I aim to recreate the safe and nourishing atmosphere of the kitchen in my sessions too, offering a supportive space for you to get to know your body and get stronger on your own terms.

My Qualifications

• MSc in Biomechanics / Sport and Exercise Science, University of Roehampton, London, UK, 2019-2021, with distinction
• Advanced CPD in Modern Post Natal Assessment, Core Restore & Functional Exercise Programming, Burrell Education, 2023
• CPT-RES Certified Personal Trainer, Restorative Exercise Specialist, Nutritious Movement Center Northwest, Sequim, WA, USA, 2015-2017
• Yoga Therapy 900 Hrs Residential Course, The Yoga Institute Santacruz Mumbai, India, 2012
• Yoga Teacher Training 200 Hrs, The Yoga Federation of Serbia, 2011
• LLM in International Business Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009
• LLB (Hons) in International Law, University of Belgrade, Serbia, 2006

Additional Training

• A-Z of Program Design Strength Training - Online workshop with FitPro CIMSPA, November 2024
• Pelvic Floor Dysfunction - The Missing Link in Persistent Lower Back Pain? - Online Workshop with Carolyn Vandyken, Embodia Academy, April 2023
• Hormones Matter: Considerations for Treating Women with Musculoskeletal Problems - Online Workshop with Susan Clinton and Carolyn Vandyken, Embodia Academy, April 2023
• Intraabdominal Pressure and Strength Training - Online Workshop with Antony Lo, Embodia Academy, March 2023
• Stop Hurting Women with Exercise - 5 Key Concepts to Help Female Athletes - Online Workshop with Antony Lo, The Physio Detective, Embodia Academy, March 2023
• ‘Go-To’ Physio Clinical Reasoning Challenge - Online Workshop with Dave O’Sullivan, The ProSport Academy, January 2023
• Pelvis Pro Miniseries - Online Workshop with Sarah Ellis Duvall, Core Exercise Solutions, November 2022
• Move Your DNA + Fundamentals of Natural Movement Immersion with Katy Bowman, Cambridge, UK, - 8 Hours, Aug 2019
• Boomerang Pilates, MoveSMART Weekend Immersion with Alison Crouch, London, UK - 12 Hours, 7-8 June 2019
• Womb Care Massage Course with Barbara Loomis, 8-Module Online Course - April - June 2019
• Pilates for Modern Bodies - Fundamentals of Flexion - 6-Week Online Course with Alison Crouch, London, UK, March - Apr 2019
• Abdominal Adhesions Massage Course with Barbara Loomis, 9-Module Online Course - Winter 2018/2019 2018
• Move Your DNA: Going Beyond The Points with Katy Bowman, Online Course, 8 Hours, Oct 2017
• Advanced Biomechanics 27-hour Online Course with Katy Bowman, Aug-Oct 2017
• Franklin Method Shoulders and Neck Workshop with Mollie McClelland Morris, London, UK, 3 Hours, July 2017
• Restorative Exercise Specialist Certification Week with Katy Bowman, Castricum, The Netherlands, 48 Hours, July 2017
• Move Your DNA Weekend with Hilary McKown, Milan, June 2017 - 16 Hours
• Balinese Massage Course with Rahasia Nyaman - Ubud, Bali, 30 Hours, Apr 2017
• 6 Weeks Mindfulness Online Course with the University of Leiden (equivalent of MBSR) - Mar - Apr 2017
• Yoga, Qigong and Mindfulness Immersion with Mimi Kuo Deemer, London, UK, 7 Hours, Aug 2016
• 52 Weeks of EveryBody Biomechanics with Katy Bowman, online, Jan 2016 - Jan 2017
• Anatomy Trains BodyReading 101: Visual Assessment with Tom Myers, Online course, Nov-Dec 2015
• Total Yoga Nidra Foundation Course with Uma Dinsmore Tuli, Yogacampus, London, UK, 10 Hours, June 2015
• Yoga Therapy: Practical Philosophy Of Healing with Mark Beuvain, Yogacampus, London, UK, 12 Hours, Jan 2015
• Firing Order In Sequencing and Resetting The Body’s Internal GPS with Doug Keller, Yogacampus, London, UK, 32 Hours, Oct 2014
• Assisting and Adjusting yoga workshop with Emma Henry, London, UK, 3 Hours, July 2014
• Buggy Fit and Postnatal Exercise with GLL Better, London, UK, 4 Hours, July 2014