Meet Marisa Farrah | Pilates Instructor

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

Hi Marisa, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Betting on yourself is always a risk. Life doesn’t pause in order for you to get your business up and running, or take your business idea from a concept and put it into practice. I still had to earn an income and take care of my family, walk the dog, make dinner, pay the bills, all while building up the courage to take a leap of faith and start Marisa Moves Pilates. The meat and potatoes of the business I knew well. I was already training clients in private and group settings full time, but the business aspect was a bit scary at first. At some point I had to cut my hours working for others in order to have the band width to start Marisa Moves Pilates. I thought, I can overthink this all I want, I can plan and prepare, but I need to just have faith in myself that if I give up these hours and this income working for someone else, that I have what it takes to replace that income doing what I know and what I love to do. So that’s what I did. I made the decision and I went for it. It feels a bit like jumping off a cliff, but nothing is more rewarding than doing something you believe in even if it’s scary and the outcome is uncertain. It’s cliche but Marisa Moves Pilates is my baby, a reflection of my hard work, and I’m happiest when I’m able to be invested in my work in such an intimate way.

What should our readers know about your business?
Marisa Moves Pilates offers both equipment and mat based pilates in private, small group, and virtual class settings. I focus on core strength, spinal health, injury recovery, and personal training. My goal is to make pilates accessible and beneficial for anybody, whatever their fitness goals may be. My own body has been a source of chronic pain my whole life. As a competitive gymnast I suffered from autoimmune disease and injuries that resulted in a total hip replacement at the age of 33. It sucks to feel like your body is broken, but pilates helped me find the beauty in my body again and ultimately got me to a place of strength, stability, and flexibility beyond just injury recovery. Pilates isn’t just a work out, it’s about functional movement and breath that can truly feel like medicine, with a huge asterisk and that is… *if it is taught properly. Pilates has grown immensely in popularity over the last decade and with that comes the ability for the practice to reach more people, but also a huge discrepancy in quality of instruction depending on where people go or who they turn to when beginning or further progressing their practice. Pilates is big business now! In many settings it’s corporate, giving clients an impersonal experience with limited benefits and greater risk of injury. It’s unfortunate but when you pack 12 reformers into a small studio with instructors not equipped to keep the bodies in their charges safe while still building strength, the outcome may not be what people expect when doing pilates. Marisa Moves Pilates is different and personal. My clients can be assured that they will get the best quality instruction, see results, and feel good in their body. Pilates should help people with pain relief, body awareness, balance, posture, overall health and strength, and that’s what I aim to provide my clients.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Red Rocks of course! I’m a Colorado girl so taking in a concert at Red Rocks is always a go to. Creekside Cellars in Evergreen for wine by the river, followed by paddle boarding on Evergreen Lake, a mountain day but only 30 minutes from the city. In the summer, it’s Water World or tubing down the South Platte River to take out at the Breckenridge Brewery for a beer while watching the sunset behind the Rockies! Adventure West in Littleton offers tube rentals and shuttle service to tube down the river. Sounds like a perfect Colorado day to me!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My friend, Heidi Kullman, is co-owner of Arvada Goat Yoga and also an accomplished pilates instructor in her own right. She encouraged me to get my own pilates reformer and start my own business. We’ve known each other a long time so having Heidi say to me, “You can do this. You’re so good at what you do.” That was very powerful, especially since I had been watching her navigate the process of starting a business herself.

Website: https://www.marisamovespilates.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/marisadfarrah

Facebook: https://Facebook.com/marisafarrah

Other: https://marisamovespilates.com