I just wanted to say a huge thank you to up for the information you provided at you course held at Homebush Aquatic Centre in Sydney in August.

I have been talking to my clients about pelvic floor muscles which always leads to interesting topics of conversation!!  But telling them how important it is, it is just great.  The feedback is good, and like some of my clients have said - we do need to be reminded to use it, because we don't do it as much as we should.  I constantly remind my clients to pull their belly button into their spine, and a couple of clients have recently told me that they have been on holidays and took me with them as they were sitting for a long time and my voice came to them saying, "pull your belly button into your spine, use your pelvic floor muscles."  To which they said it was most helpful.

Also I have been using my music to create moves to the track.  This has taken time to listening to it and use the timing to create my own moves... it is just great.  This is exactlywhere I wanted to take my aqua classes, so I do a bit of mixing and matching, workouts and dancing... I love it and I am getting some great feed back so a huge thank you Marietta for inspiring me.

I can't wait to do another one of your course, you are full of information and have so much energy, I just love it.  Thanks again

• "I think I speak for all of us when I say that we've all enjoyed meeting and learning from you as part of this course. I expect that many of us will go on to see you again in Certificate IV, in classes or workshops you run, or eventually in professional capacities. Personally, I've really enjoyed your teaching style, and the Gymstick has been a revelation! I'm sure that I'll see you soon for some training, until then, take care, and thank you."

- Carl

As personal trainers here we are all dealing with very hideous situations i.e 50% of my clients have lost immediate family/loved ones, loss of homes, as well as all the other trials and tribulations of life at the best of times! It's quite incomprehensible.

My alternative motive was to take the Gymstick away with me to maintain my fitness. You may be thinking what's so special about that! Well our holiday was on board a sailing ship. A clipper to be precise. There were 159 passengers on board and 80 crew, no gym, two small plunge pools one of which enabled anyone at the bar to peer through the portholes into the pool.... The Aqua fitness class was viewed by all and sundry!

First impressions count for a lot.
It was a sunny spring afternoon at Northcote YMCA in 1992. I was upstairs waiting to enter the Group Fitness Room, about to try a class of Step which I had not previously attended. Noticing that the instructor was also teaching the preceding class, I peeped in to see who she was.
I almost tumbled back down the stairs in surprise..

The visual equivalent of a trumpet blast, she was gorgeous, exotic, radiating a swaggering cool and composure that seemed more likely to have originated on the streets of New York than in the sleepy Greek-Italian suburb which Northcote was in those days. In an era when the lycra leotard- bike shorts combination was the order of the day, this diva had attired herself in denim short shorts and some sort of plunging crop top with a diamante trim, discarding the banal regulation instructor belt for a studded leather one which completed the impression that she was about to star in a dance video.

Fitness has only played a key role in my life for a relatively short time. I have most recently had the great privilege of meeting Marietta Mehanni and would like to share some of the wonderful changes that have occurred as a result.
In 2007 an American professor, Dr. Randy Pausch, delivered an upbeat speech at Carnegie Mellon University. Terminally ill with pancreatic cancer and with only months left to live, he entitled his acclaimed speech 'The Last Lecture'. Amongst his many lessons on leading a fulfilling life, he said that you had better decide early on if you are a Tigger or an Eeyore.

Seven years later, back in Melbourne, in my forties, and with my youngest starting kinder, I tentatively looked up Marietta's website- she had taken a step workshop in my original course, and I remembered how the elegance and precision of her instruction had made a complex step routine fall into place.

As a dedicated Midwife and Registered Nurse for the last 7 years, I always had a passion for fitness, especially the health of mothers and their unborn babies. Being a fitness freak myself I decided to complete my Certificate 3 and 4 with Fitnation 3 years ago to hopefully one day make a difference in the pregnancy and postnatal world.

Two years went by and my ambition of a small business was held off due to personal reasons and I thought I would never get it off the ground.

I searched high and low to find courses in pregnancy fitness until one day I came across a choreography course with Marietta Mehanni, as the first stepping stone with Preggi Bellies to teach me how to instruct a fitness class. Me (the nervous nelly) whom hated getting up in front of a group of people, let alone teaching a group class; surprised myself in the assessment and hit a home run on the first go.

Marietta was one of our instructors in the Cert III Gym Instructor course and her enthusiasm for her subjects is boundless (although, how anyone can maintain a degree of excitement about the origin and insertion points of muscles and the Sliding Filament Theory still has me puzzled). Anyway, I knew that if Marietta was in charge of our Group Fitness course, there is no way any of us would come out of it less than thoroughly prepared.

I was right.

Adam James

"Have started working on my balance issues with the Gymstick, it's fun and challenging, I really like it.
I look forward to participating in another workshop you present sometime in the future."

Rayanne Hutchins

"The DVD (Hard Core Core) is excellent.

those, presenting to an ever changing audience. Thanks again Marietta"

Scott Clark
"Marietta's gymstick session was again very interesting, fun and exciting. Marietta demonstrated full range of exercises that covered the whole body and most of all it made you burn those extra calories. The Gymstick is a very useful and portable tool that all PTs should own."

Emma Walker
"Marietta packs an awful lot of personality into her tiny frame. A wealth of information, and extremely generous with her time
and expertise, Marietta's sessions are always fun and fascinating. Marietta is not unlike a Gymstick herself - versatile, hard-
working, tough and a lot of fun!"

Matt Phillips
"Marietta is one of the most knowledgeable, organised and skilled presenters I have ever had the pleasure of working with. The energy and enthusiasm that Marietta brings to her teaching sessions is infectious making it impossible not to learn. The Gymstick is now my favourite piece of exercise equipment."

Les Rosenblatt
"Marietta is a wonderfully enthusiastic practitioner of the art of Gymstick, and engagingly generous in passing on her knowledge and experience."

Jess Elliott
"Marietta is a fantastic instructor, how she can demonstrate, coordinate & still speak amazes me, wow what a workout! The gymstick is a fantastic unique tool that is a must-have for people looking for a unique, yet effective workout at home!"

Annette Dal Sasso
"Marietta is a killer presenter, one of a kind. Exceptionally motivating with an infectious personality."