THIS IS ME
“My passion for helping others to move their bodies with strength and control has been a developing journey, and has grown along with my personal journey of understanding and improving my own body”.
OVERVIEW
/ JUSTINE JOHNSON
I am a registered biokineticist and certified yoga and pilates instructor, so my main focus is the movement and improvement of the human body.
I am passionate about helping others to understand and improve their own strength, awareness, flexibility and control. I love the challenge of working with each unique body that comes through my door. The journey I walk with each client in discovering and understanding the capabilities of their own bodies is endlessly inspiring and a great privilege.
Background
/ MY JOURNEY
Being a competitive swimmer at school, and later realising that I loved teaching swimming as well, deciding to become a biokineticist seemed a natural step in terms of combining my love of swimming and movement with working with people. I studied BSc Human Movement Science at Wits, and BSc Honours in Biokinetics at The University of Zululand. I became a fully registered biokineticist in 2008.
After four years in different biokinetic practices I decided to enrol in Classical Pilates training. This was a huge turning point in my understanding of moving the human body with mindful awareness. I found the experience of feeling and understanding how to move my own body imperative to understanding how to move the bodies of the patients and clients who came to me for biokinetic treatment. This experience led me to open my own biokinetic practice in 2011, where I could apply my biokinetic knowledge using pilates as my exercise and rehabilitation modality. I completed my advanced Classical Pilates certification in 2012, and became a 3rd generation teacher under the Romana Kryzanowska lineage.
In 2015, I decided to try Vinyasa yoga because I was looking for a movement modality offering complementary outcomes to pilates. I first fell in love with the control, focus and flow that was emphasised in yoga and later with the holistic approach of yoga in addressing the body, breath and mind. After three years of practicing yoga for myself and noticing the changes in my personal strength, flexibility, body awareness and muscular control, I could no longer keep the yoga out of my work and completed the 200hr Vinyasa yoga teacher training at The Yoga Republic in 2018.
In 2023 I completed my Master of Science degree in Sport and Exercise Medicine through the University of South Wales.
My journey so far has been exciting, fulfilling and has taken me places I never thought I’d go. My passion for physical movement has been enhanced by the philosophies of spiritual, emotional and intellectual movement that play such a huge part in a happy, healthy whole. I continue to learn and continue to adapt, and as I do, I impart more knowledge to the people I love to help.
