Olivia 🧘🏼‍♀️🖼🥵

A living breathing 🌞 emoji

Everywhere you turn in LA, there’s a new boutique fitness class (sweetly) screaming at you to enter. Yoga! Pilates! Crossfit! Lagree! Trampoline aerobics! The list goes on and on. And while the breadth of studios is vast and diverse, they all sort of feel the same??

Which is precisely why Silver Springs, a heated fitness studio based in West Hollywood, is so remarkable. On paper, it could sound like another trendy workout but what founder, Olivia Spralja, has built is quite the opposite—it’s a fresh new take on an age old classic of LA—the workout class.

Olivia radiates light. Truly. When I walked into Silver Springs for this interview and met her for the first time, it was like greeting a living, breathing sunshine emoji (🌞). She’s warm and inviting, interested and interesting. I immediately felt lighter in her presence. Perhaps it’s because her life is yoga. Or maybe it’s because she’s Canadian (I hear they’re all super nice!). Or it could even be her 100 degree heated studio infusing her with warmth. Regardless, Olivia’s entire essence is exceptional. And so is her studio, Silver Springs.

Upon entrance, you’re greeted with art. So much so that if you didn’t know any better, you could think you’ve stumbled into one of the many art galleries of West Hollywood and not the pilates class you planned on. The entire space—from the front desk to the lockers all the way to the freaking bathrooms—is breathtaking! Despite Silver Springs’ gallery-like beauty, it doesn’t feel cold or uninviting. In fact, the entire place sort of feels like your cool friend’s artist mom’s house—embracing you the moment you step inside, insisting that you get comfy and ‘stay for dinner’! It’s also a refreshing change of pace from the cheesy, faux-motivational aesthetic of the many other studios I frequent.

After my first class, I was immediately curious. I workout often and am a fan of a lot of studios but none have left me quite as in awe (or sweaty!) as Silver Springs. To put it simply, it’s so much more than a fitness class—it’s a lifestyle. So, I reached out to Olivia in the hopes that I could understand a bit more about Silver Springs and the woman behind it. To my surprise and delight, Olivia was down! Read on for her story and the origin of how everyone’s favorite class came to be.

Isadora: Alright! Introduce yourself.

Olivia:  My name's Olivia. And what do I say? This is tough!

I: This is the hardest part. This is why I ask people because they either lean into, well, I'm a creative in Los Angeles doing X, Y, and Z. And then usually my response is like, okay, now who are you without your job? And it's really hard. So honestly, however you would describe yourself, or how would your friends describe you if we were saying, oh yeah, I have this friend Olivia.

O: Okay, I don't dare do that. Literally the worst thing to do is talk about yourself. Why is this? But my name is Olivia, I'm from Toronto, so I identify as Canadian and I am a fitness teacher, yoga teacher, Pilates teacher, and someone in LA trying to figure it out.

I: Great. Love it. I just heard the Canadian accent accent. What were you like as a kid?

O: Oh my gosh, so shy. Such a nervous kid. I was very much, I'd say a homebody person. I love spending time with my family. My parents were artists. Definitely not an outgoing kid, very much like to do solo activities like crafting, drawing, painting or making up games and little cute things with my brother. But yeah, I'd say very introverted.

I: You said your parents were artists. Were you artistic as a kid?

O: Yes! So my family in Toronto has a restaurant and it's been operated now for about 50 years. And my grandfather came from Croatia to Canada, started the restaurant. He was an artist. My grandmother was a cook and, very long story short, they opened a restaurant and my dad started working there. My dad met my mom and she started working there. And again, musicians, artists, whether it be glass blowing or painting or collage or photography, literally everything. Everything in the restaurant is something that my grandfather or my dad or my aunt or my mom had some sort of hand in. So I very much grew up in that very artistic lifestyle. But also I'd say that the thing that's contributed most to what my existence is right now is hospitality and providing experiences for people. It is interesting to see now everything that I grew up with is fully visible right now. Growing up, you're not really aware of it, but then now as an adult doing the thing, you're like, ‘oh, these are all of the things that I've learned since I was a kid.’

I: I remember someone saying to me once, ‘We are the combined efforts of every person and everything we've ever experienced.’ It rings so true and it's sort of beautiful when you think about it that way.

So your whole family was in hospitality, but also in this world of art. Did you think you were going to go into the family business and also work at the restaurant?

O: Well, I studied art history, film and English in school. And so I was very much in a position where my family was like, go study and live your life and do what you want to do. And I was like, ‘okay, great’. While I was in university in Toronto, I'd started taking yoga classes. And even from an earlier age, my mom would take me to her Pilates classes or take me with her on her little workout journeys. And so when I started doing that, I was like, okay, maybe I'll try a yoga training. And then I was like, ‘oh, I love this. This is great.’ Didn't ever intend on becoming a teacher. I just really enjoyed the challenge of a training. It’s very intense. I came back from that and was kind of forced into teaching because my studio owner at the time asked me to teach a class. Having been such a nervous kid and a shy person, it was really horrifying to stand up in front of 50 people and speak to them. And so I'd say my first training was such a gift that it opened me up in a way to communicate with people and stand up and show yourself it's okay to be yourself in front of people. At the same time I was doing teaching, I was working at my family's restaurant.

I: How old were you around this time?

O: I was 23. Out of college, graduated and was teaching and working at my family's restaurant. And then the studio I was teaching at flooded. It’s so sad when your space closes because it’s hard to know what to do. And the people who own that studio found a new space and they said, ‘Olivia, do you want to open it with us?’ And that was a lovely opportunity. So I jumped on that and started running a studio in Toronto for a couple years. It sadly didn't work out because our landlords were horrible and they kicked us out. And so I was kind of stranded again, just teaching around the studio or around the city and still working at my family's restaurant.

I: How did LA come into the picture?

O: So while I was juggling both, I met my now husband, Isaac. He's a filmmaker and a writer, and we were doing classes together, getting to know each other. And we both really loved coming to LA. I came a lot as a kid and because he was a filmmaker, that’s where he wanted to be. And so every little trip or vacation that we would take would always be to la and then finally we were like, let's try for three months and see if we like it. So we came out here, we saved up enough money to see what it would be like out here, and we loved it. And so we were like, okay, well how do we do it? I decided to teach a practice class at a studio. I was like, you're going to love this class. I think it would be amazing on your schedule. And I was really lucky that they did love it. And they very generously said that they'd sponsor me to come here. So as a Canadian to get a visa is a holy grail moment. So we moved in January 2020. And then the world shut down. We had just got married a month before we moved as well. So we're now living in la. I'm teaching classes, but now I'm teaching all of my classes on Zoom.

I: It's interesting, a lot of the stuff you said about everything shifting one right after the other, there's a new change that's happening and you deal with it and not only overcome it, but get good at it. I remember talking to someone else during one of these interviews and they were talking about how they love working with their hands because it can be challenging but it’s the only thing that calms they’re anxiety. And I didn’t understand at first but they said, ‘well, think about it. When you're doing something hard and you are like, I need to focus on this, I need to fix it. Your mind only will focus on that thing. And so all the other thoughts and intrusive and negative thinking goes away.’ It’s so true. When I think about my biggest growth spurts, it's always been after really, really big challenges where I had to learn something new, do something new. And it sounds like you just had growth spurt after growth, spurt after growth spurt after growth spurt.

O: Exactly!  That resonates with me so much thinking about it in that way for sure. I find the thing that I think I love the most about standing up in front of 50 people every day teaching them is that I don't have to think about myself. I am ready to serve. I am in service of others, and that is my favorite place to be How can I make someone smile? What can I do to make them feel good? That is everything to me. What I've learned is that I am still a very nervous and shy person, but I find being in front of people is where I feel almost like the most comfortable in a really weird way now because I know that it's not about me at all, and that it's just about delivering a really nice experience for everyone else.

I: How did Silver Springs come into the picture?

O: I had a student in Toronto who was taking my classes for many years, and right before I moved to LA he was like, I'm opening a gym in Toronto and I want you to come help and be a part of it. And I said, ‘I'd love to, but I'm moving’. When I was teaching here, he visited LA and he said, ‘I want to open a studio in LA, do you want to do it?’ And I said, okay. So it was definitely not something I had planned or had intended on, but I think it was such an amazing thing you have to say yes to something like that because it was kind of a dream opportunity. And he's an amazing friend and partner and I'm so grateful that he's in my life as a mentor and as someone to work with. He's really outstanding.

I: What was opening the studio like?

O: So then we started going on this journey— Find the location, plan everything, do everything, make it work. And I've never done anything like this in my life. So everything has been such a big learning process of figuring things out. And it's been wild, but also such a gift to have something to pour our heart into.

I: We're in LA. There's no shortage of fitness classes or yoga classes. Yoga and Pilates also tend to have a particular vibe associated with them. Boutique fitness as a whole has a particular vibe. Silver Springs is so special because the second you walk in here, you quickly realize it’s not any of those vibes. You feel welcomed in a way that is not very popular within fitness classes, especially in LA. I'd love to hear a little bit about the process of crafting this unique energy and what that looked like because you could have the most beautiful studio in the world and still not be able to create this.

O: It really is truly a very specific thing to me. Every decision that we've made up until now is really rooted in ‘would we like it?’, ‘would we want to do it?’ The thing that I remember most when I go out to dinner, when I go out to a friend's house, etc. How did that person make me feel? How did the server make me feel? How did the front desk staff make me feel? How do you feel? And I feel like that is such an important thing that I just try to instill in all my teachers and anyone we hire here, is that this is not a transactional experience. This is a real heartfelt connection that we're trying to develop with every person who comes in here. We're trying to hopefully allow people to not think about themselves and think about other people and how to make their experience better. So whether someone walks in off the street or they race here in miserable traffic, how can I make that person feel okay? Or it's okay to be upset or it's okay to cry if you're having a bad day, but you're there to make their day better. So really it's about thinking of other people.

I: That makes total sense. I mean, at the end of the day, people could just do a yoga class or a Pilates class on YouTube, so they're coming in here for more than just a workout.

O: And there's so many details that go on behind the scenes that we try to nail every day. For example, the volume level of the music, the scent of the studio. When you walk in, does everything look nice? Is everything organized? Have you put your mood aside for that day so that you can serve other people with a smile and then delivering on top of all of that an amazing class. Music's great, the workout's awesome, the heat feels so good. All the little details really matter to us.

I: There are so many little things that go into building a wonderful experience. And yet the best experiences, if you’re not in the weeds of it, you can’t even pick up on all the little details and that’s the point! How would you describe the Silver Springs experience?

O: That is a good question. When I think about it, it sounds like the cheesiest thing, but basically it’s just about being kind. Go to some studios and it’s no smile, you're hardly greeted at all. And that's kind of seen as the cool thing historically. But to us having a smile, greeting someone and contributing to that happy energy is what's cool. And we'll always put that first above everything else. And yeah, I think all the details are a part of the Silver Springs experience but to put it simply, it’s being kind.

I: It really is so true though. A lot of this project was born out of me caring so much and feeling like there's a culture around apathy where it's not cool to care.

O: I think that's literally what it is in our handbook—it's cool to care!

I: It's cool to care. It’s so refreshing being at Silver Springs. It just feels so nice. I know you mentioned this at the beginning, being a really shy kid and then being forced into teaching, and you kind of touched on the fact that it's one of your favorite things. And so I kind of wanted to hear a little bit about when you did start teaching, did you realize this passion immediately?

O: Honestly, it's an interesting thing to think about and I don't think I've actually ever thought about it. I do fully remember the first class that I ever taught. I was horrified of standing up in front of a bunch of people and telling them what to do and leading an experience. And over time, I think the first hurdle to get over was getting up in front of people but once you master that the next hurdle what can you actually offer? And I think the thing that came naturally to me coming from a hospitality background and providing experience is just that. What are the little things that I can do that will make someone feel that I got them? I teach the class that I want to take—music wise, move wise and I pair it all with a whole lot of love and care and attention. I want people to feel comfortable because to be in a sweaty room in hardly any clothes, you're doing a really hard workout, the music is loud, there's a lot going on, and moving your body is a very personal thing. So to do it in front of all these people, that's another challenge. So how can we make all of that as easy as possible for someone? And I think it is in the details of caring, basically.

I: What is the approach to crafting a Silver Springs class?

O: Well, we offer many different class styles. There are sculpt classes with weights, there are mat Pilates classes with their own specific props, power flows, HIIT Pilates, which is kind of like our signature class. Obviously the workout matters, the moves matter. But our requirement for all our teachers is to be exceptional at that. What takes it to the next level is the details. When does the music come on? How loud is the mic at that point? When does the door open? When does the volume go up? When does it come down? Do I get a break at the right time? Is a teacher sharing an anecdote about themselves so that the class can take a break. So it's like all these little things.

I: Makes total sense. One thing about this project is sort of this idea of inspiration over competition. I've been asking everyone who are some people or things or places that inspire you?

O: Things that inspire me the most are people who are so authentically themselves. But other than that, I'm inspired by artists, hotels, restaurants, travel, all these little things that are not related to fitness at all. I'm inspired by the people who are close to me too. A lot of the art in the studio is by my Mother-in-Law. She's an incredible artist. Her name's Julia Williams, and she is the best person in the world. Her art is amazing and we love that we get to showcase it. The fact that we get to put it on display in front of everyone feels so good. My mom and dad are a big inspiration having run a business their whole lives. It is a big thing. You don't get a day off. And I think when you really love what you do, that's okay. I understand burnout is real, and I feel that too. I'm tired some days, but I love what I do so much that on those days where you're like, can I keep going on? Someone writes you and they say that you help them through a really hard time and it makes it all worth it. And then obviously music is a huge inspiration.

I: I was going to ask if the name is based on the Fleetwood—

O: Yes! Big yes. I remember coming up with the name. We were like, ‘what should we call a studio?’ And we were up on our rooftop laying in the sun and we were throwing out some names. And I was like, what about Silver Springs? And immediately we knew that was it. It was just as clear as day. That's our favorite Fleetwood Mac Song. But it's an ‘if you know, you know’ song. That kind of trickled into how we thought about this space. We didn't do any crazy marketing or advertising or anything like that. Silver Springs doesn't sound like a fitness studio or a yoga studio, or pilates studio. And we liked that about it. Stevie Nicks was asked how she came up with the name Silver Springs for that song. She was on a bus and drove by Silver Springs, Maryland, and she said, it sounded like a place where you want to be. And I was like, that's it.

I: Oh my gosh. Yes. I love that so much. There's such a concept around this, but it's not really a concept because it's so true to who you and your husband are. It’s a lifestyle here.

O: It is so hard to run a business, to start something, and you just got to keep supporting everyone around you. If a studio opened right next door, I'd be like, yes, more fitness in the neighborhood. I can't wait for them to thrive. I want that for everyone I know. Pouring your whole being into something is so hard. So you just want everyone to succeed.

I: What advice would you give to folks feeling a bit paralyzed by pursuing a passion?

O: For me, it was always a feeling deep in my gut. I had proven to myself over and over again that I could do it—I could sell out a class here, I could sell out a class there, and then in another studio I could get the worst time slot and then eventually grow it. And I knew that. I was like, I did that. I worked really hard and I tried my very best and I did it. So I always knew that. I was like, it's there. So it's trusting when you feel it, you got to go for it.

I: What does validation feel like for you?

O: Every day does feel validating. When class is over, you've got 40 smiling bodies saying, ‘thanks, that was great’. That is immediate validation. So that always does feel really nice. And I think it's a cumulative effect too. I've been teaching for over 10 years, and if you're doing something for that long, usually you really love it.

I: I think if there's something also really beautiful about the in-person nature of a fitness class where it is so much of this give and take and a bit of instant gratification for both parties if it's working. You don’t really get that in a lot of other jobs.

O: My husband and I joke about this because he's a writer. He's just sitting alone at his computer writing away, and he's like, ‘is anyone out there?’

I: Okay. Last question which is kind of a funny one just because I feel like yoga flows is a thing, but what does a creative flow feel like for you?

O: It doesn't happen every day, but the times where I do feel like I'm in complete flow state is when all cylinders are firing in a class. The energy is good, the music is good, the moves are good. You can just feel it. And you can ask community members here, students who'll say after that kind of class, ‘There was something about that one.’ Those are the moments for me. And I felt so good too because it's a real moving of energy that you have to do in that room. It's a silly thing to say, a very yoga thing to say, but it's such an unspoken thing. It's like this magical stirring pot that happens in the room where everything is just working and you can just feel it. And that's when I feel like the most in flow.

I: I love that you said firing on all cylinders because it’s just so clear. I have no idea how cylinders fire, but when people say that, I can feel that feeling in myself for when I am in that state. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with me!

O: Thank you!