Body Love Project opens in downtown Kalamazoo

For Laura Sprague, providing physical therapy was too limiting. Psychology didn't involve enough movement. And being a trainer in a someone else's gym just wasn't satisfying. 

 

"I decided to put it all together to do something I'm really good at," Sprague says. 

 

She wanted to share not only her lifelong passion for movement but her philosophy of respect for the body. So she opened Body Love Project at 210 Farmers Alley. (Through creative scheduling, she shares the space with James Tucker's Ballroom Dance Studio.) 

 

Sprague, a personal trainer on a mission to teach self-empowerment to her clients, started her own business to create a fitness environment where you will never hear: "let's get skinny."

 

"We don't allow any trash talk," Sprague says. For example, if you say, "I hate my legs." Sprague might suggest you think of all the things your legs do for you, to redirect your thoughts in a more positive direction.

 

Another way she is promoting appreciation of the body can be seen from 5 to 9 p.m. May 3 during Art Hop at studio 424 Parks Trade Center. There will be readings from Sprague's stage play "Woman No Shame" and Seamless Body Art by Elizabeth Snyder. 

 

She is a personal fitness coach, a rehabilitation specialist, a stretch therapist, an in-office ergonomics consultant, and a teacher of  exercise classes and on how the anatomy functions. Sprague has a degree in behavioral psychology and also has acquired extensive formal and personal study on anatomy and movement. And she likes to keep it all playful and fun

 

As part of her fitness classes, Sprague offers Pilates, cordio, a practice that involves core fitness and cardio training, and stretching, which is like yoga without the spiritual element. 

 

Sprague, the daughter of a professional dancer, says she has always loved movement and even when she was employed in other lines of work -- like the mental health field -- she found movement to be important for those she worked with. 

 

A self-described "anatomy geek," Sprague also found she has a knack for helping people align their bodies through exercise.  And she's worked with all ages from teens training for athletic pursuits to an older woman she sees in the woman's home.

 

"I love it," Sprague says. "It's very rewarding to be in class and have someone say 'thanks, I needed that so much. My knees don't hurt anymore.'"