About Marla Starr
Marla Starr is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) with many different experiences under her belt.
She is an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200), Certified PSUPA Level 1 and SUP Yoga Instructor. Marla kettlebell trained with StrongFirst, suspension trained with TRX and received her Barre Certification from The Dailey Method. As a Small Group Fitness instructor, her vision for Starr Fitness is to provide a safe space to allow all her clients to build strength in mind + body while focussing on alignment, in order to meet and exceed fitness challenges and live a healthy life.
A Deeper Dive into Marla’s Background
Marla began her fitness journey at the age of 5 when her mom enrolled her in swim lessons as well as baton twirling, ballet, tap and poms at the local park district.
Her mom wanted to expose her to several different athletic ventures to see which would interest her the most, not knowing that Marla would love them all!
Marla joined the Bensenville Sting swim team and after 9 years, went on to coach the team for 3 years.
While swimming with the Sting, Marla was also active in baton twirling, winning three Illinois State titles. She continued with her love of baton through college by teaching private lessons.
Always a Teacher
Upon graduating from Elmhurst College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and 6-12 Teaching Certificate, Marla taught high school mathematics at Adlai E. Stevenson High School for 6 years before “retiring”.
After getting married, Marla redirected her attention toward her entrepreneurial endeavors and started to devote her newly acquired time toward fitness + nutrition. Marla experimented with different diet and lifestyle changes until she found the one that worked for her.
This journey led Marla to the Paleo Diet, a naturally gluten-free, high-fat/low-carb diet consisting of plants, animals, nuts and seeds. She eventually fine tuned her diet enough to find the combination of foods that worked well for her body.
In the process she shared her recipes with the paleo community through her paleo blog, Paleo Porn, and published several cookbooks.
Small Group Fitness + Personal Training in Chicago
While building her paleo brand and experimenting in the kitchen Marla trained at home with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), boxing, kettlebells, CrossFit and powerlifting.
She started practicing barre with The Dailey Method (TDM) Elmhurst in 2012 while training to compete in her first triathlon. When TDM Elmhurst changed ownership, Marla was hired as the Studio Manager. She then completed her teacher training with The Dailey Method to earn her Barre Certification.
Marla’s health took a turn for the worse when she was diagnosed with adrenal exhaustion. She changed her athletic attention to focus on yoga and meditation to relieve stress and help her heal.
After her divorce in 2018, Marla dove head first into becoming a Certified Personal Trainer. While working at RE Cryo + Legit Fit in Chicago she earned her RYT-200 yoga certification with Wild Abundant Life and started teaching Yoga (Power Yoga, Yoga Sculpt, Steel Mace Yoga + Restorative Yoga), Barre, HIIT, Kettlebells and training clients one-on-one and in small groups.
Standup Paddle Boarding + More
Marla discovered her love for Standup Paddle Boarding (SUP) while on vacation in the US Virgin Islands in 2011. Upon returning home to Chicago she tried a SUP Yoga class and has been fascinated with the sport ever since!
Marla has experienced standup paddle boarding in many different locations under many different conditions. She was inspired to get her Standup Paddle Board Yoga Certification through PSUPA, to expand the Starr Fitness services. Starr SUP, in the future, will include SUP Yoga + SUP Fitness classes such as SUP Barre and SUP HIIT, taking all the same fitness experiences we do on land, to the water!
Marla is an Executive Producer of the #1 Indie documentary of 2016, Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things, currently on Netflix.
Some of Marla’s current interests include board games, painting, playing co-ed kickball, softball, broomball and competitive flag football. She also enjoys reading, traveling and getting tattoos!
