We were lucky to catch up with Alia Bisat recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

To this day, my parents prioritize physical activity outdoors. Growing up, they always went out for walks and hikes together. My dad has been a runner and cyclist since he was 30 and my mom was an OG yogi and always trying new movement modalities. It was an inherent part of our lives as a family and something that, without a doubt, contributed to my work as a movement coach.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a movement coach, which is just a name I chose for interdisciplinary strength and mobility coaching for chronic pain.

I worked in F&B for 16 years before getting my yoga teacher certification. The initial cert is kind of a joke, so I immediately sought out more education on anatomy and breathing physiology. I’m a really clear communicator and I also break movements down really well, so my teaching style attracted a lot of older adults, people with injuries, and people who weren’t super flexible. My interests gravitated toward that population as well. Yoga was really just the launchpad, and now my one on one work with people involves strength and mobility training with pain education along with way.

I’m currently really focused on The MOB, an online fitness membership I created for people 50 and older. I wanted to offer a membership for people of a certain age group who are really starting to witness big changes in their bodies that might feel scary. I wanted to offer a place where the classes are less about fitting “exercise” into your day and more about really thinking about these two questions: What do you want to be able to do right now AND what do you want to be able to do in 20+ years? Those two questions require a completely different approach than counting steps and toning triceps. Not only is that approach not prevalent in the fitness industry, it’s even less prevalent for those who are middle aged and older. The age groups of 50 and up tend to have amassed a number of aches and pains; the changes in movement abilities tend to be more impeding; and I’ve found that concern for safety during exercise is of a higher magnitude than in the younger population. It’s for those reasons that a practical, directly applicable, and future-thinking approach becomes even more relevant.

Over the past 3 years, I have watched the members gain so much strength, mobility, and confidence in their ability to do things in life from holding grandkids, hiking, and scrambling on hands and knees in tight spaces to maintaining a yard or a house. I’ve witnessed knee, hip, and wrist pain drastically improve, resiliency as new injuries arise, and the acquisition of new skills that were once long gone such as jumping and crawling. But most surprisingly, I witnessed the creation of a community around a set of values within an online space in a way that I never would have thought possible before the pandemic.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The most consistent piece of feedback I get is that people feel safe with me. Whether it’s validating their experiences, meeting them where they are and however they walk in that day, or not forcing them to do something they’re not comfortable with, all of it plays a role in someone’s sense of safety. Without that sense of safety, it’s really hard to get someone to make progress whether in their movement/strength capacity or their chronic pain condition.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

You either have to be really comfortable selling yourself or have a killer referral/word-of-mouth system going. Bonus points if you can do both. It’s such a saturated field unfortunately, especially with social media bringing the entire field to your fingertips. And because of COVID, movement and rehab professionals are comfortable offering all their services online. So you’re not competing with just your area anymore, you’re practically competing with the entire field across continents.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aliabisat.com www.join-the-mob.com
• Instagram: @themobmembership @aliabisat
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliabisatmovementcoaching/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556634609755
• Linkedin: Alia Bisat