Our Team
Ryan Iott, Founder/movement specialist
Since I was a kid, I’ve enjoyed pushing the boundaries of movement. I wanted to be faster, jump higher, grow taller…. I spent most of my days shooting a basketball around my driveway, riding my bike around the country roads, getting extreme with motocross, and exploring the outdoors. I’ve always been captivated by athletics, and excelled at football and basketball.
After high school, I dreamed of playing college football, but I struggled with debilitating back pain that I related as just a “bad back” or common injury that took me out of the running to excel further in athletics. I never looked into the why ~ I did what I could when my back felt healthy, and eventually stopped playing all together when the frequency of pain increased.
I enrolled at GVSU for exercise science and had no idea where this path would take me. Over the years, I’ve learned about our misconceptions ~ mine included ~ on what it means to optimize strength. After college, through my own healing, I became more intuitive about my body’s response to exercise and lifestyle.
My awareness of the fitness trends and mainstream information overwhelm around exercise and nutrition, led me to dive deeper into developing a system to optimize health by tapping into intuition, and combining that communication with physiology and functionality.
Outside of training, I enjoy Michigan football, golf, traveling, and spending time with my family. I hope to be part of your story in finding your way to true health freedom.
Jason Downing, Movement Specialist
I’ve been heavily involved in sports from a young age. I was raised in an active household where exercise, especially strength training, were commonplace. From middle school to high school, I had great coaches and people around me that helped instill the importance of training to increase performance and compete. After graduating high school, I wanted to stay close to athletics and had the goal to train professional athletes as a career.
After spending time in that capacity, I realized what people (myself included) saw on TV or thought of when working with athletes was actually quite different in reality.
It’s not about the “numbers” in the gym, it’s always about keeping them healthy, moving well, and extending the longevity of their careers.
I think we’re all athletes to some extent, be it golf on the weekends, jogging before work, or chasing your kids around. To accomplish any of this for any period of time, it doesn’t matters what you can bench bro...it matters more how you’re able to do these activities, recover, and do so pain free.
To extend our longevity, we all need to move frequently and move well. That’s what I hope to help you achieve.
During my free time I enjoy golfing, reading, strong coffee, and traveling.
Shannon Sadoski, Yoga/Mindfulness Coordinator
A junk food junkie, cardio obsessed, work-a-holic that transformed her life into something much more meaningful ~ that’s how I see my evolution. I grew up very conventionally. I played outside, watched tv, ate Spaghetti O’s and Oreo cookies as my main food groups. I thrived while running, kickboxing, and spending every minute of the day involved in something social until I crashed at night.
With a small frame, people, including doctors always assumed, “You’re healthy! You’re small, you work out, and you have energy.” But internally, both physically and mentally, that wasn’t the case. After experiencing some eye opening health concerns as a young adult, I left my job as a personal trainer to dive into holistic health education. After certifying as a Natural Food Chef and yoga instructor, and seeking many modalities to dive deeper into my mental health, my life truly began to transform.
I’ve learned it starts from the inside out. The answers we need are already within us, we just need to listen. Through yoga and mindfulness, I empower myself and others to trust our intuition, tune into our body’s communication and to develop a lifestyle authentic to our unique energy. I hope to connect you with a practice of connecting to YOU.