Shakira has practised various martial arts most of her life. She has a black tag in Tae kwon Do and a 2nd Dan Black Belt in Kickboxing. She is also a kickboxing instructor, and has an NVQ Level 2 in coaching studies and a City & Guilds 7407 Certificate in Further Education Teaching Stage 1. She is a Middle Eastern dance instructor, performer and choreographer, and featured in several DVDs.

 

Shakira has worked with tri-athletes, runners and clients with various medical conditions helping them to achieve their goals of improved health, performance, and mental focus. Her programs are holistic and are designed to produce/maintain a well balanced, strong and flexible mind and body.

 

YSS Case Study Research:  Tri-Athlete

 

The Aim: was to establish whether a sport-specific yoga programme could help a tri-athlete to improve their pelvic stability, general posture, breathing technique and strength. The study also aimed to identify if yoga can be accepted by an athlete as a viable means of improving sporting performance.

 

Subject:  A 30 year old female triathlete training for two marathons and a triathlon.

 

Conclusion:  A six-week intervention showed that improvement gains had been made within the athletes running technique due to improved pelvic stability and general posture. The study identified that the athlete needed to practice regularly in order for this to have been achieved and agreed that a YSS session once a week was not enough to reap the benefits. It is necessary to find a way of incorporating a yoga training program into an already intense training schedule.

 

 

Shakira is also a certified Yoga Therapist with the Yoga Biomedical Trust and a certified FRYOG teacher (Friends of Yoga).She is currently studying Hypnotherapy and NLP, to further enhance her abilities to help clients accomplish their goals and objectives.