Brett Knight

Certification: ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Group Exercise Instructor - currently working on Yoga Alliance certified E-RYT 200

Favorite food: Pizza

Favorite place: Sitting at a bonfire with a cold beer and good people

Hobbies: Video games, running, strength training, and spending time with family and friends

What is your favorite pose and why? High Plank. So much stability, concentration, and effort are needed in this challenging pose as you contract and relax muscles to maintain balance and form. Also, from high plank, you move into my favorite movement, push-ups. Down Dog is another favorite due to the stretch down the back of the legs, which is helpful after a good run.

When did you start practicing yoga? My first yoga class was in 2012, and it was with Tommy. He said that yoga would do wonders for my running and also improve my core strength. He sat my mat down in the middle of the room, and I spent at least half the class just watching and listening in amazement at the strong practice of everyone around me.

Who are your teachers and where did you train? I have spent the last 15 years practicing and training in clinical and corporate fitness and wellness. I have had the privilege of learning from many different certified exercise physiologists during both undergraduate and graduate schooling. I have also trained and practiced with Risa Gotlib, Sylvie Kademian, (both of Tiny Buddha Yoga in Ann Arbor) and Tommy Mack. Practicing with many different people has been so helpful in finding my own style of teaching and developing my signature class which blends High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) with a Vinyasa Flow class. The best advice I have ever received is from my loving wife, Ray, who upon taking my first class, said, “Just be yourself, and you will be great”. I have followed that advice ever since.

Describe your teaching style: High energy! I love HIIT and enjoy weaving it with vinyasa flows to make a really fun and challenging practice. I also believe that everyone should be able to participate in my classes, so I always put effort into providing intensifications and modifications to help everyone find the right level of challenge for their practice while having fun.

What is your motto? If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. – Fred DeVito

"If you don't know the guy on the other side of the world, love him anyway because he's just like you. He has the same dreams, the same hopes, and fears. It's one world, pal. We're all neighbors." —Frank Sinatra