Reiner Grootenhuis was born in Berlin and his journey to finding his life’s work started as a 12-year-old racing cyclist, training 5 days a week, resting on Saturday and racing on Sunday. Reiner explored other sports as well, such as rowing and weightlifting, but all of these activities took a toll on his body and his physical pain was constant. There was something missing in his overall body conditioning and after much research he discovered autogenic training, a little known relaxation and mediation practice which helped to soften his overtrained muscles. By sixteen, Reiner began studies in the martial arts of Tai Chi Chuan and Kung Fu and graduated to teaching self-defense to women and children. Then in 1992 while watching television, Reiner saw an advertisement for the Pilates method and he filed the ad away knowing one day he’d try out Pilates. It was 2005 when Reiner finally decided to explore Pilates and bought a Pilates DVD to help him learn on his own. He took to the work immediately and was hooked. Reiner recognized that his previous trainings had prepared him for a career in Pilates and in 2010 he  sought out a Pilates certification program called Body Arts Science International, also known as BASI. The following year, Reiner completed BASI’s certification for mat and equipment. There is much more to Reiner's story, tune in to this episode to learn more!Original air date: January 5, 2020