At 23, I became a mom. On the outside, my body “bounced back.” On the inside, I was barely holding myself together. After multiple miscarriages and a late pregnancy at 36, I felt completely disconnected from my body. I looked fine, I functioned fine (I think?), but I did not feel fine. (Spoiler: Spanx and coffee can only hide so much.)

Like most women, I was sent home after birth with zero recovery plan. No one teaches us how to reconnect to our core, rebuild stability, or restore strength in our misaligned body. We just cope. Over time, that quiet disconnection becomes our new normal.

When I Realized Normal Was Not Working

My breaking point wasn’t dramatic. It showed up in the quiet moments. How I slouched at my desk. How my back ached just driving the car. How winded I felt carrying groceries. How I couldn’t even sit on the floor with my baby, legs stretched out in front of me, without discomfort. That’s when it hit me... I was too young to feel this old.

That is the trap most women fall into.
We do not seek strength until panic sets in and we feel like something is missing.
Real health is not built in crisis.
It is built quietly, long before we think we need it.

Movement Became My Turning Point

I found movement, not as punishment, but as freedom. My first barre class at Underground Barre lit a spark in me. I fell in love with moving and eventually became certified and started teaching. But over time, I noticed something in myself. I could cue the moves, but my body was not fully connecting. It was not craving choreography. It was craving control, precision, and deeper understanding. I realize now that I was searching for something I did not yet have.

Enter Pilates....

I enrolled with STOTT Pilates in Calgary during what I call my "post-baby crisis," and well... it humbled me real quick. I could not perform half the exercises during my training. I didn't even know how to breathe properly. Years of sucking in my stomach had disconnected me from my own diaphragm (say what?). Add in 8 hours a day at a desk and my body was screaming for change.

What Pilates Gave Me That Nothing Else Did

I began to feel strength return in ways I’d never experienced. Not from pushing harder, but from moving smarter. I started to see all the ways my body had been compensating: years of sitting, stress, posture, and holding myself together in survival mode.

The more I practiced, the more my body responded. I learned how to recruit the right muscles, breathe with purpose, and move from my center instead of my habits.

And once you feel true mind–muscle connection, you can’t un-feel it. Everything changes.

You start to notice everything: how you stand, sit, walk, lift, carry, and age.

Now, approaching 40, I feel stronger than I did at 25. Not aesthetic strong. Functional strong. The kind of strong that matters at 70 when you are carrying groceries, weeding the garden, climbing stairs, and dancing at your granddaughter’s wedding.

The Truth Most Women Do Not Want to Face

We are quick to spend thousands on Botox and filler to freeze time on our face (I love some tox) but ignore the true strength that will carry us through the rest of our life.

Bone density, strength, and mobility don’t just disappear one day.
They fade slowly, decision by decision. They are the result of how we move, how we rest, and how we care for the inside of our body, not just how we maintain the outside.

Pilates is not an expense. It is an investment in every future decade.

Why I Created Rooted Pilates

I built Rooted Pilates to give women what I never had.
Not just a place to move, but a space that truly understands women’s bodies.

A space that knows how to analyze posture and help correct movement patterns.
A space that knows how to rebuild safely after pregnancy and repair the core.
A space that understands bone density, muscle loss, and the realities of aging in a female body.

Rooted is not guessing.
Rooted is educated.

Aging well is not luck. It is training.
And here, aging well is not optional. It is the work.

I am living proof.
When done right, Pilates does not just reshape your body.
It gives you your body back.

I will never stop studying, refining, and deepening my knowledge. I will never stop learning how to do it better, because our small town deserves big results in women's health.

Melissa