About The Movement Barn

Nadya is the newest member of the TMB team! Nadya was introduced to fitness at an early stage as her Mother is also a fitness instructor. Back in the day, the free-weights area in the gym was very male dominated, but as a teenager Nadya plucked up the courage to start lifting weights and loved how much stronger she felt. Fitness became a passion and after a number of years, decided to start her instructor training in Australia.

Nadya started teaching indoor cycle and strength classes in 2017. As soon as she received her first qualification, she was hooked on how she was making her clients feel, both in classes and personal training. Continually furthering her qualifications over the span of 5 years (and still going!), discovering her love of Pilates and helping her clients feel stronger!

Your Fitness Philosophy:

Enjoyment of movement is key. Choose whatever movement you enjoy, then get as good as you possibly can at that movement. 

Qualifications: 

Level 2 and 3 in fitness, Diploma of Pilates, indoor cycle, pre and post natal exercise.

• Level 2 & 3 in fitness
• Diploma of Pilates
• Indoor Cycle
• Pre and Post Natal Exercise

Your Favourite Way to Exercise:

It really depends on the day and how I’m feeling at the time, as long as muscles are working and blood is flowing!

Your Favourite Class to Teach:

Strength and conditioning such as our Build and Breathe Classes along with Pilates of any kind!

Your Personal Training Style:

My personal training style is malleable and adaptable, I’m the smiliest military bootcamp instructor you’ll meet … or so I’ve been told!

How do you Treat Yourself?

I Treat my mind with meditation daily and body with good food!

Your Best Moment as a Personal Trainer:

 We organised a huge charity indoor cycle class where our regulars, along with heaps of new people came along and smashed a workout in fancy dress to raise money for the floods in Australia.

Your Favourite Piece of Equipment and Why:

It definitely changes! I would say overall, the kettlebell. It’s almost impossible to find an exercise you can’t do with one. You can do fun, dynamic movements, or strict strength movements, kettlebells are just so versatile.

If you’d like too book a class with Nadya, please check out our latest timetable!

Our classes centre around three simple principles; Build, Breathe & Move. By combining these three pillars in varying degrees, you can personalise your fitness schedule to best achieve your goals.

Build refers to getting stronger, Breathe refers to improving your cardio fitness and Move refers to increasing your mobility and flexibility. Any training programme will contain elements of one or a combination of these pillars, but by breaking these down and using them to form the basis of our classes, we allow our members to match their training programme with their goals.

Build Classes

Our Build classes are designed for those who want to build strength as part of their long term goal. Building strength doesn’t necessarily mean drastically increasing muscle mass, there are a number of benefits associated with strength training:

• Can help prevent bone loss and reduce the risk of osteoporosis
• You’ll feel more powerful
• Helps reduce risk of injury by strengthening your joints, ligaments and tendons
• As with all exercise, weight-bearing exercise helps boost your metabolism

Classes at The Movement Barn that incorporate Build exercises include TRX, Kettlebells, Build, Pilates, Yoga and Build & Breathe.

Breathe Classes

If you’re not a fan of the treadmill or elliptical but want to improve your overall fitness then our conditioning classes are perfect for you. They combine a variety of aerobic exercises to help get your blood pumping, busting the myth that cardio has to be boring and repetitive. Here are some benefits of cardio or ‘metabolic conditioning’:

• If you’re looking to lose body fat, cardio burns a lot of calories
• The clue is in the name – cardio improves cardiovascular health
• Can help control blood sugar and keep blood pressure at a healthy level
• Improves certain mental functions
• Increases stamina, you may feel tired at some points but long term it can help keep you free from fatigue

Classes at The Movement Barn that incorporate Breathe exercises include TRX Breathe, Metabolic conditioning, Breathe, Breathe & Build.

Move Classes

These classes are ideal for those looking to improve their mobility and flexibility. They’re designed to help you reconnect your mind and body, reduce pain and focus on your posture. Benefits include:

• Ideal for stress relief, improves mental health
• Gentle mobility exercises can help reduce inflammation
• Increase core strength
• Improve balance and stability

Classes at The Movement Barn that incorporate Move exercises include Move, Pilates, Yoga and Move & Build.

We hope this helps you understand the structure behind our classes here at The Movement Barn. If you need further guidance on choosing the best class for you and your goals then please get in touch and don’t forget your first class is free!

What is The Movement Barn?

The Movement Barn is a coach-lead studio nestled in the Berkshire countryside. Some would describe us as a boutique gym, specialising in personal training and fitness classes for groups up to ten. Our classes are built around three simple principles: Build, Breathe & Move which give our clients the ability to structure their training to help achieve their goals.

Why Did We Launch The Movement Barn?

Having been both a freelance personal trainer and working in commercial gyms around west Berkshire and Oxfordshire for 9 years, our founder, Harry, has a wealth of knowledge across the health and fitness space. Over the years Harry has refined his approach to coaching and when his personal training business became fully booked, he became determined to help more people than a one to one setting would allow.

In May 2021 the Movement Barn was launched with a goal to simplify health and fitness. We believe everyone should have the tools and knowledge to create sustainable changes no matter their current fitness level or circumstances.

Our Resident Personal Trainers

As well as our variety of fitness classes, we also offer personal training. More than just traditional one on one training, we provide our clients with the tools, knowledge and support they require to take control of their health and fitness long term.

June 2021, The Movement Barn welcomed a second personal trainer, Dexter. When it comes to fitness, Dexter believes in keeping things simple and enjoying the process. Allowing you to focus on the underlying principles and implement a method that works for you.

Alongside our resident personal trainers, we are lucky to work with Claire from Table & Tribe who coaches our Vinyasa and Yin Yoga classes. Claire believes yoga is about listening to your own body and being kind to yourself, her experience allows her to offer variety to her students, allowing them to tune in and listen to their bodies’ needs.

Our Biggest Challenge

Unsurprisingly, launching a new fitness studio in the midst of a pandemic was challenging. Even when we were able to open our doors, social distancing meant we had to significantly reduce our class numbers and some of our equipment took 8 months to be delivered!

Our Biggest Lesson

We’ve learned that the health and fitness space is more of a team sport that we had anticipated. Despite the liaison with clients, personal training can be somewhat isolated, but that certainly isn’t the case at The Movement Barn. As well as our members supporting each other, we also work closely together as coaches, constantly learning from one another and evolving to make The Movement Barn the best it can be.

If you’d like to find out more about The Movement Barn or have any questions for the coaching team, please visit our contact page.

Harry and Dexter are our resident personal trainers and class coaches at The Movement Barn. We caught up with Dexter to help you get to know him and his approach to health and fitness…

Your Fitness Philosophy:

Keep things simple! Meet fitness at your own level, learn to understand the underlying principles and implement a method based on you, your goals and your lifestyle. The key to success is enjoyment in the process, consistency and the willingness to learn.

Qualifications: 

• Level 3 PT 
• Level 3 Nutrition 
• Pre and Postnatal Exercise and Nutrition 
• RSPH Advanced Level 4 Nutrition 
• GP Exercise Referral
• Kettlebell Trainer
• Nutrition for Sport and Exercise
• Exercise for fat loss
• Circuit Training
• Functional Movement Training
• Suspension Exercise Training
• Core Training
• Behaviour Change Coaching

Your Favourite Way to Exercise:

Strength and conditioning – weight training. 

Your Favourite Class to Teach:

Build (focussed around getting stronger) or Build and Breathe (focussed on a combination of getting stronger and fitter!).

Your Personal Training Style:

My personal training style is malleable and adaptable, each programme is based on the individual client and their needs. Every client is different and requires a unique approach.

How do you Treat Yourself?

FOOD

Your Best Moment as a Personal Trainer:

My best moments have come from a message or comment from a client about how their training with me inside the gym has helped improve their quality of life outside of the gym. Having a positive impact on someones life is why I love what I do. 

Your Favourite Piece of Equipment and Why:

Dumbbells – Dumbbells can be used for any and everything. They allow for more freedom in exercise selection and can be used for any goal and during any workout. Dumbbells can be used as the only piece of equipment to complete a full body session in its entirety.

If you have your own questions for Dexter or would like to reach out to discuss your personal training requirements, please get in touch via email.

We currently have two resident trainers here at The Movement Barn – Harry and Dexter. We had a chat with founder, Harry, to help you get to know him and his fitness philosophy!

Your Fitness Philosophy:

I believe in advocating the unsexy message, that we should focus on the basics including lots of movement, train often, eat mostly single ingredient foods where you can and listen to your body. This approach is simple but not easy.

Qualifications: 

• Advanced diploma personal training (Level 4)
• Lower back pain specialist
• Exercise referral specialist
• Circuits
• Gym based boxing
• Indoor cycling
• Sports nutrition
• Premier global kettle bell instructor
• Premier global suspended movement trainer
• Pilates instructor

Your Favourite Way to Exercise:

Functional fitness and strength training. Functional fitness focusses on exercises that support your daily life, replicating movements you might repeat in your daily life such as pulling, bend and squatting.

Your Favourite Class to Teach:

Build and breathe – a combination of exercises to improve your strength and fitness level.

Your Personal Training Style:

I’m a coach, not cheerleader, so my purpose is to motivate through education. By educating my clients on the training methods and nutritional strategies applied throughout their journey we can secure a more consistent long term approach to health and fitness.

How do you Treat Yourself?

80% of the time I will follow my own advice, the rest of the time I’m quite partial to a glass of wine and a chocolate Hobnob.

Your Best Moment as a Personal Trainer:

The best moment in my career has to be launching The Movement Barn last year. Yes it was tough but the experience has been so rewarding.

Your Favourite Piece of Equipment and Why:

Free weights are simple and effective. Lockdown emphasised the importance of movement at home and free weights including dumbbells and kettlebells were hugely valuable in helping people achieve their fitness goals at home.

If you have any further questions for Harry or would like to discuss personal training, please get in touch via email.