Meet Christi Sullivan | Personal Health, Performance & Spiritual Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christi Sullivan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christi, what’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
The most important lesson my business/career has taught me is the value of personal development. If I wanted my business to grow and evolve, I also needed to grow and evolve.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I’m going to start with how I got to where I am today. I started working at a gym when I was 18, starting out as a babysitter. I eventually started teaching aerobics, working the front desk and sales and then becoming a personal trainer. As I got into personal training and was getting into continuing education courses I had come across Paul Chek and the CHEK Institute. The course I bought was Scientific Core Training. I fell IN LOVE!! I went through the entire program to become a Level 4 CHEK Practitioner and a level 3 Holistic Lifestyle Coach and Golf Biomechanics. So what does this mean? Basically I was beginning to set myself apart from the rest of the trainers. I am a highly qualified trainer that can correct a lot of pain, imbalances and compensations when no one else could. If I couldn’t, I knew how to direct the client for the help they needed.
I could feel myself growing out of the gym I was working at. I decided I would rent space out of the gym and buy my own equipment. The start of becoming an entrepreneur. It got me started and at some point I needed to be out on my own. This was a little challenging because I decided to do this in 2009 when everything crashed. I knew my personal training needed something else to help support it. I’m highly skilled at assessment for technique, lifts and yoga postures. I was in the middle of teacher training. I was beginning to make the changes necessary to begin starting my own business outside of the health club.
I told a friend what I wanted to do about opening up my personal training and yoga studio in a year as I saved money and looked for a place. Well, two week later he called me and found me a place in downtown Loveland. I had to make a decision. Now or never. I took the leap of faith and said “lets do this”

I absolutely love teaching people how to eat, move and be healthy. I love being able to help them on multiple levels to help get them out of pain and living more vital lives. The corrective exercise and tools that I’ve learned along the way are such a beautiful compliment to my CHEK Training. FMA Strength Coach, this is based out of Australia and I learned the end stages of strength and conditioning so I could bridge that gap between someone finishing up physical therapy and before fully moving back into the sport or activity. I took these concepts and implemented them into my yoga classes which I now call StrengthYoga. I implement strength and conditioning concepts into my yoga classes. While in my FMA courses I learned about structural anomalies. This is huge to know when working with people and for my yoga classes. This has made a huge difference for people developing strength in class. We are all individuals that have had unique life experiences that have shaped our bodies along with our genetics. No one pose should look the same for any two people. While there may be some similarities, there will also be differences. I embrace teaching people to love and embrace their differences. We have unique orthopedic profiles. We are not going to get into the pose we see someone else doing. This is how we get hurt. Learn to do your practice with your body, not someone else’s practice comparing yourself to them. That’s a recipe for disappointment and robs you from the joy working out or doing a practice can give you. Learning P-DTR was the icing on the cake for me. This modality takes corrective work to a whole new level.

I got to where I am today because I never gave up. If I came up to an obstacle I went into problem solving mode. What did I need to do or learn to overcome? I came up on another challenge as we all did in 2020. This boiled down to not thinking I knew it all and asking for help when I needed it. This is where taking personal development courses became key. Overcoming challenges is never easy. It means we need to look at our own bullshit and take responsibility for the healing so there is the strength to overcome and grow. This challenge around my business and how I was being asked to evolve. From March to November of 2020 an aspect of my business was simply not coming back. I needed to go into deep reflection and introspection about what it is that I need to do. I decided it was time to down size. I closed my downtown studio. I work from my home and rent space at Legends Pro Gym so I can continue to do what I love. I’ve developed a couple of home courses and in the process of developing a new course around self healing. I am planning a women’s yoga retreat in September in Empire, CO.

The lessons along the way are to speak your truth, be authentic, be vulnerable and ask for help. This is where the biggest growth potential lies. Embrace life to its fullest and never stop learning, and questioning. Above all, laugh and don’t forget to find joy in this world.
My brand is to help you find your authentic voice, embrace who you are and help you be able to express that message into the world. I do this with a combination of the modalities I have learned over the years. I am learning new skills right now that will help me and my clients to new heights.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Horsetooth Falls/Rock for a hike is a must. For lunch head to downtown Loveland to Backyard Tap for local beers and whatever local lunch truck happens to be there. Check out the downtown shops and last stop Dark Heart Coffee for some of the best coffee downtown (maybe Colorado) has to offer. Head out to a friend’s farm and take them shooting and a home cooked meal.
Next day we would head down to the bike trail along the Thompson River to walk my dogs and play in the river. Stop by Legends Pro Gym for a workout and do my yoga class before stopping at 120 Bar and Grill for dinner.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This is very challenging to narrow down as so many people that were/are along my journey that I would love to give a shout out to. A shout out to every member that ever walked through my studio and the supportive friends I made along the way. What a gift. Paul Chek and the CHEK Institute as well as Dr. Jose Palomar with P-DTR Global. This is where I have learned some crazy amazing skills to help people get out of pain. Rachel and David Godfrey of ChaseLife who were so important in learning about and starting my journey with personal development and self healing.

Website: www.lovelandyogacorefitness.com

Instagram: vitality_for_life_christi

Facebook: vitality for life by christi

Youtube: Christi Sullivan

Other: https://gettr.com/user/cksully https://gab.com/cksully/posts/107543155132238770 https://mewe.com/i/christisullivan https://strength-yoga-school-9754.thinkific.com/users/checkout/auth

Image Credits
the very first photo the credit goes to Deahna Brockman Photos the rest I took