Olivia Barker

Olivia Barker began teaching movement at 18, when she started leading group fitness classes and working as a personal trainer and discovered a passion for helping others achieve their goals through fitness. She continued teaching group fitness for five years before her own practice shifted toward strength training and powerlifting throughout the remainder of her twenties. In her thirties, Olivia discovered yoga and found an entirely different way to experience strength, movement and connection. She went on to become a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and has been teaching at Shakti since 2019.

After experiencing a back injury, Olivia was encouraged to try Pilates as part of her return to movement. What began as something used to help heal an injury, quickly became another movement practice she loved and one she wanted to bring to her community at Shakti. From that idea, The Ignite Method was born.

Drawing from more than two decades of personal and professional experience with group fitness, personal training, strength training, yoga and Pilates, Olivia began bringing the pieces she loved from each modality together into something of her own. The result became The Ignite Method: an intentional approach to movement designed to build physical strength while cultivating confidence, connection and community. Through Ignite and Teach the Method, Olivia hopes to help others discover what she has experienced throughout her own movement journey: the most powerful kind of strength is the kind we discover within ourselves.