BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL
We’re only a couple of months away from heaters, hats and layers but already there’s rumblings of bundling up and having our driveways done.
Many of us exercise outdoors by running, biking and hiking, and while that’s one way to keep the mind and body elevated, there are some essential and unique gains to be had by working out in a gym or yoga studio, including the fact that it can be done warmly, throughout the year. Low-impact exercise like Pilates and yoga is easier on the joints, sustainable throughout your lifetime and provides functional fitness rather than building bulk in the gym. But perhaps most crucially it revolves around the mind-body connection and gaining psychological and spiritual equilibrium.
Gabby Rivelo left Seattle to pursue a college degree in Colorado with her then-boyfriend, now husband, Cameron Rendahl, who was originally from Bellevue. They moved back here in 2018 where Rivelo began working at what was then Pure Body Bliss.
“Teaching (yoga) was actually just my job during college. I could get a free membership from the studio and make some money and then just never ended up pursuing my college degree!” Rivelo laughs. The stint at Pure Body Bliss would change her life. After a year of working there, Jacqui Terra would ask her to become a partner. With so many yoga studios in the Valley, they decided to focus on Pilates and changed names to Core Focus.
A sharp wit, and with oodles of energy, you can almost hear a smile on Rivelo’s face as she speaks. While it has become her career, she specifically uses her training to keep her mood stable. “I have anxiety and depression and for a long time have self-medicated through working out, and just finding stress relief through certain wellness techniques, but also I just found such power in doing it for a million other reasons, you know, and anyone who knows me knows I’ve got a very busy, very loud mind, and this kind of helps keep it centered.”
Rivelo is an ERYT (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher), comprehensive Pilates instructor, personal fitness trainer and advanced Reiki practitioner. She focuses on the functional in fitness and, as it concerns the mind, encourages people to consider fitness a gift. “We all, especially in this community, move a lot, but are we making sure we’re moving for the right reasons and that we enjoy our movement? Like, it’s not a consequence, you know, it’s not a ‘I have to,’ it’s an ‘I get to. You have to let it level you up in your life instead of having it take away.” It’s a mentality and helping people find that perspective is clearly a love of Rivelo’s.
The studio is a beautiful wood-floor room full of Pilates reformers and plants with room for mats. They can accommodate up to 15 students comfortably and have special events regularly.
Core Focus is located at:
91 E. Croy St., Ste. B, Hailey, ID 83333
(208) 720-3238
Visit: https://www.corefocusmovement.com/ for class schedules, services and rates.
