It’s simple to get caught in a health rut, or postpone exercising indefinitely. However when there’s a charismatic, encouraging, no-judgment coach or coach in your nook, staying match isn’t a lot a chore as it’s a reward you give to your self.
That’s how Bangor-based coach and health class instructor Skye Washington sees it. From the ethereal, sunny environment of her second-floor health studio on Park Road in Bangor, she leads lessons that she tries to make equal components enjoyable and an ideal exercise.
“I get a lot out of serving to individuals really feel higher about themselves, each mentally and bodily,” Washington stated. “For those who come out of my class smiling and feeling like you’ll be able to tackle the world, then I’ve completed my job.”
Washington grew up in Bangor and graduated from Bangor Excessive Faculty within the late Nineteen Nineties. At all times an energetic particular person, she has been working as a health teacher and private coach for greater than 20 years, each in Connecticut and throughout the Bangor space. Most lately, she provided weekly dance health lessons on the Noh Manner Faculty, a dance studio previously situated at 170 Park St., owned by tango teacher Shiwa Noh.
Lessons there have been suspended when the pandemic struck in March 2020. So Washington started providing coaching periods and lessons nearly, patiently ready for the world to get again to regular. However regular is a transferring goal — and when protests towards police brutality and racism erupted world wide within the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, regular all of a sudden didn’t appear to be one thing Washington needed to take part in anymore.
For Washington, it was a life-changing second that impressed her to make the leap and begin her personal health studio.
“It’s like all of the nervousness I’d had in my life started to soften away. I made a decision that I wanted to cease hiding, and begin placing myself on the market,” Washington stated. “I wanted to let individuals know who I’m, and to face up for Black individuals in Maine. We’re right here. And we must be happy with it.”
Not lengthy after that, Noh determined to maneuver on from her dance studio, and Washington determined to take over the lease at 170 Park St.
Skyefitness opened in January 2021, and within the ensuing 12 months, Washington has attracted a variety of new private coaching shoppers in addition to common attendees of her health lessons. She teaches barre, a exercise fashion that borrows from ballet, pilates and yoga; high-intensity interval coaching, or HIIT; and dance health, a high-energy choreographed dance exercise.
Washington stated one in all her greatest supporters from day one has been Black Owned Maine, the Portland-based nonprofit that helps Black-owned companies in Maine.
“They put me on their weblog. They put my title on the market. I bought so many purchasers due to that,” she stated. “I did my ancestors proud.”
For a full record of Skyefitness’ lessons and different choices, go to skyesfitness.com.