Wellness Center

Alejandra Torres

Alejandra is a licensed Zumba Fitness instructor and has been teaching since 2017. She is licensed in Zumba Basic 1 and Zumba Toning. Alejandra fell in love with Zumba as a way to get some great cardio work in and have fun doing it!

Ananda Mendoza

Ananda Mendoza, originally from El Salvador, Central America, has lived in the Bay Area since 1991. She has a B.A. in biology and chemistry; and has studied ballet, modern dance, and jazz. She is a choreographer and yoga teacher with a certification from  Barefoot yoga in Oakland, CA. In her spare time, Ananda volunteers for the San Francisco School District.

Catina Harvey

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to support you through your fitness journey. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it. My goal is to get you on a path of health and wellness that you can maintain throughout life. I hold certifications as a Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, Mind/ Body, Nutrition, and Weight Management Specialist. I am also a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) specializing in Yin Yoga, Gentle Flow, and Restorative yoga. I am also certified to teach a variety of fitness formats including but not limited to, TRX, Functional Training, Strength Training for Older Adults, Zumba, and UJAM. I will use the knowledge I have gained to create a program that will fit your needs and help you live a healthier lifestyle.

Derek Shaffer

Derek is a Martial Artist, cyclist, and exercise enthusiast who enjoys helping other people reach their personal goals, stay motivated, and build functionally strong physiques to maintain. He has been a Trainer and Strength Coach for 10 years, dating back to a work study completed with his collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches. Derek believes in fitness inclusion, open source methodology, and measurable, repeatable science. Due to active and daily participation in a sport that requires balance, coordination, flexibility, and strength, Derek’s style of teaching includes various modalities and planes of movement.  NASM CPT, MMACS; CrossFit Level 1 Trainer; CrossFit Movement and Mobility Trainer; IBJJF/USBJJF Rules Training Course; Rph Gracie Brown Belt.

Dominic Jeffries

Dominic Jeffries is a certified massage therapist and yoga instructor. Dominic studied massage therapy at McKinnon Institute in Oakland. He studied Deep Tissue, Swedish, Shiatsu, Acupressure, and specializes in Deep Tissue. His style is very slow and heavily based in Trigger Point, a style of massage that focuses on certain points that can release tension in more than one part of the body, and Myofascial Release, a style of massage that focuses on connective tissue.

Hanna Klyushnik

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Jessica Richman

Jessica is a graduate of the National Personal Training Institute, a NASM certified personal trainer and NESTA certified mat pilates instructor. She believes exercise is fundamental to living a well-balanced life, and truly enjoys helping people to become a better stronger version of themselves.

Laura Ho

Laura’s journey with Yoga started at the age of sixteen as a bonding experience with her sister. Compared to other forms of exercise, she found Yoga to be unique in its effective ability to cultivate both mental and physical wellbeing. While studying Studio Art and Chinese Perspectives of Holistic Health as an undergraduate at SFSU, she completed a 10-month yoga teacher training program at Mind Body Zone, Fremont in 2013. Upon receiving her 200-Hour Hatha Yoga teaching certificate, she was immediately chosen to teach at MBZ and has since taught across the SF Bay Area for over ten different organizations in private studios, corporate organizations, gyms, and wellness centers. In addition to teaching at Rise Bodyworks, Laura also leads a free monthly yoga & meditation program for San Francisco Public Library.

In her classes, you will find opportunities to improve the quality of your breath, learn proper postural alignment, and practice meditation. From her +5 years of experience witnessing the impact of yoga for stress-relief, back-pain-relief, improved range-of-motion, core strength, stamina, flexibility, and more, she advocates yoga as an invaluable investment for disease-prevention and long-term health. Most of all, her motivation comes from all the lives she gets to impact, and the inspiring communities she gets to be part of.

Lindsey Gummersall

Lindsey has spent the past 10 years learning and thinking about physical and emotional health and wellness. In 2012, she earned her B.S. in Exercise Science and had the opportunity to work as an aquatic fitness instructor. She then spent two years in Germany exploring theories of health behavior change and physical activity promotion while earning her M.A. in Physical Activity and Health. Since then, she has worked in the Bay Area at a few non-profits with the goal of supporting positive life outcomes for youth through play. In 2019, Lindsey became a Certified Personal Trainer and is  looking forward to supporting others on their health and fitness journeys.

Michelle Durand

Michelle Durand is an ACE Group Fitness Instructor and a Zumba Fitness certified instructor and she loves teaching dance and barre classes.  She believes that health and happiness should be intertwined and focuses on bringing joy and smiles to a great workout.  Each student should leave class feeling healthy, happy, challenged, and triumphant!

Nieka Mamczak

Nieka has been teaching group fitness classes for over 5 years around the Bay Area. Her passion for fitness and athleticism started as a child, growing up playing soccer for 15 years. She teaches a variety of class format types including HIIT, Strength Training, Core Classes, Stretching, and Barre. When not helping others achieve their fitness goals, Nieka likes to run and has completed over 30 Half Marathons and 4 Ragnar Relays in the last 10 years.

Stephanie O’Loughlin

Stephanie O’Loughlin is a certified Pilates instructor who teaches group and private Pilates reformer lessons. Passionate about fitness, Stephanie designs her classes to challenge people at their individual levels, by working with them personally to build strength, muscle control, flexibility and balance. She loves combining new Pilates methods with traditional moves, to create fun, but challenging flows for every level.  Stephanie is dedicated to helping her students achieve their fitness goals and loves watching them discover how strong their bodies can become. When not teaching, she can be found taking multiple classes a day at Rise, or playing with Halle!

Zack Bazarnick

From an early age, Zack Bazarnick bas been influenced by various yogic masters.  Growing up in Santa Cruz, he was often in close contact with his first spiritual mentor, a master yogi from the district of Almora, India. More recently, Zack traveled to a remote ashram at the foothills of the Himalayas to become authorized to teach these mediation techniques, some of which he learned directly from a Himalayan mystic. Since then, Zack has dedicated significant time to meditation and has seen many benefits from this practice. Increased patience, discipline, will power, gratitude, contentment, compassion, concurrent with less negativity and anger, have all manifested since starting his practice. In this class, Zack will share some of the meditation techniques he has learned in hopes of spreading these practices of mindfulness and kindness