About Us

Kent Burden

Kent Burden has more than twenty-five years of fitness experience. He played three years of college football as a wide receiver until a devastating back injury ended his football career.

After being paralyzed from the chest down for nine months, surgery restored his ability to walk. He spent years rehabilitating from the injury, and tried many exercise modalities. During his difficult recovery, he found Hatha Yoga and the mat works of Joseph Pilates to be the simplest and most beneficial restorative exercises.

Meditation and visualization increased his focus, balanced out the intense physical activity, and encouraged him to make a complete recovery.  Before founding My Life Fitness, Kent was the Mind/Body Program Coordinator at California's famed Ojai Valley Inn & Spa, where he created the program that was voted by Spa Finder Magazine's 2002 Reader's Choice Awards as one of North America's top mind/body fitness programs out of a field of more than 500 spas.

 

Kent has worked one-on-one with Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winners and NFL and NBA champions. He is certified as a personal trainer by AFAA and IFPA, and as a Pilates instructor, Yoga instructor, Spinning instructor, water fitness instructor, Systematic Touch Trainer and Massage Therapist.

 

His work has been featured in SHAPE, Natural Health, Fitness, Body & Soul, American Spa, Fitness Cycling, Self, Golf Digest for Women and New Age Journal magazines. He has been featured on television programs such as Access Hollywood, Life and Times (BBC) and Spa Finder Television. His book, "Yin Yang Fitness: The Whole Package of Health," co-authored with wife Maria is available on this website along with his signature mind/body workouts including "Kent Burden's Essential Triangle," “Kent Burden’s Weighted Power Ball Workout, and the soon-to-be released “Kent Burden’s Power Ball Pilates.” To purchase, just click on the “Products” tab above.

 

Maria Burden

During a Michigan childhood ruled by acute asthma, Maria felt as though fitness was her enemy. Traditional physical education classes often ended in hospitalization and "I can't" became her mantra in fitness. On a blind date in college, she met Kent Burden, a former athlete and recovered paraplegic, whose love of fitness was both inspiring and contagious. The two became inseparable and married after college then moved to California. The new climate brought temporary improvements, but her fight with asthma was not over.

 

At the age of 29 and the mother of two small children, she nearly died of respiratory complications from a routine illness. Lifelong asthma had resulted in permanent lung damage and reduced respiratory capacity. Determined to feel better and lengthen her life, she began the search for good health. She and husband Kent left behind stressful careers in Los Angeles and moved their family to the clean coastal air north of the city.

 

At his suggestion, she took up yoga, weight training and Pilates. The change in her physical and emotional health was so profound that she decided to make mind/body wellness her life work. Today, Maria and Kent run My Life Fitness, a fitness-consulting firm in Ventura, California whose diverse clients include Bank of America, Patagonia, The Legal Project and many others. Maria is a certified yoga instructor, an AFAA-certified group fitness instructor and a certified personal trainer. She teaches mind/body classes and writes books and articles.

 

She is the author of "Professor T.S.C. Lowe and his Mountain Railway" and "The Life and Times of Robert G. Fowler" (Borden Publishing). Her newest book, "Yin Yang Fitness: The Whole Package of Health" (Amberwood Press, 2003) which she co-authored with Kent, is a 12 week day-by day guide to transforming your health while living a real life. The Burdens also star in "Kent Burden's Essential Triangle," a mind body workout, which is a blend of yoga, Pilates and meditation. To order their book, click on the "Products" tab above.