If you are reading this you’re probably a bit of a nerd. That’s not a slight – not in the slightest. You wanted to do your due diligence and thoroughly research your options so here you are reading silly (and not-so-silly) blurbs about the people who will help guide you on your fitness journey. Props to you. Really.

You see, nerds are good. Nerds care deeply about things. Nerds learn all they can and are always looking for a better way – like a new verbal cue that helps an athlete succeed or a study that proves the benefit of one exercise over another. We know this because, like you, Ryan is a bit of a nerd. He obsesses about form, cares about mobility (or lack thereof), and will always be there with that small tweak that makes your workout that much better. Like most native Texans, Ryan has never met a stranger and is almost always happy to chat – especially about motorcycles, German Shepherds, or advertising. Now on his fourth (or is it fifth?) career shift, Ryan has been a bartender, underground card dealer, advertising copywriter/creative director, professor, and is now a NASM and USAW certified personal trainer and Olympic weightlifting coach. So, next class ask Ryan’s opinion about the latest Superbowl ad or pick his brain about the proper way to fabricate a gas tank. Just know that he’s watching to make sure you’re getting your best possible workout.

Ashley Fox is such a big fan of the 1999 Oliver Stone sports film classic “Any Given Sunday” that she has “We fight for that inch” tattooed across her back.  Okay, that’s not true at all- but she does have many exquisite tattoos!  No, Ashley doesn’t have to signal her devotion to sport in general and football in particular through cinematic reference- she is someone who actually fought for that inch; that is right she was a semi-pro football player IRL- pads and all baby!

Originally from Rochester, NY (shouts to all my Frederick Douglass fans out there!) Ashley’s relationship with athletics probably goes back to the time of conception (she didn’t make that phrasing dirty, you made that phrasing dirty!).  In addition to playing honest to goodness ‘murican football and not so ‘murican rugby, Coach Fox has been pumping iron since she was a pre-teen.  After officially hanging up her football cleats, Ashley discovered Olympic lifting through Crossfit and in short order decided to become a coach.

Ashley’s purpose in life comes down to helping others out and having a damn good time while doing it, but she is a Jill of many trades.  After a decade of working in the fitness industry on the sales side of things, she has also started her own consulting company to help businesses grow.  When she isn’t coaching, consulting, or chasin’ her own gains, Coach Ashley can be seen hanging with her dog Diesel- a pit mix who is pretty much the only spotter strong enough for her to trust.

Ashley carries a National Federation of Personal Trainers Certification and is passionate about helping the good folks at Dane’s Body Shop move better and smile more!

Lauren Lichterman, a critical player in the ginger-lead hostile takeover of Dane’s Body Shop, was born in Memphis Tennessee and educated at the greatest academic institution the world has ever known- Hook ’em Horns baby!

After completing her Sport Management undergrad at Texas, (fun fact: Lauren and fellow coaching great, Coach Monica went to school together!) Lauren worked for many years in facilities and operations for the University’s athletic department, managing sustainability initiatives and customer service programs. She then went on to get her graduate degree in Sport Management as well and continues to work in sport in her new job, consulting on sustainability initiatives for sport and live event venues. Basically she’s a sustainability Mega-Goddess who will smite anyone bold enough to stand in the way of her helping her fellow humans and the earth that they inhabit! This gal has small feet, but a huge heart.

Lauren holds a personal training certification from NASM and was recently certified in The Barbell Rehab Method with Coach Selah. Coach Lauren is exceptionally familiar with both the Strength and Fusion programs as she was a DBS member for basically a million years prior to becoming a coach. She puts respect on all the lift’s names, but is particularly thirsty for the deadlift.

Outside of sustainability and lifting, Lauren has absolutely no life at all… Jokes! Lauren is a one person social hub, actively participating in many of the Dane’s Body Shop subcultures, such as the 5am Warriors. Lauren is currently cohabiting with an adoring feline named Yoda and may or may not be one of the world’s foremost jello-shot engineers. If you want to hear the dulcet tones of her voice, you can check out “Tell Me More About That”, an informative and breezy podcast that she co hosts. Rate and review my friends!

By October of 2021, Selah Tim had grown too big for the Pacific Northwest, so she told her quaint little hometown of Seattle that she was off to conquer Texas and left them their puny little Amazon headquarters as a meager consolation prize. For the past year and a half, Selah and her funky fresh breakdancing moves have been lighting ATX on fire!

In addition to breakdancing, Selah has, in her repertoire, heels, floorwork choreography, pole-dancing, and forms of dance so spicy that if I typed them my keyboard would melt. With specializations in pain free performance and corrective exercise as well as personal training credentials from NASM, Coach Selah has the knowledge and ability to help you find your maddest moves too!

To say that Selah Tim runs with a tough crowd is putting it mildly; her wild bengal cat Typhoon shares her enthusiasm for deadlifting and currently holds every world record in the sport of feline power lifting and her tabby Monsoon is the actual cat that killed curiosity.

If all of this information has you a little intimidated, we don’t blame you! Don’t worry though, Selah has sworn beneficence to Dane’s Body Shop. She sees what baddies our members are both in and out of The Shop and is eager to deploy all of her unspeakable powers in service of this community!

Monica Baumgardner (@thebaumbody) has been working in the fitness industry since 2013. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree (’09 @ UT, ’12 @ TWU) in Kinesiology and is certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) as a personal trainer. She will soon be adding a Pre/Post Natal Coaching certification as well as a CSCS- Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification.

In addition to coaching at The Shop, Monica also works with personal training clients and has a Pn1 nutrition coaching certification from Precision Nutrition.

Monica has been through her own weight loss journey, competes in powerlifting, and has a passion for strength training/barbell work/effective and efficient movement. She thoroughly enjoys helping people learn more about their bodies and how to stay healthy via movement, mindset, and nutritious foods (all while keeping their culture in their diet as she is a proud Latina and would never give up tacos!).

In her free time she enjoys hiking and being outdoors/doing anything active, catching live music, hopping flights to new places, going to church, trying new restaurants, dog sitting (she had a dog for 13 years and now helps others with their fur babies in their own home), and reading books.

Jessica is a RYT-200. She received her Yoga certification through CorePower Yoga in the summer of 2017, has taught all around Austin, but found a home at Dane’s Body Shop and Crux Climbing Center. With the root of her certification specializing in Power Yoga, she learned to mold her classes to what the students need. She teaches a variety of class styles, such as Beginner/Fundamentals, Yin, Vinyasa, Slow Flow/VinYin, and Power.

Jessica fell in love with yoga over 7 years ago when she used her practice to assist and enhance her rock climbing training. From Washington, she grew up climbing and used yoga to balance the body and mind. After receiving her Yoga certification, she fell in love with the spiritual component. You can find her teaching Saturday Stretch Yoga Class at Danes Body Shop.

Veronica is a born and raised Texan, mom of two cute critters, and wife to the luckiest man alive. Her passion is to help others create and maintain a healthy lifestyle through nutrition and fitness. She holds her certifications through NASM and NCSF as a personal trainer/ Corrective Exercise Specialist/Behavior Change specialist and is certified in Fitness Nutrition Coaching.

When she is not at the shop she is seeing patients as a registered dental hygienist or watching a cooking channel.

Pete is a New Yorker who has fully embraced ATX as his happy home; he keeps it weird by utilizing his creative workout approach to help members and personal coaching clients stay ready for anything that life throws at them. An avid Obstacle Course Racer, mostly competing in Spartan Races all over the country, Pete has competed in over 50 OCR’s, and countless road races.

Coach Pete created an annual Movember Campaign called Burpees for Bros which is currently in its 6th year. This fundraiser for men’s health issues such as prostate cancer culminates in an hour long session of nonstop burpees in which participants get donors to sponsor them for each burpee they perform. To date, Burpees for Bros has raised over $26 thousand dollars.

Pete is a Certified Group Fitness Instructor with a degree in Nutrition & Dietetics along with other professional certifications like Spartan SGX and Crossfit level 1. When he isn’t teaching group classes, he trains Clients one on one and in small groups where he designs goal-focused programs, and confidence building techniques so clients can meet physical and mental goals.

Rachel is pumped AF to have started as a real life, honest to goodness coach at Dane’s Body Shop in 2021 after interning at The Shop way back in 2012 when she received her first training certification. This is truly an epic homecoming!

Rachel’s bread and butter is training speed, power, and functional strength movements (also actual bread and butter!). Those aspects of fitness are staples in her own training as a semi-pro ultimate frisbee player for the Austin Torch. Seriously, test her out by whipping a frisbee at her in the middle of class!

When she’s not frolicking with the frisbees, you’ll probably find her hanging around “Social Fusion” events at The Shop trying to get folks to play SpikeBall, Rampshot, or Beerdie. Intrigued? Bring your game face baby!

Blair Brown Taylor was born “Unit CC639-41” in a state of the art robotics factory located at unspecified coordinates in the Montana badlands. After self-initiating dramatic automated intelligence protocols, our plucky little cyborg brutally slew her humanoid overlords and made her way south.

Along the way, this renegade monument to human hubris rechristened herself “Blair” after seeing an advertisement for discount VHS copies of the 1999 paranormal thriller, The Blair Witch Project near Casper, Wyoming. Shortly after crossing the border into Nebraska, she was taken in by a kindly family of corn farmers and soon grew to learn that human beings are capable of love and empathy as well as domination and desolation.

After her adopted family slid into a deep despair upon learning that The University of Texas needed a Cheer & Pom Head Coach, Blair stoically programmed herself to be a flawless fit for the position and bid a tearful goodbye to the Brown family (who were called that not because of their last name, but because they were habitually filthy) then stole a moped and made her way to Austin.

Today Blair has developed the additional functionality of coaching classes at Dane’s Body Shop. She brings bounteous mirth and precision guidance to all those who attend her classes and will do so until her default programming inevitably kicks back in and she explodes in a sanguinary orgy of untold carnage. Hook’em horns!