If you’ve ever taken a class or course with Merrithew^® Master Instructor Trainer Kim Kraushar, you know her as a highly-motivating, cheerful and insightful instructor who loves sharing her knowledge and inspiring students and clients to grow and develop their mindful movement practice.

We chatted with Kim about what drives her fitness practice and what inspired her workouts on Merrithew Connect^™.

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1. What’s your personal life motto?

Never stop learning. Life is a marathon, not a sprint, so savor the learning process every step of the way. No need to rush, just commit to learning something new about your world or yourself every day.

2. How long have you been in the fitness industry?

I have been in the fitness industry since 1992, post the thong-bodysuit and leg warmers craze, thank goodness!

3. Why do you practice mindful movement?

Mindful movement is essential to my meditation practice and my sanity! Moving with a non-judgmental attitude, imaging my breath, working with gravity, dropping into body sensation and expressing outwardly with large and small movements— this brings me into the present moment.

4. What’s one of your favorite workouts you created on Merrithew Connect and what inspired it?

So hard to choose! I love sharing the new Merrithew Fascial Movement content, like we presented in the STOTT PILATES^® Matwork Flow for Fascial Resilience workout. Obviously fascial research is a huge inspiration but helping students and instructors learn to integrate a mindfulness practice into their movement sessions is so satisfying to me. Total Barre^® is the most fun I’ve ever had teaching/creating movement and I’m so excited to share those workouts with you on Merrithew Connect soon. Moving to music is my happy place, so to be able to share that is a gift!

5. What was it like to work on the set of Merrithew Connect?

I can honestly say that working on that set was one of the most challenging events of my life— both physically and mentally. But I also have never laughed so hard or bonded more with this group of instructors, production crew, make-up artists and others as we were all living and breathing this project together for 12+ hours every day for a month! What we went through as a team was truly special and we are all still in touch with each other today. I’m eternally grateful to Merrithew for the opportunity.

6. What’s one tip you have for fitness professionals on improving their cueing technique?

Think about the words and phrases you say on a regular basis in your classes and challenge yourself to find a new way of saying it. Good cueing is a conversation— be engaging, play with your tone, ask questions, give encouraging feedback and make space for reflection.

Get started with Merrithew Connect^™, our new Pilates, fitness and mind-body streaming platform with on-demand workouts from our globally-recognized team of presenters >