It’s January, and chances are you’ve made some sort of resolution that involves getting more fit in the year ahead. Maybe you’ve made a vow to visit the gym more often — or for the first time — signed up for a race or set a goal to just get more steps in daily. But what if you changed your mindset and instead resolved to have more fun getting in shape by finding an activity you love? Take a cue from these seven Richmonders who have embraced their passions for yoga and dance, hiking and running, making the pursuit of fitness a way of life. Find out what motivates them — and keeps them going.
Yoga for All
Jonathan Miles, Maha Vira Yoga
The logo for Jonathan Miles’ Maha Vira Yoga (“Great Hero” in Sanskrit) resembles a superhero emblem, conveying that he wants to use his strength and spiritual powers for good.
Miles, 48, has always been active, drawn to break dancing and martial arts. About 10 years ago, after a friend suggested he would be good at yoga, he started practicing and became a certified teacher.
“My identity as a black man, my desire to see a just society and my being a yoga teacher have all intersected,” he says. His teachings incorporate self-respect, mindfulness and social justice.
In 2010, he and four others started the nonprofit Project Yoga Richmond to make yoga more accessible and to show a cross section of Richmonders how to become stronger, healthier and more compassionate. The organization offers pay-what-you-can classes at its Dickens Road studio, free outdoor Saturday classes at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and outreach programs throughout the community.
In addition to teaching at PYR, Miles offers classes at Lunge Yoga on Forest Hill Avenue and travels across the country to share his practice. Yoga, with its breath control, meditation and challenging poses, comes easily to someone as physically fit as Miles, but he measures his success by his students’ happiness.
Miles invites the public to attend his classes. “Get off the damn couch,” he says. “Find a buddy. And even go for a walk. Don’t give up. Do something you like to do. Play with your kids or your pets. Dance. The key is to move. The mind and the heart are the strongest muscles you have.” —Dina Weinstein
Photo by Adam Ewing
Nonstop Movement
Miguel Perez, Dancer
Miguel Perez has worked as a professional dancer for Taylor Swift, Donny and Marie Osmond, Shania Twain, and Cirque du Soleil. He got his start as a Mexican folkloric dancer in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona, and attended the University of Arizona on a four-year dance scholarship.
As a choreographer and dance teacher, Perez instructs a new generation of dancers at Virginia Commonwealth University, the RVA Dance Collective, J’adore Dance, Stavna Ballet and the Latin Ballet of Virginia.
It wasn’t easy pursuing dance in his youth because of gender stereotypes, he says. And at age 40, “as I get older, injuries have been a challenge. It’s very taxing on the body, rehearsing eight hours a day.”
Perez considers going back to the University of Arizona to teach dance and performing with Celine Dion’s world tour as dance captain to be his greatest accomplishments. “Our first performance was in South Africa in front of 60,000 people,” he says. “It was an unbelievable feeling.”
Perez maintains fitness by taking dance, Pilates and yoga classes and going to the gym six days a week. “I like to go on a lot of trail walks with my dogs,” he says. “Right now I teach eight classes a week, so that keeps me fit. I also eat healthy.”
For fitness, Perez recommends dance, meditation and nature walks while paying serious attention to nutrition: “Get outside and do things you enjoy,” he says. —DW
Photo by Jay Paul
Pushing Limits
Erin Williams, Ultra Runner
For ultramarathoner Erin Williams, 45, fitness is all about self-care.
“My fitness time is my ‘me’ time,” says Williams, a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her children. “If I don’t get a good run, everyone knows.”
Williams ran track and played basketball in high school, and although she now regularly runs in 50- and 100-mile races, she had modest goals when she began running at age 31.
“At first I just wanted to get in shape, to go up the stairs and not [have to] catch my breath,” she says. “Then I started running more and doing longer distances. I started getting faster and became more competitive.”
In 2017, she ran her first ultramarathon, the Singletrack Maniac 50K in Williamsburg. An ultra is any race longer than the marathon distance of 26.2 miles. Most are held on trails. This year, Williams challenged herself to an ultra each month. At the Eagle Up Ultra, a 100-mile trail race, she won overall, setting a course record at 18:04:58. During her races, she carries a flag or wears a flag on her back with an image of a military member.
Williams coaches the Race Team RVA marathon training team and new Ultra Marathon Team RVA. “When you start, there’s often motivation, but then that day when it is rainy or cloudy, you may say: ‘I’m tired,’ ” she says. “Holding onto why you started, you need desire on the days that are not fun, whether your purpose is to be stronger or lose weight. You’ve got to cling on to the purpose on those tough days.” —DW
Photo by Monica Escamilla
‘Never Too Late’
Ann McGee, Senior Fitness Instructor
There are people who take life by the horns, and then there are people like Ann McGee, who are the horns. She’s 82 years old and busier than most 28-year-olds.
What keeps her busiest is her job as a senior fitness instructor at Tuckahoe YMCA, where she teaches Zumba, gentle strength and chair yoga. She’s also a guest chair yoga instructor at the John Rolfe YMCA, and sometimes she teaches at local retirement communities.
“I’ve been very fortunate with my health,” McGee says. Her lifelong interest in fitness is rooted in her love of dance and music, the latter of which she majored in at Mary Baldwin University.
When she first started teaching aerobics years ago, she says, “What they called aerobic dancing, everybody thought was erotic dancing.” She chuckles. “Nobody knew what it was.”
McGee especially enjoys teaching seniors. ”My theory is modification,” she says. “If you can’t move something, then move everything else.”
Her no-nonsense approach applies to any age. “I hate to hear, ‘I just don’t have time.’ You have to make time for yourself. People say, ‘Well, the kids came.’ Well, the kids want you healthy. If I can get up in the morning, then you can, too.”
McGee has no plans to slow down. “As long as my legs hold up, I’ll keep jumping up and down,” she says.
Her best fitness advice? “It’s never too late to start.” —Mel Jones
Photo by Adam Ewing
Naturally Fit
Kay Jungle, Fitness Coach
Kay Jungle is the head trainer at Burn Boot Camp Short Pump, a boutique fitness gym. He also devotes much of his time to his own business, Jungle Gemz, as a natural movement coach.
“Natural movement is anything evolutionary, things that can’t be taught,” he says. He gives the example of asking someone from any culture to climb a tree: The basic mechanics are universal.
Jungle says being able to do things like get up from the ground easily improves quality of life. “I want people to still be able to play with their grandchildren on the floor,” he says. “You don’t need to be fit to do natural movement, but natural movement will help you be fit.”
Jungle was always athletic, but after a series of injuries and accidents — a serious tailbone injury in middle school, damage done during his time running track at the University of Mississippi and a recent forklift accident at work — he learned the value of going “back to basics.”
“I couldn’t lie down, I couldn’t do anything,” he says. He sought help through conventional medicine but eventually took an alternative route.
For him, fitness is just as much about inner work as it is about physicality. He stresses that people can’t make progress if they make their bodies into enemies. “They feel like they hate their body,” he says. “Your body is an ally.”
His key to sticking with a fitness regimen is straightforward. “You have to have a strong ‘why,’ ” he says. “Make it a lifestyle change, not a punishment.” —MJ
Photo by Jay Paul
Personal Best
George Hastings, Runner
Growing up, George Hastings, 81, says he wasn’t much of an athlete. “I was always the last guy chosen [for a team],” he says.
Though he’s always stayed active — skiing, cycling, rollerblading and occasionally running recreationally — it wasn’t until he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2001 that he began taking exercise more seriously. He ran his first Monument Avenue 10K in 2002 and has run the race almost every year since.
In 2009, at age 71, he ran the Richmond Marathon, training with the Sports Backers Marathon Training Team. Although he did a few half-marathons after that race, he swore off full marathons until last June, when he signed up for marathon training again. “I got as far as running 12 miles, but the summer heat got to my old body,” he says.
Instead, he ran the half-marathon in November, finishing the race in 2:45:56, achieving the fastest time of the four half-marathons he has run to date.
“You don’t know what you can do until you actually can’t do it,” he says. “That summarizes my attitude toward running and physical activity.”
While physical activity can’t totally fend off the aging process, Hastings says it does slow it down.
“I would encourage anybody who has the faintest inclination … to do some physical activity several times a week,” he says. “If I can do it at my age, you can do it, too.” —Jessica Ronky Haddad
Photo by Monica Escamilla
A Walk in the Woods
Jackie Fuller, Hike It Baby
A group of children run around Huguenot Park playground on a brisk autumn afternoon. Their mothers greet each other, then gather to make a welcome circle before embarking on an evening hike through the park.
Jackie Fuller, Richmond branch manager of Hike It Baby, a national organization dedicated to connecting families to nature, leads the weekly hike. Fuller, the other branch managers and members host urban strolls, trail hikes and bike rides for children and their parents. The hikes, which are listed on Hike it Baby Richmond’s Facebook page, are open to all.
Fuller, a mother of two young children, isn’t a fitness professional. By day, she works full time in a facility that supports adults with intellectual disabilities.
“To me, fitness means feeling good, having energy and being able to take part in activities I enjoy,” she says. She got involved with Hike it Baby when her son was about 15 months old as she sought weekend activities.
Fuller brings her family on these 30-minute excursions a few times a week. The hikes help them meet their needs for community, connection, nature and physical activity.
“We always feel better after spending time outside moving our bodies and being with each other — people who share the same love for getting outdoors,” she says. “Fitness is important to me, but as a part of overall wellness, that’s where Hike It Baby has been so valuable to us.” —DW
