Pippafit

From a very early age she did Ballet and her first sport, Hockey and competed at varying degrees throughout her schooling career. However due to the fact that her family were heavily involved in Shukokai Karate, her father represented South Africa at the World Champs in Paris in 1969, this became her main focus. Two things soon became apparent, Pippa was a natural at Karate and she relished a challenge, attributes that would set her apart later on. After she finished at school Pippa stopped ballet but continued to play hockey at club level. She graded to 1st Dan (black belt) in Karate and began teaching but also competing at provincial level. She worked tirelessly at her Karate and her dedication was rewarded by being selected to represent South Africa in the 2006 World Champs in Finland which she won. Pippa holds the grade of 3rd Dan. Her experience with her success in Finland made Pippa realise that she really enjoyed being active and that she wanted to pursue a career in the fitness industry. However the prospect of being an instructor in a gym was quite daunting to Pippa, but thanks to a push from her supportive Fiance at the time, Vince, who booked her an appointment with the Fitness Manager at Virgin Active Mt Edgecombe and basically left her without an option but to employ Pippa as a Tai Bo instructor on the condition that she complete a basic fitness course. Pippa married Vince, a proficient white water canoeist and together they lead an active lifestyle – paddling, training and playing Golf. In her professional capacity Pippa gained a basic fitness qualification through Reebok. With her experience in teaching and competing at international level sport she soon settled into her new role. Always keen to learn more she completed a course as a Spinning instructor and began teaching at Virgin Active part time whilst working an eight to five desk job. Pippa decided she wanted to work full time in the fitness industry and studied part time. She obtained her National Certificate in Fitness through ETA and became a Personal Trainer at Her local Virgin Active gym. However due to her successful sporting background her focus on Physical Training began to switch to more functional methods as oppose to traditional gym equipment. Functional training focuses on compound movements that work a number of muscle groups together – rather than isolation exercise that only focuses on one muscle or muscle group. By doing compound exercises, the body moves in a way that the human body was designed to do, climbing, jumping, lifting and gets stronger as a powerful and functional unit. Pippa did a level 1 course in Douglas Heel’s Muscle Activation. The course entailed how to release the body’s defense patterns to get more strength, power, flexibility and endurance. Pippa then took up Kettle Bell training and later on attended and passed a rigorous CKT1 Kettle Bell instructor’s course – while 8 weeks pregnant! Her Daughter Jessie was born on 13th April 2012 so Pippa had to take a short break from training. However she is back now and has launched her new business, Primal Dynamics. Due to her experience with giving birth she has added a class to her programme which helps mothers who have recently given birth recover from their pregnancy. Since having a baby, Pippa is even more focused on functional fitness methods and will continue to gain qualifications in this field. Aside from producing great results she finds that functional fitness is a brilliant way of combining the two loves of her life, being active and her family.