About Silvia | Female Personal Trainer Isle of Dogs, London

Hi, I'm Silvia

I’m a personal trainer and fitness instructor based in the Isle of Dogs, East London, and the woman behind SilviaK Fitness.

Fitness has been part of my life in one way or another for as long as I can remember, although the journey from the little girl doing gymnastics in Slovakia to running my own fitness business in London definitely wasn’t a straight line.

I think I was one of those children who was always moving

Growing up in Slovakia, I loved anything to do with gymnastics and flexibility. I’d practise bridges and splits with a friend and use whatever was around us to practise on. People used to joke that I had no bones, I could bend like a hosepipe.

In winter, it was ice skating. We had an outdoor ice rink right outside our block of flats, and I loved it. Proper cold Slovak winters, skating outside - some of my favourite childhood memories are from that time.

Then there was dancing, majorettes and aerobics.

At one school sports day, my PE teacher asked me to lead aerobics for the entire school. Somehow, I ended up on the roof with the whole school exercising below me.

I’m fairly certain that wouldn’t pass a health and safety assessment today.

Looking back, maybe standing in front of people and getting them moving was always going to happen.

Finding my way back to fitness

I moved to the UK when I was 18 and, like many people at that age, fitness wasn't exactly the centre of my life for a while.

Eventually, though, I found my way back to it.

I started going to the gym and training with weights. I enjoyed it, but I certainly didn't know everything I know now. Becoming friends with personal trainers and training alongside them taught me a huge amount, and the more I learned, the more interested I became.

Eventually, I started programming my own workouts. I remember asking a PT to look over one of my programmes and tell me what he would change.

His answer? Nothing.

That was a pretty good feeling.

But I didn't just want to train myself. Somewhere along the way, I realised I wanted to teach fitness too.

From taking classes to teaching them

I knew I wanted fitness to become more than something I did for myself, but I hadn't yet found the type of class I really wanted to teach.

Then I discovered rebounding.

As soon as I saw it, something clicked. I knew I wanted to become an instructor, and within six months, I was one.

What started as something I wanted to do alongside my career became a huge part of my life. I went on to spend around eight years teaching rebounding and other styles of group exercise, including strength-based classes using weights and barbells.

And somewhere during those years, the idea of building something of my own started getting louder.

Building SilviaK Fitness

COVID changed a lot for me - and it was during this time that I started thinking seriously about building something of my own.

By then, I'd been running my ((BOUNCE)) franchise and teaching in the Isle of Dogs since 2018. I loved teaching, but I wanted to expand beyond rebounding and create my own classes too.

So I started with my Exercise to Music qualification and, as soon as I qualified, I put it into practice. I created my own resistance band classes and started teaching online alongside my rebounding classes.

When I look back at some of those early online classes now, I definitely cringe a little - but only because I can see how much I've grown since then. My teaching, my classes and the whole business have evolved so much over the years.

That's really how SilviaK Fitness grew - I learn, I qualify, and then I use it.

I went on to become a qualified Personal Trainer, continued adding courses and CPDs to my experience, and I'm now completing my Level 4 Nutrition qualification.

As SilviaK Fitness grew, so did my confidence in what I wanted to create. After eight years of teaching rebounding, I made the big decision to close my ((BOUNCE)) franchise and take SilviaK Fitness completely independent.

It felt like the natural next step — the chance to put everything I'd learned over those years into building something that was completely my own.

And SilviaK Fitness is still growing.

What started with resistance band classes has grown into in-person and online fitness classes, personal training, Online Fit Club and now even my own fitness products. In a lovely full-circle moment, some of my first SilviaK Fitness classes used resistance bands - and now my own SilviaK resistance bands are on their way.

And there are already a few more ideas in the works.

I don't think SilviaK Fitness will ever be completely “finished”. I'm always thinking about what I can learn, improve or create next.

Finding my home in the Isle of Dogs - and Buoy

When I first started running my classes in the Isle of Dogs, I was teaching at a different venue. But from the beginning, I knew where I really wanted to be - the Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre.

The problem was, there wasn't any availability. So I kept checking.

About a year later, in May 2019, a space finally became available, and I moved my classes there. It became the home of SilviaK Fitness in the Isle of Dogs - and it also brought someone rather unexpected into my life. BUOY.

I met Buoy at the sailing centre and, somewhere along the way, he became a huge part of my life. And if you come to my classes, you'll quickly realise he's become part of SilviaK Fitness too.

My regulars know him, people stop to give him a stroke, and he gets plenty of attention before and after class.

He definitely wasn't part of my original business plan. But these days, I couldn't really tell you about SilviaK Fitness without telling you about Buoy.

I’m a bit of a fitness geek

Getting qualified didn't make me stop learning. If anything, it made me want to learn more.

I'm genuinely fascinated by the human body — how it works, how it moves and how everything is connected. That curiosity actually goes beyond fitness.

During my time working in a Coroner's Office, I had the opportunity to observe post-mortem examinations and see human anatomy first-hand. It gave me a completely different appreciation for just how complex and incredible our bodies are.

That job also changed the way I think about health.

Of course, not everything that happens to our bodies is within our control. But seeing illness, ageing and the fragility of the human body up close made me think much more about the things we can influence - how we move, what we eat, maintaining our strength and looking after our health as we get older.

It reinforced something I already believed: fitness isn't only about how your body looks.

It's about what your body allows you to do - now and hopefully for many years to come.

That curiosity is still a huge part of who I am. I can happily spend my own time reading about training, watching demonstrations, experimenting with different movements and trying to understand why something works.

I'm currently completing my Level 4 Nutrition qualification too, because I want to keep expanding what I understand and what I can pass on to the women I work with.

I don't think I'll ever reach a point where I decide I know enough.

I enjoy learning too much.

Strength training changed more than my body

Exercise has been there for me through some very difficult periods of my life.

Alongside fitness, I've had a demanding career, including working in a Coroner's Office. Training became one of the ways I dealt with stress and switched off from what could be an incredibly difficult job.

During COVID, when normal classes and training suddenly disappeared, I realised just how important that outlet had been to me.

But strength training in particular gave me something else: confidence.

There's something that happens when a woman realises she's getting stronger.

The weight that once felt heavy doesn't anymore. She starts seeing what her body can actually do. She carries herself differently. And I've found that physical strength has a funny way of showing up outside the gym too.

I've felt that change myself.

It's one of the reasons I want more women to experience it.

Why I coach the way I do

My own journey is a big part of why I coach the way I do.

I wasn't born knowing how to strength train. I learned. I asked questions. I trained with people who knew more than me, kept educating myself and gradually became confident enough to programme my own training.

That's what I want for the women I work with too.

I don't just want to tell you what exercise to do next. I want you to understand what you're doing, learn how your body moves and become more confident with weights.

The same applies to nutrition. I'm not interested in making women frightened of food or giving you endless rules about what you're “allowed” to eat. I want you to understand food, not fear it.

You don't need to arrive knowing what you're doing. That's my job.

And I'm still just Silvia

I'm still learning. I'm still training. I'm still getting stronger. And I'm still building the fitness business that the girl doing aerobics on a school roof in Slovakia obviously had absolutely no idea she was starting.

If you're at the beginning of your own fitness journey — or finding your way back to it — I'd love to help you discover just how strong you can become.