From the Green Velvet Couch | A Conversation with Sydney Dumler

What if the gentlest workout in the room was also one of the most transformative? What if real strength came not from pushing harder, but from movement with intention, breath, and community?

On her podcast, From the Green Velvet Couch, Shelly sat down with Sydney Dumler, founder of Forza Pilates in Nashville, to talk about physical health as one of the four pillars of wellness. This episode continues the conversation Shelly started with Teresa Bailey on financial health, and now turns the lens toward the body. Sydney brings a rare combination of warmth and clarity to her work, built on years of yoga teaching, a songwriting background, and a deep love for the community that forms inside a good fitness studio.

Here are the moments worth holding onto.

The Name Behind the Studio

Sydney’s studio carries a name rooted in her heritage and her hopes for her clients. Her father’s family is Italian, her mother’s family is Japanese, and she wanted the name to feel personal. After talking with her grandmother, she landed on Forza, an Italian word used as encouragement that also translates to strength, force, and power. Those are exactly the qualities people are reaching for when they step onto a reformer machine or into any intentional movement practice.

The name was one of the first concrete decisions Sydney made as she built the business, and it set the tone for everything else. Walking into Forza Pilates is meant to feel like walking into a space that believes in your strength before you do.

Why Pilates, and Why Now

Pilates has been having a moment for good reason. Sydney explained that it is a low-impact workout, which means it is gentle on the body while still building real strength, balance, and flexibility. Clients come to her from all kinds of backgrounds. Some are cross-training from high-intensity workouts like Barry’s Bootcamp. Others are recovering from a knee replacement or returning to fitness after having a baby. Pilates meets each of them where they are.

The breath work element is what makes Pilates different from many other forms of exercise. You are not just lifting or pushing. You are learning to move with your breath, slow down, and control both your body and the machine at the same time. That combination of resistance, control, and breath creates something closer to mindfulness than a traditional workout, which is part of why Sydney sees it as a tool for both physical and mental health.

Movement as Medicine for the Mind

Shelly has seen the connection between movement and mental health play out in her therapy practice for years. When a client is struggling with depression, one of the first things to disappear is movement. The body becomes still, the brain stops producing the chemicals that help us feel good, and the spiral deepens. Part of her work with clients involves helping them reintroduce movement in small, doable ways. Sometimes that is a walk to the mailbox. Sometimes it is simply taking a shower and getting dressed.

Sydney nodded in recognition. She has watched her clients experience the same kind of lift after a class, and she believes one of the underrated benefits of Pilates is the way the choreography pulls your mind out of its usual loops. When you are on a moving piece of machinery and following an instructor’s cues, there is no room left to ruminate. That kind of cognitive break is its own form of healing, and it is why movement and mental health are so deeply intertwined.

This is one of the reasons Shelly’s wellness specialist work with founders, executives, and high-profile clients always includes the physical pillar alongside the emotional, financial, and spiritual ones. You cannot heal a mind while ignoring the body it lives in.

The Power of Showing Up With Other People

One of the most memorable themes in the episode was the role of community in physical wellness. Sydney admitted that she personally struggles to work out alone. She needs the accountability of a scheduled class, a supportive coach, and a beautiful space to show up to. She is not alone in that. Many people experience gym anxiety or the paralysis of walking into an open gym with no plan.

Group fitness solves those problems almost automatically. You have a time, a place, and people expecting you. You have an instructor walking you through every movement. You have the quiet bonding that happens when you make eye contact with the person next to you during a plank. All of it contributes to a sense of belonging that keeps people coming back.

Shelly drew a beautiful parallel to group therapy, which she has long called the treatment of choice for many issues. In group work, you see people at every stage of their journey. Some are just beginning. Some are wrapping up treatment. Watching someone further down the path reminds you what is possible, and supporting someone earlier on the path reminds you how far you have come. Physical fitness classes offer that same dynamic, and it is part of why showing up in community is so much more powerful than working out alone.

From Songwriting to Sunrise Classes

Sydney did not start in the fitness world. She moved to Nashville to pursue songwriting and studied at Belmont, where she began interning at a record label while also working as an assistant manager at a yoga studio. During her sophomore year, she found herself increasingly drawn to the wellness world and the lifestyle it supported.

She still loves music and still writes songs when she can, but she realized the lifestyle of the music industry did not match the life she wanted to live. She is a homebody. She values sleep. She wants to take care of her body and surround herself with like-minded people. Choosing wellness was not a rejection of music. It was a recognition that the rhythms of the two industries did not fit her as a whole person.

That willingness to listen to her own life and choose accordingly is something Shelly sees in every healthy, successful entrepreneur she works with. It is also at the heart of her performance mentoring work with leaders and high performers, where designing a life that fits who you actually are matters far more than chasing someone else’s version of success.

Learning to Manage Energy, Not Just Time

When Shelly asked Sydney how she protects her own mental health as a new business owner, the answer was refreshingly honest. She is still figuring it out. In the early months of Forza, everything was urgent. The inbox never emptied. The to-do list never shrank. Days started at 5 a.m. and stretched to 11 p.m.

Sydney has been in therapy for a long time, and that work has helped her learn to give herself grace as she builds the business. She is only 25, and she is figuring everything out as she goes. She takes classes at her own studio to stay connected to the experience of being a client. She visits her family in Colorado when she can. She schedules weekends with friends in New York. She is learning to let an email sit in the inbox for a day without punishing herself for it.

Shelly added something she learned from years of working with CEOs and successful entrepreneurs. The healthiest ones always keep something for themselves. Maybe it is a hobby, maybe it is a horse, maybe it is a quiet weekly ritual nobody else knows about. That small protected space is where they stay connected to their own spirit, and it is what gives them the clarity to make good decisions about everything else.

The deeper lesson is this. We often talk about time management when what we really need is energy management. Learning to tend your own energy is one of the most important skills any leader can develop. Shelly builds this kind of whole-person energy awareness into her wellness consulting work with organizations and leadership teams, where healthy leaders become the starting point for healthy cultures.

Self-Love Beyond the Spa

The conversation landed on one of its most moving moments when Sydney shared what her therapist taught her about self-love. She had gone into a session years ago feeling proud of how well she took care of her external self. Her hair was done. Her nails were done. She could handle the maintenance of being a woman. And yet something was still missing.

Her therapist helped her see that real self-love includes the way you talk to yourself and the willingness to trust your own voice. As a new business owner navigating a brick-and-mortar build-out she had never done before, Sydney was getting pulled in every direction by good and bad advice. Learning to trust her own instincts became one of the most important skills she developed. It also became one of the most honest definitions of self-love you will hear. Self-care is not just a treatment. It is a relationship with yourself.

🎧 Join the Conversation

If this post sparked something in you, the full episode is waiting with even more warmth and thoughtful insight.

✨ Listen to the full conversation on the From the Green Velvet Couch podcast. Visit the Podcast page to discover more episodes focused on resilience, leadership wellbeing, and holistic wellness.

Let this be your invitation to slow down, breathe deeply, and step into a well-grounded life full of growth and intention.