Are you ready to change your life?

Better Together Personal Fitness is a safe, comfortable and relaxed environment where the focus is on you. Nestled in Aptos and serving all of Santa Cruz, the studio is well equipped to accommodate your goals for health, wellness and simply feeling better.

Carolyn Thompson instructs and implements functional movement patterns to educate and empower her clients so that they can achieve your fitness goals.

  • Personalized Fitness Training
  • Yoga Instruction
  • Functional Development

Better Together Personal Fitness studio is a safe, comfortable and relaxed environment where the focus is on you. Well equipped to accommodate and pursue many different approaches to your individual fitness and flexibility goals.

The open floor plan allows plenty of room to move and stretch.

The equipment available includes:

  • Functional Training Center
  • TRX Suspension Trainer
  • Wall Mount for Elastic Bands
  • Balance and Yoga Equipment
  • Suspension Trainer
  • Complete Dumbbell Rack
  • Balance
  • Yoga Props

With all of these available tools the emphasis is on core strength and functional exercise that promotes posture and imprints positive movement patterns.

About Carolyn

My work means more to me than just being a trainer; I have an intrinsic love for helping people realize their full potential when it comes to their overall sense of well-being. My work is my passion in life and I truly enjoy what I do.

I have been promoting fitness and educating clients about the benefits of activity and a healthy lifestyle since 1992. I make fitness fun so it becomes woven into your life naturally.

I earned a BS Degree in Physical Education with a minor in Nutrition from San Jose State University in 1992. Since then I have kept up with the advances and changes to the industry of Personal Training by furthering my education in Functional Development, Neuromuscular Re-education and Yoga. Over the years I’ve attended numerous conferences and seminars on how to best teach movement to help individuals with their specific fitness needs.

What I do

People at all ages, young adults and older respond to and develop according to basic biomechanical principles. Due to the lack of purposeful physical activity and a lot of today's typical lifestyles, postural weaknesses occur that can cause the premature breakdown of the musculoskeletal system, making us susceptible to injury, reducing performance and prolonging recovery.

Given that everyone adapts to fitness in their own way and all people need a postural assessment to understand how to help them with their specific needs.

My programs accomplish structural realignment through a progression of sequential exercises targeted at retraining the neuromuscular system. Essentially, the exercises remind each muscle of the function it is meant to perform. The structural and alignment sequences are devised for each client given their current postural needs. These exercises enhance muscular balance and thus are the basis for advancing to more demanding movement patterns and athletic training.

Even though I have been training some clients for more than 20 years, I have had hundreds of people come to me for help with injuries or chronic pain and have been able to teach them the tools they need to live a functional, pain free life. I don't pressure people into a workout routine with me that they can do on their own. I actually love helping clients discover that they are primarily responsible for own level of health and bodily function. My long term clients come because they still benefit from my feedback and the fact that I keep up a clean and inviting studio with the music they enjoy, clean mats, towels, and water, even tea if they would like.

Back to the initial training, once I can see improvements in core strength and efficiency in movements, I progress them using various methods. The TRX is my favorite piece of exercise equipment but Yoga, the BOSU dome, balls, dumbells and elastic bands are all part of the routines I design for my clients. So many people give up on exercise because they just haven't found the right way for THEM to workout. With my guidance, they'll learn new skills and stop wasting time. This is what I believe helps people enjoy exercise, they see results and feel a lot better, therefore developing a lifestyle that places a high priority on health and activity.