We recently connected with Nikki Bybee and have shared our conversation below.
Nikki , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?
One important lesson learned in a prior job is that we really do have control over our futures. I began to grow past my own limitations as a person when failure became acceptable. Failure is unpleasant, and yet it is often the impetus for creation. Controlling outcomes is impossible, once you give yourself freedom to fail and try again, life unfolds in new ways. I love what I do, I love the science of movement and how recent discoveries are shifting movement training. I would not be building my business and doing what I love if I hadn’t been willing to ask hard questions of previous employers and accept that their plans didn’t match what I wanted in my life. That my goals for myself were failing, I wanted to develop more and give more. If I had clung to what was safe, I would still be at my first job teaching in a university. It was predictable. Leaving and expanding my skills in meaningful ways has been rewarding for both me and my clients. So, my advice to others is if you’re unhappy or unfulfilled, find ways to build services that really enhances the lives of the people in your industry.
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 earned my MFA from the University of Oklahoma, then went on to teach in the Dance Program at Brenau University. My understanding of movement deepened while teaching coursework in movement development from infancy to adult, ballet, and teacher education. I began solving increasingly difficult movement problems. At that time, Redcord training became a part of my life; Redcord training focuses on myofascial chains, or, chains of muscles encased in a sheath of connective tissue. Myofascial chains have some responsibility for coordination at a basic level, as well as balance. Training the basics of balance and coordination can be quite impactful on your ability to move well. One of the amazing things about Redcord is the muscle reactivation we do to re-educate your movement when muscles have developed compensation patterns. Compensation patterns often grow in layers until movement either becomes restricted and/or painful. My work has been geared toward helping people move better. Movement science is currently exploding with research indicating our body’s alignment is affected by out visual, auditory, and oral system. Breathing patterns also profoundly affect our movement, it’s hard to imagine not addressing breathing as a tool for increasing movement in basic ways. When I found ways to help dancers move better and enhance their training, I was still dancing for the sake of enjoyment, but not heavily training. Despite that I was not training rigorously, Redcord enhanced my movement enough that I had never danced better in my life.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I do not know if this is something I had to unlearn or just reconsider. Training muscles is secondary to training bone position in the hierarchy of training. Positioning bones in optimal alignment means our muscles will function optimally, not vice versa. We change bone position, which in turn changes muscle function, not the other way around. For example, if you want to improve your posture, going to the gym and working abdominals, back, shoulders, chest and buttocks is fine. You may, however, see minimal changes in posture. Why? Because bone alignment will not have a significant shift based on muscular exercise unless we re-educate the brain on how to align our bones. We can shift bone alignment through breathing, and once we shift bones, the rest of the skeleton’s joints re-align as well.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
Absolutely not. Opening Sugarhouse Training and Conditioning has turned into the greatest adventure of my life. As a young person I planned on marrying and having a family, unfortunately life hasn’t turned out that way. I have become increasingly grateful for my education and career as I get the opportunity to have a positive impact on people and their ability to move better. It’s exciting work. My athletes and dancers are consistently happy by the impact an hour can have on their sport; not only are they seeing shifts in their range of motion within a few minutes of a session, the gains in balance, coordination and control are pushing them to quickly increase their abilities. Witnessing others’ success and happiness is giving a lot of meaning to my life.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.sugarhousetraining.com
- Instagram: @sugarhousetrainingconditioning
- Facebook: Sugarhouse Training & Conditioning
Image Credits
Saans Photography