Sam's Fitness & Wellness Journey
Meet Sam, a health and fitness professional with around 30 years of experience in the industry. Sam's journey began in 1993 when she started teaching various exercise classes. However, it was in 1998 that she discovered her passion for Pilates after experiencing early-onset arthritis and chronic lumbar back pain. Since then, Pilates has become an integral part of her daily routine, helping her maintain lifelong core strength, mobility, flexibility, and movement.
In 2004, Sam founded Fitness Dynamics, a platform that has helped over a thousand women and men with classes, courses, workshops, coaching, and consultations. Her key practice areas include Pilates, fascial fitness, functional movement, mindfulness, mental cognition, stress physiology, and enabling social interaction opportunities for members/participants.
In 2020, Sam was diagnosed with Hypermobility Syndrome, which explained her joint pains, muscle fatigue, and recurring minor injuries. This diagnosis inspired her to integrate exercises and techniques that support joint stability and mobility into her practice. With her personal experience and ongoing education, Sam uniquely understands the challenges that individuals with hypermobility and chronic fatigue face. She can tailor her programs to meet their needs while ensuring their safety.
Sam's focus has expanded in recent years to promote complete wellness using simple health bio-hacks, exercise physiology, the biomechanics of breathwork, and wearable technology. With a strong emphasis on women's health and well-being, Sam helps individuals manage back pain, pelvic floor health, and peri/mid/post-menopause years and promotes a better understanding and respect for the female body in total wellness, exercise, and education. She is also passionate about increasing awareness of the symptoms of peri/menopause and how hypermobility symptoms can change with ageing and hormonal changes.
Sam's mission is to make fitness fun, inclusive, and supportive, where individuals feel welcome, nurtured, and encouraged to meet their wellness, health, and fitness goals. She uses the latest advancements in health science, including fascial fitness, breathing strategies for wellness, microbiome diversity, and wearable technology to empower individuals to develop physical and mental resilience for everyday life, especially post-Covid and into midlife and beyond.
Sam's Pilates Training and Education
Since falling in love with the Pilates method more than two decades ago, Sam has undergone extensive Pilates training, primarily in the contemporary style. However, she has also studied courses covering the original repertoire to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the exercises and the excellent strength flexibility, mobility, flow and alignment required to perform at this level.
With a Certificate in Education, Assessor and Verifier awards, Sam worked for 10 years at South Kent College (now Folkestone College) developing, delivering and assessing the comprehensive programme of fitness and gym courses and also 7 years teaching and assessing Level 3 Pilates courses and advanced workshops with Future Fit Training.
Sam's training providers are among the best in the industry and include Michael King's Pilates Institute, Stott Pilates, Future Fit Training, Cherry Baker Education, Lydia Campbell, Biomechanics Education, Facia Training Academy, Dr Julia Jones, Jenny Burrell Education and Michelle Lyons Muliebrity Education. In particular, she completed Diamond Pilates with Cherry Baker Education, focusing on pelvic dysfunction and Lydia Campbell's Trigger Point Pilates to release stress and fascia restrictions. Additionally, Sam became an 'I Move Freely' Instructor with Biomechanics Education, a Fascial Fitness Trainer with Fascia Training Academy and a Smart Wellness Pro with Dr Julia Jones. She also received training in Hypermobility, Fatigue and Fibromyalgia with Cherry Baker, Back Pain in Women and Strategies for Improved Breathing with Michelle Lyons Muliebrity Education.
To further support her clients' total wellness, Sam is completing additional training in Jenny Burrell's 3rd Age Women Menopause Transition, Practical Pain Science, Trauma-informed Care in Pelvic Physiotherapy and Coaching skills. These enable her to provide comprehensive health and wellness support and understanding to her clients, in addition to physical training. Sam's commitment to ongoing learning and professional development demonstrates her dedication to providing her clients with the highest quality coaching service.
Connect with Sam Horton
Here are a few of my favourite
inspirational quotes and self-care mantras, I hope that some of these resonate with you:
"Speak kindly to yourself as if you were talking to your best friend. Remember to treat yourself with the same kindness, compassion, and understanding that you would offer to a close friend." - Sam Horton.
This statement is a powerful reminder to be gentle with ourselves and to practice self-compassion, especially when facing challenges or setbacks. Positive self-talk can cultivate a more supportive inner dialogue and build a foundation of self-love and resilience.
"Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness."
- Joseph Pilates
"Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible."
"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped."
- Tony Robbins
"Wellness encompasses a healthy body, a sound mind, and a tranquil spirit. Enjoy the journey as you strive for wellness."
- Laurette Gagnon Beaulieu
“Screw it, let’s do it.”
“You miss 100% of the times you don’t swing.”
“Isn’t life wonderful?”
- Richard Branson
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."
- Walt Disney
"Only light love, and peace can be in my body, mind and soul.
All negative energy must leave."
- Unknown
"Success is a few simple disciplines practised every day."
- Jim Rohn
"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."
- Sir Edmund Hillary
"You can't always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside."
- Wayne Dyer
"It is up to YOU to control your focus."
"You can decide to be frustrated, angry or scared.
Or you can decide to be grateful, joyful and blessed."
"Every day, stand guard at the door of your mind."
- Taught to Tony Robins by his mentor Jim Rohn
"Feel the fear and do it anyway!"
- Susan Jeffers
"The secret to winning the day is waking up and taking control of your mind first."
"You are one decision away from a completely different life."
"It's not about motivation; it's about learning how to manage our minds and take action."
- Mel Robbins
"More smiling, less worrying.
More compassion, less judgment.
More blessed, less stressed.
More love, less hate."
- Roy T. Bennett
"The mind is everything; what you think, you become."
- Buddha
Remember to speak kindly to yourself - Sam x