KIN

Our Story

Three sisters. One city. A lot of movement.

KIN started with Clare's shoulder surgery, Maria's pole dancing, and a reformer studio in Christchurch, New Zealand. It ended up here. This is our story.

How it started

We didn't sit down one day and decide to start a wellness business. It happened the way most real things do, slowly, through injury and healing and a lot of conversations on the phone between Belfast and London. Clare found reformer Pilates through her shoulder injury. Maria built a personal training business from the ground up. And at some point we realised we were both doing the same thing from different angles, helping people find out what movement can do to a life. KIN is what happened when we finally said: Let's do this together.

Clare in a side stretch on a wooden boardwalk by the water.

Meet Clare

Clare

Co-Founder · Reformer & Mat Pilates Instructor · 200 hr Vinyasa & Ashtanga Yoga Teacher · Strategic Communications & PR Girly

Born in Belfast, studied PR in Manchester. Spent years in PR before a period of travel took over, qualifying as an open water scuba diving instructor and living, diving and working across Australia, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, before landing in New Zealand for seven years. Shoulder surgery changed the plan. Two years of intensive physiotherapy and daily reformer Pilates changed everything else. Qualified as a yoga teacher and reformer and mat Pilates instructor. Now based in London, teaching at two studios, and building KIN with Maria.

Maria sitting on a wooden box in a studio, smiling.

Meet Maria

Maria

Co-Founder · Engineer turned Movement Coach · Pole · Strength · Calisthenics · Making Moves with Maria

Mechanical engineer turned personal trainer and pole dancing instructor for over ten years, born and based in Belfast, founder of Making Moves with Maria. Specialises in strength training, pole for fitness and mobility, and building communities around movement. The movement obsession runs deep. This is not a career, it is a calling. Maria is the person who will design your programme and then do it alongside you.

Louise in a black blazer against a light background.

Meet Louise

Louise

Website & Digital · Marketing Strategist · Makes Shit Happen Professional

Louise is the third Cummings sister, the one behind this very website. She works in marketing in the sustainability sector and freelances in digital and brand. She is also movement-obsessed in her own right: a runner with half marathons already done and a full marathon on the horizon, the person Clare drags to Pilates, and strength trains with on a programme Maria designed for them. She came into KIN as the person who could build it. She stayed because, well, sisters.

What we believe

Movement is not a punishment. It is the thing that gives everything else back.
Rest is not the opposite of strength. It is part of it.
Community is not a nice-to-have. It is the whole point.
You don't need to be ready. You just need to show up.
We're from Belfast. We don't do things by halves.