Amy Erez – Director and Founder

As the co-founder and director of Sugi Health and Fitness in Pleasant Hill, Calif., Amy Erez has spent her lifetime learning and then teaching many others the skills needed to stay fit and healthy throughout life. Sugi Health and Fitness provides a health and fitness program that allows more people to reach their fitness goals without sacrificing their long-term health. Sugi instructors help people enjoy the activities they love, by helping their students improve their movements.

With an education in psychology and oriental studies, Amy worked in both outpatient and inpatient mental health services during her time in Arizona. Her work and training included crisis care intervention. Equipped with an understanding and practical experience in today’s health care environment, Amy immersed herself in the health and wellness disciplines that focused on healing the body instead of treating specific symptoms. Very early on, Amy learned and appreciated the connection between emotional and physical health. Today, she helps people become more aware that their high fat diets, fast-paced lifestyle and lack of appropriate exercise are contributing factors to poor health.

For the past 20 years, Amy has been a practitioner of massage and bodywork and an instructor in movement arts, including TaiChi and Chi Gong. She has extensive education in acupressure massage therapy, Reiki, Tai Chi Ch’uan, Chi Gong, Taekwondo and Yoga.

She has taught classes throughout the Bay Area as well as such locales as Colorado, New York and Israel. Amy has presented her programs for the CCC Sheriff’s Dept., Cities of Walnut Creek, Concord, Pleasant Hill and Martinez, Unity Center of Light and at the Occupational Nurses Association Annual Conference at Asilomar.

Amy received her Bachelor’s of Art in Psychology and Oriental Studies from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She received her certification in acupressure massage from the Acupressure Institute in Berkeley, Calif., and reached the Reiki Master level from Susan Mitchell, a founder of The Reiki Alliance. Amy also has studied extensively with the Lineage Bearer of Usui Shiki Ryoho, Phyllis Furumoto, and Paul Mitchell, Head of Discipline.

 

Ofer Erez, Founder and Head Instructor

Ofer Erez has dedicated his life to learning about and teaching health, fitness and movement in the wisest, safest, most natural, and most useful ways possible. He believes that anyone, regardless of age can become more fit and healthy if they learn to replace effort with skill and take the time to learn those skills. For more than 20 years, Ofer has taught his students how to gain strength and balance and increase flexibility and mobility without resorting to pain and discomfort. His extensive training includes fitness training, yoga, Feldenkrais®, massage therapy, nutrition, movement studies, anatomy and physiology and touch.

Throughout the last two decades, Ofer has taught hundreds of students the Sugi techniques for better workouts and reaching health goals that seemed unattainable in other settings. His ability to integrate his studies in movement and healing with an understanding in anatomy, physiology and the relationship of the many systems in the human body, enables him to create programs and classes that provide his clients with big results.

Sugi Health and Fitness approaches the human body as one system, comprised of many sub-systems – all of which must be in good balance with each other to attain the best possible health. Ofer and his instructors are careful to look at each person’s strength, flexibility, stamina, balance and breathing, and help them discover an exercise program that develops all those aspects for a better balance and performance level for each individual.

Ofer is a Yoga Master, a certified massage therapist, Reiki Master and certified Feldenkrais® teacher. He has written numerous articles on improving coordination and range of motion and holistic exercise. Ofer delivers numerous presentations and workshops throughout the Bay Area. His work has been frequently referenced in at least three inspirational books, “Stretching Lessons,” by bestselling author Sue Bender, the recently released “Seven Sacred Attitudes” by Erica Ross-Krieger,” and “Hidden Assets” by Mark Bryant.