“Motherhood is athletic,” says Erker, a pregnancy and postpartum exercise specialist who's a mother of one, with another on the way. “It’s realizing, ‘I’m going to have to be strong for this. I want to be able to move my body in the way I need to as a mom, to be the mom I want to be.’” The fitness boutique has always been built on the premise of movement that’s made for motherhood, not just modified for it.

“I love to help introduce people to a type of movement that feels good in their body that they enjoy doing,” Erker says. “Maybe they even look forward to [exercising] so that they can avoid that feeling of, ‘Oh, I should do that, but I don't really want to,’ because I think there's so much of that already in motherhood.”

“When Abby Erker taught barre classes in St. Louis, students would often sidle up to her before a session and ask in a hushed tone: I just found out I’m pregnant. What moves should I avoid doing in class? “The training for general fitness programs is not very pre- and post-natal specific,” Erker says. ‘I Iwould give them my general response, but as I had more and more of those clients, I became more interested in helping them specifically with their bodies and what they were experiencing…’”

“Women supporting women. Fitness training was just a side gig for Abby Erker of Richmond Heights until she noticed a pattern among many of her clients: They wanted advice about working out during and after pregnancy — but not as a means of getting back their six-pack abs…”

“Materra Method founder Abby Erker doesn’t want women to just “bounce back after baby” – she wants to bring every mother home to their body through mindful movement. Pregnant and postpartum clients are encouraged to exercise by participating in on-demand or in-studio classes, or by scheduling a private training session...”

“Materra Method is bringing meaningful movement to new (and expecting) mamas in St. Louis – and it’s sincerely sensational.‘ I have been teaching fitness, mostly barre and Pilates, for close to 10 years now as my side gig,’ says Abby Erker, founder of Materra Method. ‘I would often have women come up to me and say, ‘Hey, Abby, I am pregnant: What can I do, what can’t I do in this class?’ To be honest, the general training in most fitness-training programs isn’t fantastic when it comes to pre- and postnatal fitness, so I gave the best advice I could, but I knew that there was more…”’

“Materra Method is St. Louis’ first pre and post natal specific studio, offering group classes, private training, and on-demand, virtual workouts.”