We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kiya Knight. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kiya below.

Hi Kiya, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Depressed, overweight and uninspired, I took a job working at a gym. Riddled with anxiety, I wanted to learn how to be fit, happy and needed a vision for my life.

I discovered most hyper aggressive Western fitness programs were leaving women injured, overwhelmed and in worse shape than when they started.

So I created a way to give women back their dignity and lust for life while building bodies that feel as strong and powerful on the inside, as they look on the outside.

In 2010 I moved to Costa Rica with a suitcase and a dream to facilitate outdoor adventure retreats for women. So we could get our feet on the Earth and tune into the healing power of nature.

Teaching a Zumba class on the beach in 2010 I realized most my clients had zero control of their hips which act like a steering wheel for your human machine. These women felt awkward in their bodies and out of control in their lives. So I picked up driftwood sticks that had washed down in the monsoon rains, put them in my client’s hands and instantly closed the kinetic chain of movement. To give them back control of their bodies and break through stagnant and stuck energy.

It worked! By grabbing ahold of the sticks, my client’s can easily access a power source inside of them they forgot existed and every single participant that year tried to check the 4 foot driftwood sticks onto the plane home. An idea was born.

AIR or Active Internal Resistance Training is a modern movement movement technology for women combing: Martial Arts, Primal Dance and Breathwork.

By mastering our hip and shoulder mobility, we strengthen the deep core body plus activate the release of serotonin and other feel-good neurotransmitters from the gut.

My clients experience miraculous healing from digestive issues, insomnia and instant relief from overwhelm. Over time, depression lifts and anxiety melts away as we remember together how a woman’s body was made to move.

AIR BAR FIT is a series of classes that focuses on a woman’s core needs: Mobility, Stability, Balance & Deep Core Connection by providing safety, fun and sexiness to your fitness practice! These were the sensations we were searching for to begin with and couldn’t find at the gym.

AIR BAR FIT is now a global women’s movement with a virtual fitness studio translated in 5 languages, annual retreat and teacher training. You don’t have to get up and down off the ground and we start by connecting with the deep core lines of your body. So women leave class feeling powerful, sexy and ready for anything. No shame, no guilt just pure pleasure through movement that provides instant results.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Kiya Knight, an Exercise Scientist and Nutrition Coach, Certified Personal Trainer and Breath Master with 20 years global experience.

AIR BAR FIT was born while working in outdoor adventure fitness with award winning: resorts, hotels and traveling fitness spas worldwide.

“We’re all born with innate skills and one of mine is understanding people’s emotions (energy in motion) without having to use a lot of words.

Personal Training has always been a fit because I can feel your deepest desires and wildest dreams… sometimes before you do.

I see + believe in the versions of YOU that you may have forgot exist or haven’t discovered, yet.

I’ve spent years studying “best” healthy lifestyle practices because I always believed I was more than the world taught me to think I am.

Now it’s time to show you how I creatively “break the rules.”

Life seems like a game sometimes, that’s what makes it fun.

Especially when you feel light enough to experience genuine play.

I’ve crafted an unusual career teaching my clients how to “play” outside and explore the Natural World because I know the importance of “recess” for optimum mental & physical well being.

For every problem there’s a solution, but in order to get there you need a proven formula.

Here are a few of my favorite formulas to solve persistent “problems” plus create movement magick in your life:

Know Yourself = Trust Yourself

That’s the formula for intuition and it works like a super power to transform difficult situations you face as a natural part of life on Planet Earth. Every AIR BAR FIT class is designed to connect you with your higher wisdom and truest deep core desires.

Hustle + Release = Flow

This is a formula for becoming an energetically magnetic human so you can start attracting and stop chasing what you really want. It’s time to take your power back!

You need to know how to work with both positive and negative energies to create change.

When I can’t move, it’s usually because I’m trying NOT to feel something and the pressure of faking it is causing energetic build up in my body that feels like anxiety and depression.

Over time, repressed emotions can naturally erupt causing chaos in your life and relationships, especially your relationship w/ yourself.

“Letting go” means going through “it” and being really honest about what you feel, all the way to the other side.

That’s how natural healing works.

And this is how you experience epic transformation, cultivate a huge amount of life force energy and take back your power.

Learning + Experience = Knowledge

If you really want to know yourself on a deep soul level you need to do more than read books.

You need a body rocking, soul stirring experience that causes a chemical chain reaction in your body and mind. An experience which leads you to the cultivation of true self love and compassion.

Support = Success

We become the 5 people we hang out with the most so choose your team wisely because your life and happiness depend on it.”

“Team work makes the dream work.”

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

After hustling my way to a decent amount of success in 2018, I went through a divorce, lost my first company in naive business deal and then my home in Malibu burned to the ground in a wildfire and I lost every material possession I owned. No insurance, no backup plan. It Haden’t even occurred to me this could happen?

Without a way to get back to work in Malibu I spent 5 months volunteering in a small Mexican town outside Acapulco where no American tourists go.

My job, in exchange for a room and food was to teach fitness classes to service industry folks living in poverty… In a language I hardly spoke.

I leaned in hard, accepted that I’d need a completely new personality in Spanish and did my best to listen and connect with the community. It changed my life. It humbled me to the core and by the time the world went into lockdown, I’d rebuilt my business online and was ready. “God works in mysterious ways,” they say.

In one moment I was leading a class on the beach in Pie de la Cuesta at sunset and realized, I’m speaking Spanish! I’m thinking in Spanish and I’m connecting to the hearts and minds of people who would never have access to this kind of training the way I did as a white woman growing up the United States.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As Americans we’re taught to be independent above all else. That more hustle than is human possible equals success, and that the busier you are- the more worthy you become.

I learned that beyond codependence and independence, there’s a space of interdependence. Where we really are all one and what affects another changes me at my core.

Speaking a second language and spending a global lockdown in a low income neighborhood in Mexico changed the way I viewed reality on all levels. Because most people were happy, even though “staying home” meant no work and no money.

We forgot as a nation that not everyone has a home like Americans do. Most people don’t own personal computers or have the education to “work remote.” But, instead of being angry and separating, it brought us even closer as a community and I made lifelong friends who have touched my heart and soul in unimaginable ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: airbarfit.com
• Instagram: @airbarfit
• Facebook: Facebook.com/groups/airbarfit
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiyaknight/
• Twitter: @airbarfit
• Youtube: @airbarfit

Image Credits
Charlotte Arnwine