My Story: Yoga, Mobility, Strength & Why I Coach Women's Movement

If You're New Here — My Story

I’m Mel. Yoga, mobility, strength and movement coach. IVF mum to a fierce five-year-old future CEO girl. Cat mum to Jack and Ash. Sourdough baker. Body butter maker. Historical fiction obsessive. Proud wearer of a US size 11 shoe.

I help women who are naturally flexible but chronically achy and unstable build real strength and feel at home in their own bodies. And I do it from a place of having lived pretty much everything I teach.

This is the long version of how I got here.

It started way before yoga

I remember being in school, doing those fitness tests they made us do as kids. Pull ups, sit and reach, all of it. When it came to the seated toe touch I didn’t just reach my toes, I went way past the board. Everyone’s was amazed. Teachers, classmates. Wow, look how flexible she is.

It felt like a badge of honour. Like being bendy was a superpower.

Nobody told me then that flexibility without stability is just a body waiting to get hurt. That took another twenty years to figure out.

Before movement became my career, it was my survival strategy

I spent years in a stressful sales and production career, moving cities, moving countries, high pressure, high output. Yoga and exercise were my outlet. My reset button. The one hour a day that was just mine.

Looking back it makes complete sense that I eventually made it my life’s work. It was already doing that quietly, long before I had the language for it.

Then came all the yoga

Vinyasa flow, handstands, hot yoga, Ashtanga. The harder the better. The deeper the better. I was chasing the tricks, the flexibility, the feeling of being the most bendy person in the room.

And then I found CrossFit and strength training. My hypermobile body had been waiting for it her whole life. Lifting heavy things, building real tension, creating stability from the inside out. That was the missing piece I didn’t know I needed.

Though I definitely hurt myself along the way. Ashtanga especially. My body was not designed for that volume of end range loading with zero stability work. Lesson learned, the hard way, as most good lessons are.

I ran a full marathon over ten years ago too. Checked that box. Moving on.

Then my body started sending very clear F*&% you signals

Yoga butt injury from overstretching. Hip pain. Lower back pain. Foot pain. The kind of stuff that creeps up when your body is mobile but not supported. I’m hypermobile, always have been, and I spent years hanging in my joints thinking flexibility was the goal until it very clearly wasn’t.

There’s more to the story too. Thyroid papillary cancer at nineteen. Living on levothyroxine ever since. Current iron issues that mess with my thyroid medication and create their own cascade of fun mixed with (probably perimenopause) more on that later…

An emergency caesarean during COVID times. Then three years ago, a desmoid tumor. Abdominal resection. Twenty percent of my abs remaining. And the long, humbling, fascinating process of rebuilding a body (twice) that had genuinely been through a lot.

I look back at old photos sometimes, photos where I thought my stomach was huge, and I actually laugh. The irony is not lost on me. Now I have a belly that looks semi-pregnant most of the time, abs or no abs, and I’ve made peace with that too.

Hot bag of mess, y’all. But a functional, strong, still-showing-up hot bag of mess.

I was hesitant to do anything high impact for two years after the surgery. Hernia risk is real and I wasn’t willing to gamble with it. Last year I started playing pickleball and netball. Competitive sports for the first time in years. Still here. Still going.

Everything changed about five years ago

That’s when I first truly understood breathing and air pressure management. Not breathing as a relaxation tool, breathing as a movement strategy. An inside out stretch. A way to create space and stability from within. That one concept rewired how I think about every single thing I teach. Not to mention the profound difference in my surgery recovery understanding these key principles.

We all need a good coach. I have mine. They helped me understand my own compensation patterns, my movement habits, the story my body had been telling for years. That’s exactly what I try to do for the women I work with.

The personal stuff, because it matters too

I grew up in the US and have lived abroad for almost half my life. Kuala Lumpur is home now, where I met my husband, where my daughter was born, where we’re happily and permanently planted.

When I was younger I had a really difficult relationship with my body. Growing up in the time of super skinny models like Kate Moss. I have size 11 feet and ‘swimmers’ shoulders. (Did I mention I grew up on a farm?) Disordered eating. Dysmorphia. Years of working out as punishment and eating with shame. I was never going to be naturally slim, it took me until my late twenties (maaybe early 30s?) to truly make peace with that.

To shift from training to look a certain way, to training to feel strong, capable, alive, and SANE.

That shift changed everything.

Why I really do this work

Now my focus is longevity. Balance. Fuelling my body well. Playing sports that make me feel like a kid again. Fermenting things in my kitchen. Reading books about Tudor England at 9pm at night. (and sleeping by 10! )

And being a role model for my daughter.

I want her to watch me move, lift heavy things and jump on the trampoline with her. I never want her to watch me look in the mirror and say something self depreciating about myself. I never want her to shrink, to take up less space, to think strength isn’t feminine. I want her to grow up knowing her body is something to build, not punish. Something to be curious about, not ashamed of.

That’s why I do this work. Not just for the women I coach, but for the next generation watching us do it.

If any part of this sounds like your story too, you’re in exactly the right place.

Welcome.

— Mel

Find me on Instagram @yogaandmobilitywithmel or learn more at yogaandmel.com