OUR TEAM
GET TO KNOW THE EXPERTS of PIRPAVITA
JAANA MÄKELÄ
Physiotherapist & HIGH performance coach
As a child, Jaana had two career options: a dancer or a skier. At the age of 14, Jaana decided to move from a small town to Helsinki by herself to realize her dream.
Studies at the ballet school of the Finnish National Opera taught her discipline. It brought the experience of long-term work in front of the dreams.
Injuries plagued the dancer’s career and finally Jaana decided to move towards a new dream.
She studied physiotherapy, taught ballet classes and supervised group exercise.
The goal of Jaana’s work – she realized – is to promote curiosity about body movement and to optimize athletes’ performance. Jaana’s strong knowledge of biomechanics enables the technical analysis of all kinds of performances, even with no previous experience in the sport.
PIRPA
Founder, Certified Physiotherapist & High Performance Coach
The thought behind the PirpaVita started to develop during Pirpa’s professional 400m runner career. Unsatisfied with the given training protocol and determined to find solutions to her recurring health and injury problems. She figured out how to work the basic biomechanical movement patterns of running, together with alternative holistic treatments in order to speed up the recovery, to return into competition after injuries more easily and with improved results.
READ MORE ABOUT PIRPA >
SANNA HÄKKILÄ
BODY MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTOR, MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY & graduated MASSAGE therapist (SUMMER 2023)
Movement and physicality have always been present in Sanna’s life. The hobby of ballet, which started at the age of four, fell away during Sanna’s studies, until she found pilates in 2006. Sanna was fascinated by the precision, systematicity and strong presence.
While rehabilitating from a difficult pregnancy with the help of pilates, the desire to turn a hobby into a profession was ignited. Already during her studies, Sanna understood that work could only be done by constantly deepening her understanding of the human body. Putting this insight in practice still takes her around the world to learn from the leading body management professionals.
The different methods are like toolkits that can be used to help guide clients towards a certain skill. The common goal for everyone is to strengthen functionality and learn to move around in everyday life with care for the body, without burdening it in harmful ways. You need to consider every person as a whole in order to get a positive result. The most important thing is to approach each customer individually.
Recent posts and news
YLE: Top prospect Laura Hietaranta takes new steps in her tennis career – the former world number two helps the Finn move forward in Dubai
Laura Hietaranta has won several small professional competitions in recent weeks. At the end of November, she will start training in Dubai at a tennis club run by Vera Zvonareva.
PirpaVita manages the programming of HVS tennis competitive juniors’ physical training
Original article about this agreement was published on hvstennis.fi, click here to read. From the August 2022 on, PirpaVita will be managing HVS's, the Tali Tennis center based Tennis club, competitive juniors’ physical training program. Previously, the...
Laura Hietaranta, Management and Coaching agreement with PirpaVita Oy
Original article about this agreement was published on tennis.fi, click here to read. During her junior years, Hietaranta was successfully steered forward by Erik Hakkarainen. Porsche Junior Team Finland's top player in recent years has now turned professional....
Niko Vuorinen, Épée fencer
Learning Épée fencing through discussions with Niko has been a fascinating journey. It began with rehabilitating the almost two meter tall leftie's chronic back problem and hasn't ended yet. Niko used to fly multiple times from Budabest to Helsinki with an acute cramp...
Story of Hanna Grobler
We had known each other since kids. Often, we shared a room in the national team competitions. And usually in the summer we spend at least a week in Hanna's summer house. Hanna loved high jump, and I loved running. Later on i had already retired and Hanna got an...
What went wrong?
Tremendous passion for running since age of 6. World’s TOP2 time at the age of 16. National team. Selection for the Olympic Days in Portugal. Team of a physiotherapist, masseur, federation, sponsors. The coach's knowledge of programming is top notch. Ability to train...
What is Spiral Stabilization (SPS)?
"Spiral Stabilization (SPS) is a unique method combining therapy, body control and exercising. It is developed over the years since 1979 by Richard Smišek, a Czech physician specializing in musculoskeletal problems. The method is based on training muscle chains,...