A native of Los Angeles, Risa received her BA degree from UCLA while working at the Neuropsychiatric Institute teaching creative movement to autistic children. One of the first to teach THE PILATES METHOD, Risa received her formal training in the early 1970′s under the tutelage of legendary master instructor Ron Fletcher in Beverly Hills, Calif., where she taught for five years. Her work with Ron
Fletcher gave her intimate knowledge of the integrated movements of the body and led to the development of THE SHEPPARD METHOD, a unique blending of the body, mind and spirit. THE SHEPPARD METHOD PILATES is an accumulation of nearly thirty years of personally training thousands of individuals celebrities, professionals, children, disabled and the elderly, enabling all to develop their own physical potential. Risa’s numerous television appearances include the fitness expert on TNN American Magazine, Shoppers Television Network, KTLA Morning show, and was co-host for THE JACK LA LANNE SHOW. She was profiled on Entertainment Tonight, KABC, KCBS, and KTTV News. She appeared on Home Shopping Network with her Wheel of Fitness work out product. Risa is a prolific writer on physical fitness. She is the author of the book Risa Sheppard’s Fitness Formula for a Firm and Flat Stomach. She has written for Muscle and Fitness, City Sports, Total Health and Natural Body and Fitness. She was featured in Vogue, Elle, Ladies Home Journal, Los Angeles, Magazine, City Sports, Hollywood Reporter, and American Fitness, to name a few. An impressive list of credentials for an impressive fitness professional. Risa is the inventor of the Wheel of Fitness, now known as the Ring Flex, which is sold all over the country, and specifically at Balanced Body. The wheel was taken from the original Joseph Pilates magic circle, which was made of five bands of steel and blocks of wood that made up the handles. Risa took the original design, and made it simpler by replacing the steel band with fiberglass, and covering it with rubber. Risa increased the number of exercises the Wheel could perform by adding soft pads on the inside and out. It is the prototype of what most studios use today.
