Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Guidi Zupancic.
Alex, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started Yoga Muttz in June of 2018 after I completed my first yoga certification in Buti Yoga. A unique practice, known for its cardio-intensive bursts, primal movement, and conditioning. Even though I had completed and passed this certification, I didn’t have enough confidence in myself to audition to teach at a studio. Not only that, but I was afraid of rejection from my home studios or other yoga teachers I so admired.
I figured the best way to build confidence was to practice. So every week, I would set up shop in Nashville’s East park, and invite members of the community to take my class for free. I would post flyers in local coffee shops and advertise it in local Facebook groups. We would also invite participants to bring their dogs along with them. We would set up a few dogs leads in the field so the pups would play, sleep, or knock us over will we practiced. Often times providing some much needed comedic relief during class. This lasted throughout the year and at our highest had about 15 people and four dogs in class.
My goal for Yoga Muttz was to create a space free from judgement, free from perfections, and filled with diversity and support. As someone who always struggled with self-confidence and body acceptance, traditional yoga studios had been slightly intimidating. Expensive classes, with tall, thin, and flexible teachers and students made me feel like a newborn baby deer and made me second guess if I would ever be cut out to be a teacher. I own an online fitness streaming service called Muttz Fitness at www.muttzfitness.com. I never wanted anyone to feel like that in my classes. I want my students and community to see a real human goofball. Nowadays, I call myself a qualified and credentialed gooberino.
As well as being a yoga instructor, I am also a dog mom to five wild and crazy rescue pups. Pups of all different breed mixes, backgrounds, personalities, shapes, ages. They are all over the board, but I love them so much. Celebrating differences in my pups and differences in my fitness community. Thus Yoga Muttz became our name. Fast forward two years, I’ve dialed in my goals for Yoga Muttz and identified our mission as: “We are a health and wellness brand that works to support community and rescue animals through small acts of kindness.” We have worked to raise money and awareness for Middle Tennessee Treasures dog and animal rescue out of Murfreesboro, TN.
I teach yoga in both the men’s and women’s prisons here in Nashville through a non-profit called Small World Yoga. Yoga Muttz raised close to $1,000 through T-shirt sales to support families affected by the recent Nashville tornados. I teach weekly classes at the Catio Cat Cafe where %100 of the ticket sales go to support the rescue cats collected around 150 winter coats and accessories that were donated to the Nashville Rescue Mission and the Oasis center. I run social media pages the support transparency in body issues, eating disorders, and mental health awareness.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, but I am fortunate to have the most incredible support system from my husband and our families. When I first started Yoga Muttz, I was working full time for company in Nashville. I loved my full-time position, but trying to balance my love for fitness and community with working long hours was not going well.
Not only that but in September of 2018, two weeks before my wedding, my father unexpectedly passed away. Navigating this grief led to a diagnosis of depression and a year full of emotions that I was not equipped to understand or explain in my relationships. I felt alone and angry at everyone and everything. I started consuming myself in my corporate job, neglecting myself, my husband, and Yoga Muttz. Months of therapy and some antidepressants got me back on track. It was like a haze had been lifted off and I was ready to put my whole heart and soul back into fitness.
As a strong-willed, independent person, I made the difficult decision to give up my comfy salary and try my hand at entrepreneurship. This decision was especially difficult, but because I didn’t love the idea of relying on my husband’s salary to keep our little family afloat, but he’s amazing, calmed my insecurities, and helped empower me to take the leap. Since October of 2019, Yoga Muttz has been thriving – not in a financial sense – mainly because I end up giving away more than I make, but we have gained followers, supporters, and done as much good as we can.
We’d love to hear more about Yoga Muttz.
Yoga Muttz is a wellness brand that supports the community and rescue animals through small acts of kindness. I am the owner and only instructor. I teach Buti Yoga, Vinyasa Power Flow, and as a personal trainer, I teach online circuit training. I specialize in creative power flow sequences. My flows are my creative outlet. I craft every flow the strengthen and lengthen all of the proper muscles needed to perfectly hit a peak poses that students may have never thought they could reach.
Not only that, but I try to “push boundaries in every class” The fact that yoga is taught on a mat – a rectangle with four corners and four boundaries – puts students in their safe little space, only doing movements that will keep them contained to their box. Not in my class. I put my students through sequences the will challenge their normal, linear practice. Often time we will forward fold to the right or left, low lunge diagonally off the corners of the mat, seated forward off the side of the mat. Anything that will make my students look up in class to make sure they are doing it right because it’s not a position on the mat they are used to.
Most recently, I worked with my friend T’lark Galeas of MAIKOHMVMNT to develop a series of primal yoga flows under a team name Muttz & Maikoh. These videos are available on my online streaming service Muttz Fitness along with many other flows and strength workouts. All of the yoga flows and workouts uploaded to the online library are crafted to inspire playfulness and creativity in adults. Students can subscribe for $30 a month and new classes are uploaded weekly to www.muttzfitness.com. We don’t do a lot of editing to our videos because we want people to see us as real humans. Humans who get tongue-tied, make funny noises, fall out of postures, whose dog runs through the middle of class – just like people at home.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I want to say authenticity, but I think that word is a little overused and used in an ingenuine way. So maybe imperfection – I’m not perfect, I struggle with my weight, I struggle with depression, I don’t only take Instagram stories with my hair and makeup are done.
Also goofie, goobery, silly. Living a healthy lifestyle is freaking hard to do. It’s not easy and a lot of people see it as punishment or something you do just to check a box in your weekly schedule. I try to make my classes fun, light-hearted, and goofy. Encouraging people to smile, not to pass judgment if they just aren’t feeling it today. To enjoy and acknowledge the privilege, it is to even attend a class.
Pricing:
- $30 a month for a full subscription to www.muttzfitness.com
- In person or online private yoga or personal training based on income or sliding scale – Base Price $60 in person $50 online
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yogamuttz.com
- Phone: 4239028996
- Email: Alex@yogamuttz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yogamuttz/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yogamuttz
- Other: www.muttzandmaikoh.com
Image Credit:
For the first three images – Heather Allen
For the next three – Allison Hammond
For the grey and white image – Josie Lalama
Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
