Fitness Expert Miranda Esmonde-White’s Quest for Truth and Meaning

Fitness guru Miranda Esmonde-White thrives on helping people heal and live without pain. It is her mission in life.

In fact, this best-selling author of five fitness books has been preaching the gospel of movement for over 30 years.

If you have participated in an “Essentrics” class, airing on PBS as the Classical Stretch show since 1999, then you have experienced Miranda’s brand of wellness.

Between Classical Stretch’s 300+ episodes, her award-winning docuseries, Aging Backwards® and Forever Painless and her Essentrics video fitness program, she has helped millions of people. (By contrast, Jane Fonda — one of Miranda’s personal heroes – only made 22 videos.) Big name athletes Miranda has impacted include the Montreal Canadiens, multiple Olympians, Cirque de Soleil cast members and countless celebrities.

Most importantly, she has empowered people of all ages and abilities.

“Our bodies are designed to be pain-free through our lives,” she says, “but to achieve that, we have to move.”

Miranda’s own extraordinary journey is living proof.

It all started with ballet. She left home at 10 to attend the National Ballet School in Toronto.

“I was the first student to go from grade 5 to 12 and graduate from the school. I loved it. I am an artist so that was the perfect place for me to land.”

Being away from home as a child was hard but under the tutelage of Betty Oliphant (legendary ballerina and principal of the school) her mind and creativity blossomed.

“Every week I was introduced to great dancers; we were constantly at the ballet, opera, symphony, at museums and all the art galleries. My life was spent immersed in the arts and it opened up a whole world.”

She grew up with other artists like ballet legend Karen Kain.

After three years as a member of the National Ballet Company, she moved to London, UK to expand her horizons and search for the meaning of life, a quest she felt from a young age.

“I was succeeding in the ballet world but knew something was profoundly missing in my life. On my return to Canada, I fell in love with a musician and moved to Montreal.”

That relationship didn’t last, but from it came her daughter Sahra, who is now her business partner.

“Those early years as a mother were difficult ones. For a decade and a half, I was in survival mode. I had to support us, I had to feed us and I just needed to take care of my daughter. I made ragdolls so I could stay home. I made thousands of ragdolls in that apartment and ended up selling them to places like The Bay and Woolco.”

That led to new opportunities.

“I met the president of Hasbro Toys, who liked me (said I was a go-getter) and hired me as Hasbro’s Canadian national sales and marketing manager. Those were profitable years, but I was on the road two weeks a month.”

As a single mom she needed to be near home and Sahra’s school. So, she left Hasbro and offered fitness classes in a local church basement.

“I couldn’t believe how they took off. I had plans to change the world,” she jokes.

And she did. 

She opened a dance and aerobics studio for fitness classes that evolved into teaching fitness instructors themselves, many of whom knew nothing about fitness.

“I started writing textbooks for instructors to understand the science behind movement.”

However, when she was approximately 38, she suffered constant, chronic back pain.

“I had a standing appointment to see the chiropractor three times a week so I wouldn’t be crippled. It was just awful. At the same time my students were noticing their muscles were bulky from aerobics and weights and a lot of people were having knee pain.”

Health Canada reports an estimated one in five Canadians (across the lifespan), live with chronic pain, many of whom report it affects their daily life. It will come as no secret that it is more common as we age, with approximately one in three people over 65 experiencing chronic pain.

Miranda realized there was a way to help alleviate that pain.

“We were all searching for a workout that was a bit gentler on the body. I incorporated the movements used by the chiropractor into a gentle stretching program which helped relieve my back pain as well as others pain. Much to my surprise people’s knee and hip pain dissipated as they lost a minimum of one pant size. I was off and running in furthering the creation of Classical Stretch.”

The gentle movements and beautiful music in Classical Stretch convinced PBS to sign. However, not before a wrinkle appeared.

Weeks before she was to start filming the series, Miranda received a breast cancer diagnosis. With the support, encouragement, and love of her daughter, Miranda, in her customary will to help others and bountiful enthusiasm, developed a workout video specific for breast cancer survivors which is still available free of change on her Essentrics website. 

Today, both Classical Stretch and Essentrics are globally recognized as science-based fitness techniques for healing and age-reversing for all levels and ages.

“Ironically, I realized that creating a genuinely safe, healing program was the dream I had been aiming at all my life.  I succeeded in discovering what I had been looking for.  It may have taken 30 difficult, poverty-stricken years. But I found it.”

Miranda is not someone who is motivated by money.

“I know I am very fortunate now, but success and money are not important to me. I’ve made a lot of decisions based on what I feel and a lot of them have been very bad for my finances – which did not make sense to practical people.”

“Following your heart can be a very expensive thing to do,” says Miranda, but knowing the impact she is having on people drives her forward.

She says the best compliment she has ever received is, “You changed my life.”

Her biggest surprise has been her own personal growth.

“My parents had convinced me that I was a little slow, which left me with zero self-esteem. They believed girls were only capable of marrying.”

Developing her program and receiving a great deal of academic recognition taught Miranda that she is smart and capable of overcoming enormous challenges and obstacles.

Today, there is a peace about her.

The woman who spent her life searching for the meaning of life has become a believer of deep inner faith in life itself.

“Life is an adventure full of joy. I am excited about every single day.”

(With maybe a pastry or dessert thrown in there – her one vice.)

She doesn’t have much spare time – “What is that anyway?” – yet she is a voracious reader of biographies. “They hugely influence me because seeing what people do in their real lives inspires me. Their life paths are not straight. Seeing their obstacles as they go through life and become what they become or are becoming has always been fascinating and motivating for me.”

When she was 45, Miranda thought she’d be “an old lady at 55 and retiring”.  In fact, she just turned 75 and she is busier than ever.

“My brain is on fire. I am like a 20-year-old. I am so productive. Working with Essentrics, life is exciting and so much fun.”

“Don’t let any age define you. Define yourself. Simone de Beauvoir said that, and it is one thing I live by.”

To listen to an interview with Miranda, CLICK HERE

Try Miranda’s full body workouts Free for 30-Days on the Essentrics TV streaming platform. Click here or use promo code: INSPIRED30 at checkout on www.essentricstv.com. Offer expires Nov 29, 2024. See website for details.

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