Episode 10 – “Pilates Is For Every Body“

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 0:00
There is no Pilates body. Okay, it is for every person on the planet that you know is looking to lead a stronger life. You can start at any age, at any time, and it will vastly improve your life.

Desiree 0:21
Like I know you as being a owner of a Pilates studio. How has being in Pilates changed how you view women’s health? Like, was it that that changed your view on women’s health, or were you already really looking at women’s health like this before that?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 0:40
I think. I mean, I’ve always been into health and fitness. I was an athlete my entire life, and I think that movement is such an an important part in everybody’s lives. And I think that as we evolve and as we age, we have to be adaptable, and however we were we moved before is not going to move be how we move later on. It’s not linear, you know. And I think that especially women’s health, you know, the way a young athlete who is preparing for a high jump competition, she’s going to be moving differently and training differently than a senior who wants to get down on the ground with her grandchildren. You know, so it’s about providing a way for them to have a functional life and be confident and feel secure in their movement, and also be free of any limitations. And I think that as we age, we just have to continue to check in with ourselves and listen to the cues that our bodies are giving us, and trying to identify what it is that we need to accommodate these changes, especially if it’s you know aging or an injury or you know after delivering a baby. We all come across different stages in our life where we’re going to have to be adaptable, and I think that overall, as especially as a woman, a woman, we have to constantly be changing to protect ourselves, to stay strong, to stay healthy,

Desiree 2:29
yeah,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 2:29
and to be able to to do and accomplish all the things that we want to do while preventing an injury and and living our best life. So, Pilates is is is an integral part of my life, and then as I evolve, of you know, into midlife, of course, I all I think of women’s hormone health, you know, and and and healthy aging, longevity. There, yeah, I’m all about women’s health. There’s so many ranges, so Yeah.

Desiree 3:00
Yeah. Wow. So Jennifer, you’re the owner of Strength by Jennifer. You’re a mom and co-authored Slay USA,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 3:11
Slaying Los Angeles,

Desiree 3:13
and Slaying Los Angeles because it’s a part of the yeah yeah

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 3:16
anthology Slay the USA. There’s Slaying Los Angeles, Slang Miami, Slang I think San Diego, Slang San Francisco. So my chapter is in Slang Los Angeles.

Desiree 3:29
So tell me more about you and all of that. What you do exactly?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 3:34
Lee Clark was the curator for the Slang anthology, and she found me based off of, you know, my story, how I became interested in Pilates, and the fact that I give back to my community. I’m making my mark in, you know, society, and my stories about resilience and dedication and overcoming obstacles, and just continuing to persevere no matter what life throws at you. So I guess my story started when I was in my early 20s. I got into a really bad car accident, and that kind of thwarted any type of exercise that I was used to before I was stopped in my tracks, and I had been an athlete my entire life. I was a gymnast. I loved track. I was a runner, basketball, you name it, and I could no longer do any of that. And I had to really learn how to move in a completely new way that would support my body and all of its limitations. I had chronic pain. I had limited movement, limited range of motion, stiffness, weakness, and I was introduced to Pilates through my chiropractor, and that was part of my rehabilitation. And I was amazed as. I went through my process that I was able to do really challenging exercises while making it exciting and giving me that I’m actually doing something fun. This has a gymnastics feel to it, but it’s also very restorative and supportive, and it brought back and restored the function that I needed to live my life. You know, we take for granted so many things: bending over, tying our shoes, picking up something off of the floor, reaching for something in the back of the car without throwing our backs out. Right, and when you have to live your life like I have to watch my next step. Pilates can give you the freedom in your life back, the freedom to move and and to to do your life better. And the more I explored Pilates, the more I fell in love with it. And I used to teach gymnastics. That was always something where my mind would go back to those times in college, and I just loved how rewarding it felt showing a little girl that couldn’t do her cartwheel, and then she finally gets it, you know. And this kind of took it to a new level for me personally because I was finally able to do things that I wasn’t able to do before, and now I can just do it in a different way. But I’m I’m stronger than I was before. Pilates is it restores functional movement. It builds a strong foundation from the ground up by supporting and stabilizing those smaller muscle groups. You’re stabilizing muscle groups, and once you get that foundation built, then you can explore and expand on working on the larger muscle groups, and the movement is all about control and position. And you use your breath, and you become really in tune with the mind-body connection. And once you have that connection, and you’re very aware of how your body is moving in the studio, and how you hold your posture. Are you shrugging your shoulders? Are you using your traps? Right? Are moving slowly. Like, how are we holding our bodies? And Pilates teaches us how to be very aware of that in the studio. One, because I’m watching you, and two, because I will also see like, oh, how are they moving? Do they have have they developed improper movement patterns because of injury or not improper alignment or weakness or or whatever, right? And so once you’re aware of that, you’re going to take that information outside of the studio, and you’re going to be aware. No, I’m not going to just throw my my arm around, you know, and and grab something. I’m going to lift from where my arms meet my back, and I’m going to carry this heavy luggage instead of using my shoulders or my joints, where you’re going to, you know, cause an injury. So, I started to realize that there’s so many people out there living in chronic pain or have limited range of motions or abilities, and that’s stopping them, right? And and I don’t want that to these setbacks to keep people from living their life.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 8:13
So I wanted to create a studio and a safe space to give people the ability to find out where their limitations are and work through it in a safe environment where they’re not going to injure themselves, and they feel comfortable and and confident that they can do the things outside of the studio. And so I just love that I can help give people their their lives back because not one person is going to have the exact same program. We’re all dealing with different things. A pregnant woman is going to be different from a client that comes in that has Parkinson’s or degenerative disc disease. You know, so my programs are developed specifically for each individual, and I wholeheartedly believe that you know Pilates is a system, and we use what we can within that system to help each person individually. And I can’t fit everyone into a box, and we have to modify, and we have to be creative and be patient. 99% out of the time, we find a way to work through these setbacks and overcome these challenges, and give them their their life back. And they ended up feeling, you know, so much better. Because why not, right? Life doesn’t have to be defined. We don’t have to be defined by our setbacks and our and our limitations. There’s ways around that. Things that we can do to overcome anything. And what better way to live your life than to feel good and not not be in pain all the time?

Desiree 9:51
One thing that I loved that you said the first time we spoke, it was something like Pilates is in every body or. Should be for everybody.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 10:01
Should be in everybody. It should be yes. Joseph Pilates was a genius, and there’s so many different modalities of Pilates. I’m classically trained. I fell in love with Pilates so much that I have taken several comprehensive training programs, and I and I recently got my master’s certification, not recently, but a few years ago. And I believe that education you can never stop learning, right? Because all my clients, everybody is like a puzzle, right? And we have to be educated and knowledgeable enough to unlock those puzzle pieces and and and be able to figure out how we can be creative and and help them move in a safe and supportive way.

Desiree 10:48
Yes, and when you know you invited me to come, like come have a session, let’s see how I work, and I didn’t feel like how I felt when I go to a gym. When I go to a gym, I’m like, all right, I’m gonna do this thing because oh, I want I want the big glutes I want nice toned arms when I went to you it was like oh you’ve got some weakness here okay let’s do some of this oh you’ve got some a little bit going on here let’s do this and I’m like oh like I didn’t know I had all of these what seems like little weaknesses that just kind of, I see it as like a chain reaction in my body, like oh, that’s connected to that, and that’s the reason why I do this or that. And I just learned so much about my body that I didn’t know. So I loved that experience with you, and I hope you know other Pilates instructors are like that. I’m not sure if I would experience that in you know those big group classes where they have the the big reformer machines or anything like that. So it was nice to have this personal connection where you got to know what I knew already about my body, what’s happened to my body. Oh, I have this you know weird spinal nerve thing going on in my neck, and if I were at the gym, no one’s gonna ask about that. They’re just like, “Oh, just do you know, do all these things, da da da. But having that session with you was just like, “Oh, okay, let’s take extra care over that. And then the odd thing in my my hip or whatever it is, like out here, and then I would tell you like, “Ooh, I’m feeling a little this, or “Oop, I’m feeling a little that, and then you were just like, “Okay, so we’re gonna adjust. So I love that there was just more, you know, TLC with it.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 12:34
Not just you’re not just coming in for a workout. We’re coming in to assess, and based off of what I read off your intake form can be completely different from what I how I see you move because when people come into the studio, the Pilates machines are not going to lie. Like it’s going to show up right away how the person’s moving, and I will know exactly how to correct or pivot and get them into a safer position where it’s not going to be impinging on anything or causing any pain, but supportive, and I will lock you into the right muscle groups so we can come from a place of strength, not weakness, and getting the right muscle groups to engage, and that’s really where we want to build the foundation and teach the client. This is you know how your body’s working, and this is what you’re feeling, and this is what you should be feeling out there. Because there’s so many people that come into my studio where they have been reinforcing improper movement patterns, and I’m not saying they’re doing anything wrong, but if you have, if you’re not aligned in the right way, or if you have asymmetries, we all have one dominant side, and we’re continuing to reinforce that and make it stronger and stronger. We’re creating a wider gap of these imbalances, and then that’s how we get injuries. And it happens all the time in sports, all the times in the gym. And I’m a huge proponent for all of it. Like it’s all let’s let’s do all of it. Let’s go to the gym. Let’s lift heavy weights. That’s super important. I love you know increasing the load. It’s great for our bone health and and healthy aging, especially in women. But you also need mobility training. Without mobility training, without Pilates, without building that strong foundation first and having those stabilizing muscles supporting you while you’re out there in the gym, then you can run into some trouble. But I could not do the gym had I not had done Pilates. Like I could not do high jump. You know, I could not be coaching had I not done Pilates. So Pilates enhances everything that you do because of the body awareness, because of the strength that you have built that foundation, it allows you to you know explore, have fun, and and do more things without opening yourself up to injury or repeating these you know ways of movement that aren’t are not going to be supportive to your body. So

Desiree 14:59
I think one. Thing that you’ve changed about my perspective on Pilates is that before I met you, when I thought of Pilates, I thought of a super fit woman. She’s got abs. She’s got the toned arms. Everything. I’m just like, that’s what I want to look like. And then after meeting you, I don’t have a picture of a Pilates person anymore.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 15:28
Yeah,

Desiree 15:28
I’m like, oh, like you mention elderly people. You mention people with, um, like suffering through disease or illness or anything. So now there isn’t just this a Pilates person in my head anymore. Now it’s the the Pilates should be in everybody. Like I’m just like, oh, Pilates is for everybody. For everybody, yeah. Like I love having that because then it’s not so intimidating as it was to me before. Just as a woman or as a young girl, I felt like, oh, I should do Pilates when I’m already strong. I should start Pilates when I’m already at my most athletic phase of my life. And now that my body’s changed so much, you know, having a child and everything, and now everything’s kind of thrown off, and I live a more sedentary life, I’m like Pilates is so far from me, and then after meeting you, I’m like, oh, Pilates is now. Yeah. Oh, okay. When is

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 16:30
now a good time to start? Yeah, that’s what I tell everyone. When is now a good time to start? First of all, that is the marketing. I mean, for Pilates, we are really trying to get away from that. There is no Pilates body, okay? There is no physique. I mean, we just Pilates should be in every body, every person, young, old, middle aged, you know, pregnant, whatever. Like it is for every person on the planet that you know is looking to lead a better life, lead a stronger life, and just to be more in tune with their body and and and and longevity, basically, yeah. So you can start at any age, at any time, and it will vastly improve your life.

Desiree 17:20
I I feel like that’s a new thing for me, knowing what our cycles are and how we feel so different at different times in the month. I never thought of that before until I really heard someone say. I think like on TikTok or something. I’m like, wow, thank God a little bit for TikTok that now I can have this more information that I never knew before, and things aren’t such a mystery as much, and now we can actually talk about it with each other and learn more from each other. Yeah, because it can

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 17:48
catch you off guard for the longest time. I was thinking, wow, I really am having a lot of brain fog lately. It’s just, and then you just pass it off as stress, or I’m tired, or I’m getting older, which is such crap because we don’t need to settle for that. We have to be constantly asking the right questions and advocating for our health. And there’s nobody else out there that’s going to do that. And any other doctor is just going to pass you off and refer you to somebody else, and you’re just going to be spinning your wheels for two years, like I did, running tests and being a guinea pig and not getting the right answers. So yeah, we just always have to make sure that we’re supporting each other and listening and coming up with solutions together.

Desiree 18:32
When did you start looking at HRT for yourself, or did you start with MIDI and then you’re like, oh, this is this is something that I should look into myself, or was it before that?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 18:43
You know, it’s it was actually before that. Before there was, I think before Mitty was even around because it’s a newer company. My dad had actually introduced me to this company in West LA because I was having just you know fluctuations with my, I just hormonal shifts. I just wasn’t feeling like myself, and it was a wellness company, but they did focus heavily on women’s hormones, which was very new. There wasn’t anything else like there like that, and so they did the whole hormone panel, and the guy who owned the company was a little intimidating, and he sat with me for an hour and a half, like, “This is what your body’s doing wrong, and he he he mansplained to me about hormone health, and made me feel bad about like I’m doing something wrong. My body’s doing something wrong, and if I don’t get on X Y Z, like I’m gonna really suffer. And so I got on his program, which was very costly because you’re shipping everything from a compounded pharmacy. This was, you know, in Florida, so it was being shipped across the U.S. and then you have your. Annual checkups and it all adds up. Everything was a cash, you know, transaction because insurance doesn’t insurance back then didn’t recognize that as you know that’s something that they would cover. And they look at I think then I was you know in my late 20s, early 30s, like you don’t need hormone replacement therapy, and any endocrinologist just laughed at me and said, “You don’t have a thyroid problem. That was another thing that they identified. So that part was actually really helpful because I was able to get on a bioidentical thyroid, which is made not from chemicals; it’s made from like natural compounds. I think this one was derived from yams, but it really helped. Like it helped me feel better, but that wasn’t sustainable because I couldn’t afford it. I was a young woman, and you know, in her career, and plus all the different things, and you’re timing it in different times of the month, and it was just too much. So I stepped away from that. I kept my continued my thyroid because that was the one thing that I felt was really working, and you know, when you’re in your late 20s, you kind of think you know it all, so you’re like, “Well, I don’t need all that. And it wasn’t until I wanted to get pregnant that I started to think, “Okay, there’s something missing here. Like maybe I need to go and revisit that. So I went back on the HRT program. It was designed a little bit different, but similar than when than how Mitty runs. And and then he had me do a couple of they call my friends call it the pregnancy cleanse because after I did it both times I got pregnant after been trying for a long time, so I think there’s something to be said about resetting the body and giving your body what it needs. Whether you’re low on estrogen or progesterone or testosterone, you need to just reset your body. And I think even being on it a short period of time, my body was able to kind of like adapt. But I think that hormone health has been something that I struggled with for a long time because even delivering both my kids, it was very difficult, like 48 hour labors for both. Not wanting, you know, one of them, I could not dilate. I couldn’t even just, you know, the contractions were not enough. The pitocin was not enough. They had to use a Foley balloon, which is a really crazy medieval torture device, in my opinion. So yeah, and then if you don’t have enough adrenaline to help support you, which is a very important hormone for delivering babies, like your body’s not going to have then enough adrenaline to push the baby out, and I had problems with both, and and I needed help. I mean, I didn’t need to have a C-section, but I remember with my son thinking, I don’t know if I can do this anymore. I’m tired. I can’t. I can’t do it. And I just, I had to. I was giving up, you know, and I was.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 23:03
I had also torn my hip labrum with my daughter because they give you the epidural, and sometimes it doesn’t take, and it it only took on one side, and they make your husband hold. And I went to a very reputable hospital, like a good hospital. I had a doula, and they still had my husband hold my leg, and they don’t know what they’re doing. And he just kind of let it go, whomp, and my hip must have torn because it doesn’t bend that way. And so when it came time to delivering my son, I said nobody’s touching my leg. I I’m gonna hold it myself. So I’m holding my leg. The nurse has got the other leg. I’m holding onto the rail. It’s like Cirque du Soleil in here, and I’m trying to push out a baby, and I just like ran out of energy, and I’m like, I can’t do this anymore. So, I mean, I give women a lot of props because what we do is super hard, and just like when you’re not supported and have a strong enough baseline with your, you know, hormone and overall health. It’s things can be very difficult. So, and then that later, you know, followed me as I, you know, moved into midlife. I started to understand. Okay, frozen shoulder insomnia. Like these are all experiencing perimenopausal symptoms.

Desiree 24:25
Yeah,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 24:26
there’s so many symptoms: dry mouth, like itchy ears, like really random symptoms. And women are walking around because it’s not now. It’s starting to become a bigger conversation because us women are advocating for ourselves. Halle Berry is huge. There’s a couple other women, Penelope Cruz. Like everyone out there is talking about it because we deserve to be educated. We deserve to have the platform. We deserve the attention to not live in fear because there is no. Black box warning on hormone replacement. It will not cause cancer, you know, and and that’s what it was all misinformation that they were telling women for years, and so many people suffered. My mom suffered because they didn’t want to prescribe HRT because they said it was going to cause cancer, but that was just on a misguided study that wasn’t even geared towards the right hormone, and they use women in their later stages of life who already had pre-existing conditions. I mean, it was so flawed from the beginning. It’s just, and so it set us back greatly, like 20 years. So, anyways, that I’m really happy to be incorporating that into my services, not I’m not a doctor. I’m not, you know, but I am educating my clients who either know nothing about it or feel like it’s oh, this. My one client said it’s going to give me cancer, so I’m afraid. I’m like, no, that’s not true. Like you need hormone replacement therapy. It’s it’s really important because it protects your heart health, your bone health, your brain health, you know, and and to to go into old age, we want to protect all those. No osteoporosis, no osteopenia. You know, we got to lift heavy, got to do mobility training, Pilates, all of

Desiree 26:18
it. Yeah, wow. I’ve heard of HRT, like hormone replacement therapy, but I never. I feel like when I’m hearing you talk about it, it feels like it should be for everyone, and it should be something that everyone kind of looks into to see what all their levels are. Which I’ve never done that because I’m like, oh, like I probably don’t need that. Like that’s just kind of my assumption. Like I probably don’t need that because you know I’m eating right or I do this or I do that and the doctor says oh whatever it is that you’re dealing with it’s probably this here’s some pain management here’s some you know this get outside more eat right but I think there’s just this missing piece like a big missing puzzle piece right once I got pregnant and went through all of that and postpartum, still am in it. I realize how much hormones change everything from how I feel in my head, how I feel in my body, everything. So it makes so much sense that everyone should really like look into all of that and see what it is that maybe I’m missing. I don’t know.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 27:23
And it starts a lot earlier than we think, too. Perimenopause actually can last up to 10 years, and it can start as early as your late 30s. So, and and women just brush it off as stress or insomnia. That’s what I did, and you just keep foraging through. You working, you work out harder, you cleanse more, you push yourself beyond the limits. Because even if you do get your labs tested, your primary doctors, most of them, are not educated enough because in their residency programs and when they go through schooling, there’s a really small portion of that is dedicated to women’s hormone health, especially in midlife. So they just are not equipped or educated to guide us onto what is normal. And so they’ll tell us if they do run a comprehensive hormone panel, they’ll say that our labs are within normal range, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re not going through perimenopause or experiencing these symptoms. Because you can still be within normal range. Our hormones are fluctuating all the time, 24 hours a day. There’s really not like one level, and it’s going to stay there. So you have these ups and downs, and there’s really it’s hard to catch. So you get a baseline, and then you go based off of your symptoms. So that’s what Mini Health does: is they they listen to you, they listen to you as a patient, they listen to your symptoms, and then they say, okay, this is the the call to action. This is what we’re going to do, and they tell you X, Y, Z, whatever it is they think that you need, and then you do follow up labs, and then you do check in with somebody if something else comes, another symptom comes up, or you know you’re having questions about something, and then you just you know you’re constantly evolving, and it’s it’s great to finally have somebody behind you supporting you, and like you’re not by yourself. So there’s a great community out there, and I try to get on Reddit and I try to get on all the forums and just say, “Hey, you’re not alone. You don’t have to be suffering anymore. Like because it’s not fair to us to feel like that old 1950 standard. Like this is what happens when you age. That’s unacceptable.

Desiree 29:41
So you said we can start that in our late 30s. Late 30s, yeah. Can it be even earlier than ever? I mean,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 29:48
they say late 30s, early 40s, but it depends on like where you are. And some people go into medically induced menopause. Some girls in their mid 30s. End up having such bad endometriosis that they have to have hysterectomies. I have had two friends that have had to have hysterectomies, you know, before 40, and and that is a whole other story. So I mean, yeah, we come from all walks of life, different ages, so it can start at any time. Unfortunately,

Desiree 30:19
wow, I’m asking because I’m like, oh, I’m like about to be 31. I wonder when it’s gonna hit me.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 30:24
Keep it in the back of your mind, and you always know you can come and talk to me about it. Yeah, I’m a wealth of knowledge at this point. True, yeah.

Desiree 30:33
So now with your Pilates, you kind of tie in HRT, like education when you’re handling your Pilates clients, a little bit, yeah,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 30:44
I do see. I mean, I see men too, but mostly my clients are women. I see young athletes, I see postpartum moms, pregnant moms, I see women in midlife my age, and I have some senior clients. So the conversation is always naturally coming up in during our sessions, and however I can support them, whether it’s optimizing their their hormones to making them feel better, to giving them their their motivation, their energy, help with their sleep. I give them recommendations on you know nutrition, and I’m not a licensed nutritionist, but I do see myself as a wellness educator. And I have read so many books, and I live the life that I preach. And I try to advise my clients, like if this is how your, if this is what you’re working with right now or struggling with X, Y, and Z can help. So I’m a big celery juice drinker. I I drink it every morning, and the the the books that I have in my kitchen talk a lot about eating whole foods and vegetables to to heal your life. And there is really something to that, and I, I show my clients these books, and the person I follow, his name is Anthony Williams, and he’s just healed so many people around the world, including myself, from chronic gastrointestinal issues. Another, another seven years I spent, you know, with the revolving medical door of specialists, and nobody really knowing how to help me or how to fix my situation, and it wasn’t until I found those methods and how to eat was I was finally able to fix and and reverse these chronic illnesses. So yeah, I feel like it’s a full circle, and I have a lot of knowledge to give people. It’s not a one-stop, or it is kind of a one-stop shop. You know, I they come in for exercise, but I give them more than just Pilates. I give them education on whatever it is that they’re they’re seeking or whatever that comes up. Sometimes they don’t even know what they’re looking for until it comes up organically in a conversation. So,

Desiree 33:04
so from doing the Pilates, because I’m I’m guessing you you started doing the Pilates. I don’t know if you started your business yet, but did you start doing Pilates for yourself and then create the business and then the Slay Los Angeles opportunity happened, or was there a different timeline with that? So

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 33:25
the timeline. So I started in 2010, which was when I went through my first comprehensive training program, which is a nine month program, and in that time I got married. I had my firstborn, and then I continued training for myself. I was still in the program, and then I stepped away to raise my daughter. Well, actually, I had the injuries, so that sidelined me for a little bit. But I never stopped practicing. I always continued practicing, and then I had my son, and then I had the health injure the health, you know, hiccups that came in. And it wasn’t until my kids got older and they were in school I wanted to take the comprehensive program again. So I did another nine months, did the program again, and for I was trained through Equinox, both both programs and phenomenal program, and so then they hired me. So I started working for Equinox, loved it, and then COVID happened. So COVID happened. They shut everything down, and my clients still had a need to have in-person training because they saw the value of Pilates and how much that they needed it. And even though I did offer virtual sessions, it’s just there’s something about having hands-on one-on-one with all the safety guidelines of COVID and all that, but. So that’s when I opened up my first boutique studio in my guest house, and I started with one reformer and then a Cadillac, and I started building from there. So I created my boutique studio in Woodland Hills because that’s where I was living at the time, and then we moved to 1000 Oaks, and I had to start over. So talk about another challenge: building another business from scratch. Amazing learning opportunity, and I was able to build two businesses in two different cities successfully. And throughout that journey, that’s when Lee Clark found me. I think she found me through Instagram, and she was really inspired by my story, how I came from all these challenges and car accidents, and led a story of resilience and perseverance, and overcame these challenges. and And what stood out to her the most was how I give back to my community and how I use what I learned and the setbacks that I was able to overcome, I now apply that to people in my community and trying to to help others live their best life. So she wanted to hear my story, and I am so honored that she wanted to include me in her anthology because the book is filled with many different authors of all different walks of life in Los Angeles, all living our our different experiences and having our our powerful stories. And I was just so honored to be part of that book. So it’s still going. We’re still promoting it, and and I just I’m I’m looking forward to writing more. It inspired me to write more about women’s health, expand on my story, expand on my clients’ stories if they let me because there’s a lot of power there, and I think can help inspire other people to help themselves, especially if they’re coming from a darker place, or feeling, you know, like they they don’t have they don’t have it in them because they do, and I’m I’m here to help.

Desiree 37:09
Yeah,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 37:10
however I can. Yeah.

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Desiree 37:45
What was the the car accident story exactly? If you’re if you’re willing to tell,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 37:50
yeah, no, I mean, so I was working after college. I mean, I grew up in LA. I’ve lived in LA my whole life, and after college, I I went to Pepperdine and I started working. I was one of the very lucky ones to get a job right out right after college, and especially working in production. And I was driving back to the studio in Hollywood, and I was on Fairfax, and I think just past Genesee, and there’s a school there. I’m there’s a crosswalk, and to the left of me was a big truck. And normally, if I can’t see, you know, what’s happening, and the truck is stopping, he had no blinker on. I was like, okay, somebody’s crossing the crosswalk, so I stopped because I’m not going to plow through a crosswalk if I can’t see who’s coming. And next thing I know, somebody just rammed right into me, going 45 miles an hour. I was at a complete stop, and it just took me out. That getting hit from the back end-it just total whiplash, back injuries. Of course, I didn’t know it at the time. I was in complete shock, and I had my coworker come and meet me and help me assess, you know, with the accident, take me to get medical attention. And unfortunately, you know, you have all the adrenaline and everything is pumping through you, so you don’t really know the extent of your injuries until all the inflammation has kind of subsided. The adrenaline has worn off, and then you really start to see, oh man, like I can’t move. I could not move my neck. I could not bend over my lower back. I kept, you know, collapsing and landing on the floor and not being able to get up. So they did an MRI and discovered that I had a bulging disc in my L4, L5. I had extensive soft tissue damage. I had whiplash in my neck. I think that my cervical spine was had like shifted forward a little bit, so I had to go through extensive physical therapy. Rehab, chiropractic, you name it. I mean, I I did it all, and then Pilates was really like the the biggest had the biggest impact when I was able to finally receive it and be in a place to work from strength or start to rebuild from strength. Because after that, your body atrophies, you lose you know the muscle, you lose the strength. You’re taking all the pain meds. I mean, I remember laying on ice for hours, just being in such agony and like having these giant ice burns behind my back and my my neck. And because you’re you’re only supposed to lay on ice for 20 minutes, but I was in such pain, I didn’t care. And I would take the towel off and lay right on that ice, and I just needed it to go away, and that was my life for many years. Dealing with chronic back pain, and and even the Pilates like gave me a good start. I had to be very very careful how I I managed my body from that point on. It was not an easy, it was not an easy road to take an athlete who was doing everything all the time, like whatever the latest fad was, and then just saying, “Nope, sorry, you can’t do any of that. You can’t even go on a run anymore. You can’t do yoga anymore. And I was very depressed, and just it was a lot of like going through the the seven stages of grief. You know, like you have to change your mindset around and figure out how to live your life in a different way. So Pilates kind of unlocked a new path for me, and I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to grow from that. Because honestly, I never thought that I would be able to do anything fun anymore. I mean, Pilates was great, but the more I dove into it, the stronger I felt.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 41:47
And even the other day, I was doing these crazy advanced exercises that I would have never been able to do, even in the height of like my most fit in my like early 20s, my late teens. Like I, I don’t think I would have been able to do that because if you don’t have that strong foundation, your body’s not going to be supportive or have the enough mobility to put you in those upright positions, you know, or inversions. So I was actually really proud of myself, and I’m just so thankful that I I’ve had Pilates as my my training grounds, so to speak.

Desiree 42:26
How long did it take you to fully recover, or is that still happening?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 42:32
It’s you know what you’re never fully recovered from a back injury like that. You’re it’s it’s you’re you’re impacted for life. Unfortunately, I have been so fortunate though to find the right doctors. I discovered prolotherapy. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that. So, you have you heard of stem cell therapy? Okay, so there’s stem cell therapy. There’s PRP, which is platelet rich plasma, and then there’s prolotherapy, which is kind of like the lower, more affordable end. So after I tore my hip when I had my my first my my daughter, they wanted me to have surgery, and I was like, I can’t have surgery. I have a newborn. Like, there’s no way I’m going to be on crutches for three months while my tear my torn hip heals from surgery, and so I was introduced to PRP and prolotherapy. And from that point, because I my back was kind of a mess after delivery, and you have all the relaxing in your joints, and everything is shifting and moving, and like nothing is stable because you’re still breastfeeding and all that. So they did this doctor in Valencia. She did PRP on my hip, fully regenerated the tear. I went back to like limping, dragging my leg to full upright walking. She also treated my back with prolotherapy to kind of restore some of the laxity in the joints and the ligaments from pregnancy, from previous damage, from you know my car accident and just wear and tear, and then she would do my neck. So I would do all three. I went through about 10 rounds of that, and I would repeat it after I had my son. And I swear, prolotherapy has been my saving grace because once you’re injured, you are always going to be prone to re-injuring something along those lines. You know, doesn’t matter how strong you are, or there you’re just always open up to you’re just susceptible. So I always have that in my back pocket, and I go and get prolotherapy every year as like a tune-up because I’m very hard on my body. Like I love to push myself. I love that I can push myself, but accidents do happen. You know, I coach high jump every spring. We have to put away this giant. Cover for the high jump pit, and last year I was pulling it. You know, and anytime you have your arms extended away from your body, you’re setting yourself into a compromising position and pulling it. And then something gets stuck. Yeah, there’s the pull in the back. So when you have an injury, your body’s never gonna like fully recover back to 100% You may go back to 95 or 90, and then 85. Like every time you hurt that injury, you’re never going to get back to 100% So what prolotherapy does is they they create a direct inflammatory response through guided ultrasound, and they will, based on your feedback, where you say you’re hurting, and through the ultrasound, they will inject you with a little bit of lidocaine plus the dextrose or whatever solution they do to create that direct inflammatory response. And you feel it, man. You’re like, oh my god, that’s in the right spot. Okay, and it hurts. It’s kind of a I tell him all the time because I see Dr. Cogan, who’s amazing. I’ve seen him for about 10 years, and I tell him I feel like some kind of a masochist every time I come in here because I’m paying you to inflict pain in my body. But I can’t tell you how awesome I feel. Like it’s so restorative. I come out of there after I heal, of course, which takes you know eight weeks for the whole process to actually be completed, and you do at least three rounds. But every time I go and I hurt myself, I’m able to go back and do something even like more advanced, or I’m stronger than I I was before I saw him, so it’s all about maintenance. You know, we are aging, we are getting more susceptible to injury, so it’s about maintaining a fine balance, like continuing to strength train, continue Pilates, try to stay out of trouble and not injure yourself. But they do happen, you know. I went to Top Golf and like I don’t know how to golf.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 46:59
I I should have used my own techniques, like okay, suck in the core, keep your hips squared and your shoulders squared. But again, I did an Adam Sandler, and I’m like, I’m just gonna whip that ball, and then you miss the ball, and you like pull everything, you know, out of whack, and so you know. But that’s living life, right? It’s just finding out how to balance it all and how to restore whatever it is that you need to you know correct, and then I use the tools in my Pilates studio to help me rebuild and and whatnot. So

Desiree 47:32
has that been a little bit of a, or has that ever been a mental battle after going through the accident and then what you just mentioned, like you can get to 90, you can get to 95, but the 100 has it ever been a challenge to accept that there will never be a 100?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 47:55
Yes, it is. It is challenging, and I have to keep my emotions in check and make sure that I’m not holding unrealistic expectations for myself. Especially in the beginning, I I was depressed. I was really sad. I wanted to go and do those things. Like I haven’t even ridden a horse. Like I don’t know what that would do. I went on a sea do on my honeymoon. I completely messed up my back. Like you don’t think about these things until it’s too late, and you’re like, “Oh my god, I shouldn’t have done that. Like I don’t have the body I used to. I can’t do these things anymore. So there is, and with the golf thing, like there are those mistakes that you make because you’re you’re still thinking like I can move the way I used to, and even though it’s been so many years, you still do things without thinking sometimes because I am very strong and I’m like oh I could do that you know I can do that no problem and then you do it sometimes it works out and then sometimes you’re like, okay, that that was a mistake. And then I have to like fix my, you know, I have to clean it up. But yeah, it never goes away. And it and that’s just the that’s just life, though, right? It’s about you know finding those golden nuggets and trying to hold on to them and overcoming your the The challenges and just trying to find a new way to live without having that completely pull you down, because there’s more to life than that, you know.

Desiree 49:29
Right. Yeah. The that extra five or 10% isn’t what you’re living for. Right. Right. I mean, you can get

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 49:36
close to it, but you know, what you’re never going to be brand new again, and but we shouldn’t live our life like that. These injuries, these setbacks, actually helped me become the person that I am today, and I’m very grateful for that. I’m very grateful to have the knowledge. I wouldn’t be the teacher that I am today had I not already experienced. Being injured in so many different ways because now I I come from not only a teacher but I’m a student and I know how to apply these methods without compromising the safety of my clients so I feel like it has given me a better education experiencing it firsthand

Desiree 50:19
yeah and as as a student, you know you’re always learning. Is Pilates something that changes over time? Like, is there new methods or new techniques that come out, or is it like this is what Pilates is? This is what is taught, and it’s never gonna change. Is there an an evolution of Pilates? I guess

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 50:40
classical Pilates will never change. Classical Pilates is a system designed to bring function back into the body. It’s it’s restorative. It has a purpose. Each exercise has a purpose for you know every person, and there are different apparatus. There’s the mat. There’s the reformer, the Cadillac, the wonder chair. Joseph Palati started with the mat, and when he realized the mat is the most difficult out of all of them because you’re working against your own body, against gravity, which is really hard to do if you don’t have the strength, and you’re gonna rely on other muscle groups or your joints to compensate what is too weak to do the exercise properly. So that’s why he developed the Cadillac or the reformer to help the train the body while giving it support with the springs to learn these exercises, to learn these techniques to eventually take it back to the mat because there is a learning modality in all of this, and it’s learning how your body operates, where your weaknesses are, where your limitations are, where your you know where you have mobility issues, and you try to restore that, you know, one exercise at a time. And if one exercise doesn’t work, you pivot and you do something else that can give you what you need, so you can safely go back to that exercise and do it, do it correctly. So the system is built in place. There’s a reason, and I stand strongly behind classical Pilates because it it has it has a purpose and there are other modalities of it. Like when I teach, I have to think about a little bit about outside the box, right? I have to modify. I can’t just cram somebody in the Pilates mold and say, “Do your 100, you know, if they can’t lift their head off of the mat or their legs, they can’t lift their legs up. Then we’re going to have to modify that to where it’s safe and and effective for this person until they can get their strength up to to fully execute it. But yeah, there’s contemporary Pilates. I don’t know. There’s so many different forms of Pilates out there that I’m not 100 familiar with. All I know is that classical Pilates is always the same. It never changes. You can always make something harder. There’s you know 70 some Pilates exercises on the reformer. You know there’s so many different ways to make it fun and creative and add new things and new apparatus. It never gets old. There’s always something to do. There’s always something to work on. There’s always a way to make it harder to go deeper to connect more. Right? Like we’re all we’re always figuring it out. Like once we find like oh my gosh, I finally got the hang of it. I’ll I’ll tweak your exercise a little bit, and I’ll be like, “Okay, what about now? I’ll make you go deeper into that connection, so you really have a good understanding how your body works and what it feels like to work from strength instead of working from weakness or relying on, you know, the joints or your back or your hips to, you know, fulfill the exercise.

Desiree 54:02
Yes, I’m wondering what are the different, I guess you could say, recovery stories or restorative stories that you’ve seen in your clients. Like, what are some of the the biggest? I guess you could say like the biggest transformations that you’ve seen.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 54:19
Well, gosh, there’s so many. I mean, everybody that comes into my studio, they they come in with something, right? And then, but I guess most recently, my client who she’s had three three kids, I think, and she had a. a a hip click, right, or hip injury, and that’s very common for women, especially if you have weak glutes. We rely on our hip flexors, and if you overuse your hip flexors, then they can become the dominant part of your body that you’re overusing, and. You can develop a hip click and hip pain and hip instability, back instability. So, working with her, I was able to eliminate the hip click because we’re strengthening her glutes, her hamstrings. We’re working from the larger muscle groups and stabilizing the smaller muscle groups and incorporating exercises that are restorative to the to the pelvis, and that’s taken away her back pain, her hip click. She’s working through from strength now, and she leaves my studio. And she tells me every time she comes back in, I can’t believe how how good I feel. Like my hip pain is completely gone. I don’t feel it anymore, and I just you know she loves coming in because I’m giving her freedom. I’m giving her freedom. I’m giving her her life back and the ability to play with her kids and not feel like oh my gosh can I get down on the floor and not have any hip pain right and and having that freedom and the space to do things that you want to love, or to be able to give your undivided attention to your children without being interrupted or feeling like you’re you have an obstacle in between you. My other client, he’s 90. He’ll be 91 in November. He has Parkinson’s and degenerative disc disorder, and he has a hunch, and I said, “We’re never going to correct the alignment of your spine, but what I can do is help reinforce the strength, so it is more supportive, and so you can try to sit up more upright, upright, walk with confidence, and and restore your balance, so we can eliminate falls, and you could step down off a curve and not be afraid that you’re going to fall down. Yeah. Or we can make it so you can you can get up off of the ground, which is a big fear as you age, right? We lose so much spinal mobility, and he has gotten his walk is so much more competent. He sits up taller. He said, “I can sit at the table now and grab my computer or grab my plate and be able to hold it up. And we take for granted all these things, you know. But at 90, that’s a big deal. And for him to be able to do that and have the freedom to be able to live his life outside of the studio, I mean, that is what like melts my heart, right? That’s that’s what makes me feel like I am doing this. This is my purpose: is to help other people, you know, live their best lives, and that’s that fills my cup completely. Is

Desiree 57:34
there an age that’s too young for Pilates? Would you say like where it’s like I probably wouldn’t benefit them.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 57:41
No, I mean, okay. So mat pilates. I think everyone can do mat pilates. Kids can do mat pilates. My kids grew up doing mat pilates. The problem that you get into is when kids are still developing and their bones have not all fused together yet, and they they still have like the their growth plates. There’s spaces in between their growth plates. You don’t want to put any added pressure on those growth plates. But if they are of a certain age, you know, and the certain height, they can do some reformer work, or you can do some Cadillac work, or you can do some chair work. You just want to make sure that the springs are not going to be too heavy. You just my all Pilates equipment is different too. I have classical equipment and it’s very supportive. And if I’m going to have young athletes in the studio, we’ll do a lot of mat based work and a lot of restorative work, a lot of balance work, core work. None of that you need to be on an apparatus. But if they were to go on the reformer, then I will make sure that the springs are light. And it’s so interesting because if you get young athletes who are you know heavily into sports like soccer or gymnastics, and then and you think that they’re going to be in like the the most impeccable shape, and I get in there and I’m like, “Oh, interesting! You can’t straighten your knees all the way, or you can’t close your heels together without your knees bowing out. So, and then so you start to see early on how kids who are in competitive sports how it’s starting to change how their body is developing, and if you don’t get in front of that and try to correct some of those imbalances, then they’re going to carry that with them. And I saw with my own kids knee issues, back issues, ankle issues. You know, pronation in of the feet. Like you got to get in front of that, so they have the balance. So when they do go and train that hard. They’re coming from a place of of balance rather than reinforcing those incorrect movement patterns because we’ve already fixed and counterbalanced, you know, whatever the dominant muscles are or wherever the imbalances were. So I don’t think that I, but I do think it’s for everybody. For sure, yeah.

Desiree 1:00:01
I really wish I would have tried out Pilates way younger because I know I mentioned to you that I was an athlete almost all my life, and running track from the moment I was like six or seven years old, and doing soccer, doing dance, and lots of other random things here and there, and then in high school, where running became much more serious. Like I was pretty serious about it in middle school, but not so much. But high school, it was I had an amazing, incredible team, and I loved talking about all my girls that that were on that team in high school, and were most of us are still friends, and I just saw injury after injury after injury after injury, and it was it was pretty common. Like it was just like, oh, you got shin splints too. Oh, you got tendonitis too. Oh, you got bursitis. You know, Oscar

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:01:00
slaughter. Yes, yes, literally. Like

Desiree 1:01:03
it was like, which one do you get? Which flavor are we all going to get? It was everywhere, and hearing you talk about our movements and how maybe we were just moving and not having a foundation before we really got into this intense movement, where we’re pounding into the asphalt, boom, boom, over, or even on the track, it’s still it’s still really rough, and swimming less so because there’s you don’t have to deal with like the pounding on like a hard ground, but still just a repetitive movement that athletes are doing. I just wonder how a lot of our careers could have been different if Pilates was part of youth programs. Oh, I know, and that’s

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:01:53
that’s a goal of mine. I would love to get in front of even universities. You know, I’m I’m thinking about contacting some private universities and schools just to get a mat class going, or you know my daughter’s gymnastics center do a a training or some kind of a workshop to show them like this is going to target you know your glutes and your hamstrings, and this is for not only mobility but for strengthening the core, and they all need different things, right? And I think, yeah, it’s getting at that youth level would really be beneficial because look at professional athletes, professional football players, basketball players, martial artists, everybody, ice skaters. They all do Pilates as their foundation, and all it does is it enhances their craft, their sport. It makes it better because they’re coming from a greater place of mobility, strength. You know, focus. So it really does make all aspects of your life better.

Desiree 1:02:53
Yeah, yeah. I I just think about how incredible that would be for different youth sports. Like it could be soccer clubs or track clubs, swim clubs, anything where it was just ingrained. Like something that we learn when we’re young is like, oh, make sure you have active rest days. Make sure you stretch. Right. Make sure you do this. Make sure you ice up. You know things like that. But a lot is on your

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:03:21
off days,

Desiree 1:03:22
right? No one talks about the the weaknesses. Like I learned when I was with you one on one, no one talks about oh you have this oh okay let’s let’s look at this okay let’s look oh that’s coming from this. There’s no one is really mapping that out for us as young athletes most of the time. I’m sure there’s other athletes who have much more access to information like that or mentors like that. I’m sure, but but sports happen everywhere in all communities, in all different demographics and and income levels, and it would be incredible if it was just available for every student athlete or every young athlete, something that came to my mind about Pilates after we were talking about helping expand it to younger kids, especially, and then you know still making it for everybody. What is your next goal for Pilates. I know you kind of mentioned a little bit, like yes, I I want to get in touch with universities. I want to, you know, get into youth programs. Is there anything else that you imagine yourself doing with Pilates?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:04:35
100% It’s it’s never going to stop. I’m always going to be evolving because, um, I mean, I’m just so fortunate that my clients and the people that I see understand the value of Pilates and how Pilates is an investment in your long-term health, and they’re starting to reap all the benefits of that. It’s a good problem to have. It’s not a problem. It’s a good. Goal, but growth, right? I need to expand where I’m at. I already have another set of equipment. I have a fully equipped studio, but I want two. I want two of everything or three of everything because I do small group classes. I do host workshops. I do host educational series, right? I do seminars. I want to make sure that I have the space to host that instead of having to, you know, rent out a space or go somewhere else. Like I like having things at my house, and I either want to, you know, before I did Pilates. I did commercial real estate, so I know everything there is about the market and where to find a retail location or an office space. Right? It’s just finding something that aligns with my business and where I want to go because I’m not going to be the traditional studio that has you know classes from nine to five, right? Mine’s very individualized. I may have some classes, but mine are going to be by appointment only, small group, twos, threes, or single private lessons, and that way I never take away from that individualized, customized approach, right? Because that’s kind of my niche, and I always wanted to be able to provide that to my clients, but I also do want to have more of an expanded reach because getting more people into these workshops and into these classes and into these seminars it’s going to help expand them. And I’m looking into doing a teacher training program based off of the principles that I learned in my master’s program, so this opportunity is being offered to me and my other fellow, I guess, colleagues or whoever my fellow Pilates instructors that we all did the master program mentorship together. So we are wanting to expand our knowledge to help other teacher trainers become really amazing Pilates instructors and help to expand and you know push the knowledge because there’s not there’s an instructor for every person right there’s only going to be one of me and we all have our own individual, unique abilities to to give away and to and to help people. And I think that there’s a true gift for everyone who’s interested to expand on that. So I would love to incorporate a teacher training program. I need the space to do that. I need more equipment. So what we’re thinking is either building a separate ADU into my house and having that be a larger dedicated space, which I still think my clients would appreciate because they like coming to a house rather than a gym. A lot of them feel intimidated, or they don’t want to be in larger crowds, or they need accessibility, or they need specialized equipment, or just the ability to get from point A to point B without too many things, you know, being in the way. So they do love that comfort aspect. I will probably always have a space at my house to teach for those select clients, but I’m looking to either do that or have an additional location somewhere in the area of 1000 Oaks to have that expanded reach to serve more people. So yeah, that’s that’s the wind. The wheels are spinning. There’s lots of things happening. I am working on a book also, so that’s also in the works. So you know, lots of things. Yeah.

Desiree 1:08:44
What’s the the book going to be about? I think it’s just

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:08:47
going to be more of an expanded version of like my story of maybe starting back of how I grew up in Malibu, my college years, growing up in Ventura County. You know, entering into early adulthood, motherhood, the challenges that go along with it, navigating grief, the death of a parent-you know all the things in life. But I have a very exciting and unique story that everyone always tells me. My God, you need to write a book because I grew up in Malibu and I saw a lot of crazy things happen there. What kind of stuff?

Desiree 1:09:21
What’s crazy in Malibu?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:09:23
My my dad. We we my my parents built my house across from Zuma, and back in the 70s, and just started from the ground up. Built this amazing house, and he just kept adding on. He had a very lucrative career in commercial real estate, and when my parents divorced, he stayed, and he kept adding on, adding on, adding on. So it was kind of like the quintessential, you know, house to be at. Like you had the the two pools, the tennis court, the sauna, the jacuzzi. So you know he had a he had a very good time there in that house, living as a bachelor. So needless to say, growing up there, so did my friends and I. So it was the place to be at. So there’s definitely a lot to expand on there, and it was a really good experience. I missed that house terribly. I wish he still had it, but there comes a time that you know things have to end and you got to move on. But yeah, is

Desiree 1:10:24
the house still standing? It’s

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:10:26
still standing. Yep, still there. It was actually recently put up for sale, and you know, of course, it’s like $20 million now. Yeah, like you

Speaker 1 1:10:36
should have been sell that house. Yeah,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:10:39
shoulda woulda, coulda, right? Yeah, I mean, like that could have been in my family for years, but things happen for a reason. You know, got too big for my dad, and we had already flown the nest and were out on our own doing our own lives. So

Desiree 1:10:52
yeah,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:10:53
just too much.

Desiree 1:10:54
Yeah. You mentioned you were also in Florida at some point, or I heard Florida earlier, and I was like,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:11:01
“Oh, Florida was where I got my compounding pharmacy. But I lived in I lived in New York for a while. I took a gap year. It wasn’t called a gap year then. My dad was so pissed. I took a gap year from college, and I wanted to do acting. I wanted to. I really found. I I got the itch right in in in college, I I found I went to Moorpark College and I was going to be a writer, but then after taking an acting class and being in their one act plays, I was like, “Whoa, this is really fun! So I got the opportunity to move to New York, and my dad said, “You got into Pepperdine. What are you doing? You’re gonna ruin your life, and I was like, I don’t care. I’m going, and he’s like, Well, I’m not gonna help you. You’re on your own. So I left, and boy, that was a big learning experience. I lived in New York. I wanted to go to NYU, so I was working on my auditions. I was auditioning, and of course, just like I bit off way more than I can chew, and I think I should have waited. I should have allowed more time before I landed, and then when I was going to audition. But I was like, no, everything has to be now, and so I didn’t make it, but I still stayed, and I studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory, which was a really great experience to learn acting that way, and that was the style of acting that I really that resonated with me. But when you’re living in New York and you’re trying to make a living, I was teaching gymnastics out there because that’s all I knew, and I was waitressing, and it was cold. You’re getting sick all the time. You’re isolated. I was like, “Oh my gosh! I lasted about a year. It was a great experience. I made so many good friends. I loved it. But finally, my dad’s like, “Okay, well, you know, if you ever want to come home, you can live at home and go to school. And I was like, “Yeah, I think I’m ready. So I went back home.

Desiree 1:13:01
Yeah, like okay, it’s time. I had my fun time in New York, and I’m ready to go back.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:13:07
Yeah, you have to because if you didn’t, then you’ll always be looking over your shoulder like, what if you know what could have happened? So I’m I’m really glad I did that, and it toughens you up. You know, it makes you work hard, have a good work ethic, and you know really fight for your dreams. So

Desiree 1:13:23
I love that fight for my dreams.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:13:25
Yeah.

Desiree 1:13:26
Would you encourage anyone to do something like that? To just like hop on a plane, go go move anything like that.

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:13:37
My mom did that. She went to New York when she was 18, and she became a flight attendant for TWA. Once I heard that story, it kind of planted the seed early on. I’m like, she can do it, I can do it, and she was very encouraging. But yeah, I think everyone should go to travel Europe, you know, out of college or out of high school, and go live out of state somewhere or anywhere that inspires you. I mean, I think even going out of going out of state to to college, I think that is an experience in its own. Just getting out of your comfort zone, I think is something to to strive for, just so you have that growth opportunity at 1819, 2021, You know, whatever it is. I mean, those were very formative years, and there’s a lot to be to learn. There’s a lot to be learned there. So, yeah, I I totally recommend it.

Desiree 1:14:31
Yeah, I’m just like, hmm, am I too late? Should I go a little bit, just for a little bit?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:14:36
No, it’s never too late. Yeah, go study abroad. Like, I’m a huge advocate, you know. I lived in London for a while. You study over there. You get to travel Europe, like learn a different language. I was a little too scared. I wanted to go to Spain, but I was a little too scared because learning a language has always been very difficult for me. So I was afraid that I, I would just be stuck and not, you know, that was one. Challenge that I wasn’t quite able to get to, but maybe someday.

Desiree 1:15:04
Yeah,

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:15:04
maybe someday.

Desiree 1:15:05
Yeah, and especially like moving out of the country too, because there’s certain norms that you have to learn and get used to, and not only the language, but just like, oh, should I be parking on this side of the street, or should I not be eating a certain way, or say something, or or have a certain volume in my voice. Like I’ve heard so many different things depending on the country. There’s just so many things that I do regularly that would be seen as weird or like ooh like you would kind of be shammed for that or something like that. I’m like oh, it makes me feel a lot like smaller. Like wow, there’s so much big world where things are just so different, and everyone lives in different realities all the time. Yeah, is there anything else for you that’s going to be happening besides you wanting to expand doing Pilates in different locations and having you know a studio opened up besides your home? Is there anything else that’s coming up for you with that? And then I know you mentioned the writing. What else might be happening for you in the next few years?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:16:09
I mean, maybe get another certification. I also really would like to get certified, get a NASM certification, so I can become not just a Pilates instructor, but a personal trainer, so I can be proficient in women’s health overall. I mean, I still lift weights. I I do all the things at the gym. Like I’m very well knowledged, or I’m very well versed in how the body moves because I had to take you know two years of anatomy as I went through my Pilates training. So I know what to do. I know what not. I know what not to do. But I, I just like having that certification under my belt. So, so being certified personal training, and then you know finding the doctors and and whoever wants to partner up with me to do workshops and whatever else because Pilates complements everything and anything. So anyone that is open to collaborating, I already collaborate with a pelvic floor therapist. I have a chiropractor in mind that might want to do collaboration, so I can hold workshops there and just get the word out. Right, get the word out that this is here for you. You know, there’s Pilates is here to help. So I’m coming from a place of service, and if I can get to a point where I am well known in my community that this is what I’m doing, then I’ve reached my goal.

Desiree 1:17:29
Yay! For everyone listening, where can people find you? You know, online or any resources. If you can mention, you know, your website or your socials, anything like that. Where would you want people to find you and reach you?

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:17:46
Yes, my socials. My Instagram is Strength by Jennifer Pilates, and Facebook Strength by Jennifer, or Strength by Jennifer Pilates as well. And then my website is Strength by Jennifer or Strength by Jennifer Pilates Studio. You can do either. So yeah, that’s where most people find me, or you can just Google me. Yeah, Pilates in 1000 Oaks, and my name will come up on Google. So yeah, Strength by Jennifer Pilates Studio.

Desiree 1:18:15
Yeah, and it was so good chatting with you. I want to thank you formally for just spending time with me and and really taking care of women, yeah, that that’s been a huge thing for me. Now being postpartum, just like how much stuff that we don’t know about our own bodies. So I really appreciate that. Yeah, thank you

Jennifer Maldonado Thind 1:18:37
for having me. This has been so much fun. I just love talking about all things women’s health-it’s a newfound passion of mine-and as many people as we can reach, the better, right? So this was a great opportunity to talk about the book, Slaying Los Angeles. If anyone’s interested in hearing about my story, and just or Pilates, thank you for creating this space for me to become a guest, I really appreciate it, and I love teaching you. That was so much fun. Yes, of

Desiree 1:19:04
course, we’ll do it again. Okay, great, yay!

Announcer 1:19:08
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