In the News - Total Health and Wellness Center
‘I don’t like working out; I like playing’
By Barry Kearns, Staff writer.
Thursday, October 18, 2007 — Monitor.
Robin Kurotori heads program in Newark.
— Staff photo.
Robin Kurotori is an energetic woman who has an easy smile and a great enthusiasm for her job. She is currently coordinating the health and wellness program for the Newark Ohlone Campus, set to open this January. The emphasis on many of the classes will be on stress reduction and enhancing living through relaxation with classes like Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates.
Kurotori re ceived her bache lor’s degree from the University of California, Da vis. She has also been an inter national fitness consultant and has visited Ko rea and Argen tina. She said that she has also seen some of the world with her family, traveling to Alaska and the Mediterranean, where she discovered an intense fondness of Greece.
Her father was a high school baseball coach who later went on to become a principal. In high school, Kurotori was a gymnast and a swim mer. She still swims and does Pilates while occasionally joining a fitness boot camp regimen.
When it comes to her own fitness, Kurotori says, “I don’t like working out; I like playing.”
As a gymnast, Kurotori special ized in free X and vault. She says that her instructor had her focus on the basics. This attention to basics also helped her avoid a potentially disastrous fall.
During her senior year in high school, Kurotori remembers fall ing between 10 to 15 feet during an Alaskan blanket toss exercise. An Alaskan blanket toss is where sev eral people hold a large piece of fabric as a person is thrown into the air and then caught.When she was thrown into the air, the fabric tore apart. How ever, because of her gymnastic training, she was able to control her descent and managed to avoid serious injury.
Kurotori has taught physical education at every level, from kin dergarten to college. She has also instructed many senior students, some in their 80s.
She said that with each level she has taught, she found new chal lenges and different rewards. In her kindergarten classes, she gets to see the basics of hand, eye and muscle coordination as children first bounce balls. Her octogenarian students of ten times exceed what they thought themselves capable of.
Kurotori said that her biggest challenges lay in redefining physical education for students who have al ready built up negative associations with the class and trying to reach some students who might be taking the class just to gain a few units.
Kurotori recalled some of the trends that she has seen as a physi cal instructor, comparing them to a pendulum that swings from carefree classes like aerobics to a more rigid set of exercises that focus on safety and avoidance of injuries.
Kurotori said, “When I first started teaching aerobics, it was high impact, high energy, don’t worry about safety, just bounce around. We started getting safer and safer and safer and getting away from the fun.”
She said that the return to more fun classes is back, however, in the form of Zoomba and Indian dancing. She also notices that in the past two years there has been a resurgence in younger health instructors.
A wife and mother of two, Ku rotori said that while her job as a physical education instructor stays at work, the sensibilities of health and fitness are part of her family life, whether it is traditional or in games like Dance Dance Revolution.
While she occasionally watches sports on television, Kurotori said that she much prefers to participate in exercise and sports than simply observe.
Her two children are both swimmers and her daughter cur rently plays water polo. Although mindful of what she eats, Kurotori confessed to having a weakness for brownies.
Her first class will be Strength and Cardio which will be available at the Newark Ohlone Campus be ginning the start of spring semester, Monday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 a.m.
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