Impact Fitness, LLC

Melissa Seipel

Licensed Massage Therapist, MA #60497779
NASM CPT/CES/PES
Functional and Restorative Movement Specialist

I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and was very active in my youth.  I began spring board diving and swimming at age 4, competing in AAU events and throughout high school.  I also did gymnastics and track, spent winters skiing in Lake Tahoe, began weight lifting at age 14 for sports performance, and took weight training classes in high school.

After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard, I spent 25 years raising children and working behind a desk.  It became difficult to fit in exercise with a growing family and demanding career.  The sedentary office work took a toll on my body and I began putting on weight.  My health suffered and I ended up having several abdominal surgeries by age 44.  I felt weak, tired, irritable, sluggish, and foggy-headed every day and it became a struggle to keep up with daily activities and taking care of my family.  Something had to change.  With guidance from a nutritionist in 2006, I began eating whole foods and mostly organic.  As I began to feel better, I began exercising again.  Making these changes helped me realize I needed to change my career path and I decided to become a personal trainer in late 2007. 

A foot injury from running in 2012 led me to massage school which I completed in 2014. This new way of working with people through therapeutic touch has created more opportunities for me to increase my skills and allowed me to better understand the mechanics of the body.  Since finishing school, I have continued to take numerous courses that have expanded my understanding of human movement and biomechanics and I am currently studying CranioSacral Therapy with the Upledger Institute.  The powerful combination of manual therapy and exercise allows me to work with a wide variety of people, including those who often get lost after completing physical therapy or who have otherwise had limited success with finding the right tools to support them in learning to move without pain and/or other restrictions.  

I love my job more and more every day and feel extremely fortunate to be able to work in a field that is challenging and allows me to explore my unending curiosity.