Lisa Happ
Engaging Pilates Instructor
by Kathleen Downey
Lisa Happ
Lisa Happ radiates joyfulness. And in her company, it’s just about impossible not to feel upbeat or connected to the possibilities for joyfulness within each of us. The petite Pilates instructor possesses an intuitive and inherent knack for connecting with people—and perhaps more importantly, helping people connect with themselves.
Sitting in her brand-new and aptly named studio, Engage Your Core (located in Newburyport’s industrial park), Happ beams as she talks about Pilates, about the rewards of a healthy lifestyle, and about her family.
“I got hooked on Pilates while in college,” the Plymouth State graduate says. “I just took a class and stuck with it.” She became instructor-certified after completing an intensive two-year course.
But before Happ began leading students through Pilates sculpt classes or guiding them through resistance exercises on a Pilates reformer machine, Happ worked for a nonprofit agency in Nashua, NH, that assisted veterans afflicted with post traumatic stress disorder. “I helped establish a transition program,” she states. A sociology major, Happ applied her training and empathetic nature to each client. Happ found the work rewarding, but after awhile, she burned out.
“So I became a stay-at-home mom. I was happy,” Happ reflects, “but I knew that I wanted to do something more.” Having relocated from New Hampshire to Newburyport with her husband (a bond trader), and their two young children, Happ started teaching Pilates four years ago on a part-time basis at a local chiropractic office. She migrated to a space at the Tannery complex before opening her own studio on Parker Street (located in the Arwood building) this past September. “The whole idea just blossomed,” Happ says, outstretching her arm while her gaze takes in her studio’s pale green walls, Pilates equipment, and warm and inviting space.
Happ offers private instruction and small group classes in this clean and soothing atmosphere. “My students range from age 16 to 92,” Happ shares. One of the challenges in opening Engage Your Core, Happ says, was finding just-the-right fellow Pilates instructors who would complement the style of Pilates that Happ teaches. Happ says that the four individuals she hired to help teach are a wonderful fit with the studio.
“I want to help people improve the way they feel,” Happ states. “The greatest reward for me is to help people transform their bodies and reach their goals.”
Since taking up Pilates, Happ says that the lower back pain that once plagued her has vanished. Her muscles are now toned, and she has more energy. “My body changed completely through Pilates,” she testifies. Indeed, Happ is a picture of fitness.
A vegetarian lifestyle helps Happ to stay healthy. “I try to incorporate a lot of raw foods in my diet,” Happ says, who lives with celiac disease. She uses a “juicer” to create vitamin-packed fruit and vegetable smoothies—with the occasional shot of wheat grass (“You just have to throw it back,” she advises). “I feel so good!” Happ says, when she eats this way. Happ says that her husband usually partakes in the smoothies and Happ’s vegetarian lifestyle, but that her ten-year-old son (whom Happ home-schools) would prefer to be a “junk food-arien,” if he were allowed. However, her four-year-old daughter (who also lives with celiac disease) has already declared herself a vegetarian. “As soon as she found out that chicken was . . . well, a chicken, she announced that she would never eat her friends again,” Happ shares her precocious daughter’s declaration.
“My legacy is what I hope to pass on to my children,” states Happ. “By helping people as much as I can, I want my children to understand the importance of helping people,” she says. Besides helping people rediscover the joy of being physically fit through Pilates, Happ has hosted community fundraisers at Engage Your Core and is a supporter Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center. Speaking of her children, she says, “I think they get ‘it.’”
Happ describes how she and her husband were humbled when their son performed a selfless act of generosity. “My son had received a huge Lego set for Christmas,” says Happ, “but it was a model that he already had. So I offered to help him exchange it.” Her son wouldn’t hear of it. Instead, he told his parents that he wanted to donate the $300 Lego set to Toys for Tots, so a child whose parents couldn’t afford such gift could enjoy it. “I want to do what you do: help people,” he told his mother.
The family moved to Byfield this past June, just a few miles down the road from Happ’s studio. Her two small dogs enjoy the yard, she says, but she still brings them to Plum Island to walk on the beach. Happ loves her new home but is glad that she isn’t too far from Newburyport—which she remains connected to through Pilates and through community.
Kathleen Downey is the Features Editor for Newburyport Today. If you are a townie or a citizen who would like to be profiled (or to suggest someone to profile), please email: Kathleen@Newburyport-Today.com.
