“I’ve been a fitness instructor forever, I’m a Mum with four kids and I’ve always been interested in fitness, working in lots of different places like LA Fitness, David Lloyd, and Maidstone leisure centre, I would do classes in all of them. I’ve also managed a studio in Ashford – I would do four hours admin there, rush back home, do the kids tea, then rush back out to work, life was manic. I could teach pretty much anything like Yoga, Pilates, conditioning, everyday would be something different, at the time it was a lot of Yoga and I have to say, I needed a change.
One day I was online, looking for inspiration, when I came across aerial yoga and it looked like so much fun, I really liked the look of it, so, after some more googling I came across the first ever teacher training course in the UK, which was in Godalming, it was a four-day course and I absolutely loved it! But had nowhere to teach it. You need specialised ceilings to hang the brackets on and a big space to make it work. I carried on working but had this thing that I really wanted to do, it was a big risk and a big move, I haven’t really got any savings, I’ve always been working and spending, so for me to open a business was a major risk.
Things just all happened at the right time, Maidstone leisure centre had made me redundant, so I started to look for some premises – most of which were a lot of money. The lovely estate agent that was helping me, brought me to this place and although it was in a mess and not really where I wanted it to be, I knew that I could probably make it work. We maxed out all the credit cards, so it was a big risk. But it was worth it.
Once we started going, I had to start from scratch, my previous customers stayed in their existing centres except for the pole classes I had, that was quite established, so we brought those clients across. We then just built on it, and It’s been going now since 2012. We had three months of intensive building work to get it up and running, two weeks before we opened, it rained after a period of completely no rain and the roof was like a sieve!
I love what I do because it’s a little bit different and after teaching things like tums and bums, yoga and pilates for years it’s very nice to do something a bit different. We get normal people come in, your sister or your aunt for example, your Mum, people of all ages, they all say; “I could never do that” and within ten to fifteen minutes, they are doing it and loving it! I just love that fact that I can help the girl next door, aerial yoga is so usual friendly, we can get them doing amazing stuff! It’s very beneficial for the body, making your spine feel good, hanging from the hammock, from your hips, it just lets your back really lengthen. People can’t wait to come back and hang.”
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We are independent studios offering specialist fitness classes, personal training and small group classes.
Heavenly Fitness is the dream and creation of Jane Salida who has been teaching in Maidstone and surrounding areas since 1995. Jane has worked in many centres, clubs and church halls and also as a personal trainer working under the name Friends in Fitness, teaching just about every other form of Fitness to come and go in the past few years.
Pole Saints, Pole Fitness was born in 2010 which catered for normal ladies who wanted a different way to get fit. The classes out grew the studio they worked from Heavenly Fitness was the next step.
Jane is fully qualified in Exercise to Music teacher, also British Wheel of Yoga, Stott Pilates, X-Pert Pole and Aerial Hoop, Bungee Fitness, Anti-Gravity Aerial Yoga, Trapeze Fit, Circus Fit, Barre and also personal training
We aim to cater for all but want to offer something different as well as some of the old favourite classes. All of our instructors are hand-picked by Jane and will be fully qualified, motivating and experienced.
We can also offer corporate fitness, birthday, divorce or hen do’s (whatever you would like to celebrate), and we can rent our studio space for courses – please e mail us your requirements.
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