TEA WITH Kayla Principato

the pro volleyball player turned model + pilates instructor will teach pilates at the masha tea writing retreat

Kayla Principato is a professional volleyball player turned pilates instructor. Kayla’s classes, at WSA in the financial district, and in Williamsburg, are active, simple, and never intimidating. She also always has a huge, beautiful smile on her face and brings the perfect amount of golden-retriever puppy energy. It was so fun to sit down and drink tea together for the latest TEA WITH interview.

Kayla has the type of magnetism that led me to invite her, as soon as I took my first class with her, to come teach in Tuscany on the second annual Masha Tea writing retreat. In addition to the group classes, she’ll be available to teach one-on-on at the yoga shala on site :):) Spots are starting to fill up for our July 1-6 trip - respond to this email for more info!

A life long tea drinker, she left a professional volleyball career to pursue modeling and pilates full time. Here is TEA WITH Kayla Principato.

Shop Kayla’s favorite teas - green + mint (also available in compostable teabags)

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Maria (M) Did you grow up drinking tea?

Kayla (K) Yes!

M Where did you grow up?

K Long Island. Actually tea was a big part of my earlier life. My mom used to have tea before bed every single night and it was a ritual. She loved it so then I kind of adopted it. It was our thing, we would have a tea every night. It was a big part of my growing up and it’s something that I try to do now too because it’s a great wind down. So I try to have tea every night .

M Did she always drink the same thing?

K I think she went in phases. For a while she did a chamomile, then vanilla. For a few months we’d do the same type than we’d switch. Sometimes we’d have it plain, sometimes we’d have milk or almond milk. And I loved that because it felt like a treat, or a dessert, when we put milk in it. And - this is so weird but it felt like a coat, like a stomach coat, before bed.

M That’s really sweet. Were you using the same tea cups every time?

K We had a rotation of a few that we really liked.

I also started to collect random cups. I lived in Finland for a little bit and they had some really cool mugs and tea cups that I bought and I started to collect them. I had a huge cup collection that I brought to Colorado when I want to college out there so I could still feel at home.

M I love that. Did you live in Finland growing up?

K No, after school because I played volleyball there.

I lived in a really small town outside of Helsinki in the south and there was nothing going on in my town. It was a year of solitude right after college, which is so funny because I feel like I was living such a different life from my friends. They were out and about and I was just living in this random small town in Finland. But there was a really cute store that I loved. It was a little health market and I feel like it was one of the only things that brought me joy especially because the winter was super brutal. They had all of these bulk herbs and bulk treats. I would get dried apple rings [dipped] in chocolate. They were insane. They were insanely expensive and they were insanely amazing.

That store was a core memory because I would go in there a few times a week and started to know the owners and I would just pick up random teas. I brought so many home that I couldn’t even drink them. I don’t know does tea go bad?

M It doesn’t necessarily go bad, but it loses its potency.

K That was the thing - I went crazy [tea shopping] because I was like “Oh, my mom will have some, I’ll give some to my friends” but then my suitcase was full with random teas.

M I completely empathize with that - I’ve been that person too.

K But also like, digestion, I feel like that was a reason I drank it too. I don’t drink cold beverages. Like even in the summer when it’s really hot, I don’t enjoy them and they don’t make me feel good. I usually stick to hot drinks even when it’s brutal outside.

M What about when you were living in Colorado? I guess in college it could be difficult to have a tea moment?

K I actually did still kind of keep it. I was training as a volleyball player and that was gearing up to be my full time career so I was pretty locked in with that, but I did keep the tea going at night. I’m not going to say every day because I was in college - but I did try to. And I would start every morning with hot lemon water.

M So did you play volleyball professionally in Finland and then also afterwards?

K Yea, so I played in college and then started training with the USA team and then when I graduated college, I went to Finland and played professionally there. That was the goal.

I really wanted to play forever.

Or for as long as my body could take it. I was preparing to play for the national team. It was going really well and then I hurt my knee and that’s kind of what segued me into pilates.

I used [pilates] as cross training and then I came back to New York and every doctor wanted to do surgery. I didn’t want to do surgery. I wanted to take more of a natural route especially because I was young and very active and they didn’t even know if the surgery would help me because I had a very controversial injury. I actually ended up going back to Colorado and I was living between here and there at the time. I did PRP injection and then all of my rehab I was on the [pilates] reformer and it completely healed my knee. I was signed to go to Spain to play volleyball and I didn’t go because I needed more time and then I was signed to go play in Italy and I didn’t go either because I just was back in New York, I was doing pilates, and I got signed with a modeling agency, I was with my friends and family…

I realized there was this other path that felt more aligned.

I loved volleyball and I had some amazing experiences with it but it kind of got to the point where I was just beating up my body and I realized there’s a path that I could do that’s maybe even more fulfilling. I also am such a people person. I love to be around people and sometimes life as a pro athlete is kind of isolating. Everything transformed everything when I got back [to New York].

M So you were doing pilates for rehab to start?

K Yes, for rehab and enjoyment. And then I thought okay, maybe I should get certified because I also loved learning more about my body and so I [got certified] before I even thought about teaching. It was more for knowledge. It was also covid times, the modeling industry was shut down so I wasn’t really working and I thought that I was going to go back and play in Italy but then everything started falling into place with this.

M So then did you quickly start teaching?

K Like I said, I never thought about [teaching] but through my agency actually I went to a workout class and I was talking to the instructor afterwards for like an hour and he was like “I think you should be an instructor. I think you’d be really good at it. I’ll hire you right now.” And it kind of blew my mind. I had never thought about this before. That was more for a different type of class - more strength based - and because I was doing that for volleyball, my body wasn’t responding well to more heavy HIIT workouts or cardio, it just wasn’t feeling good, especially because I was still in recovery. I realized it wasn’t calling me to teach those kind of classes and then I thought okay, maybe I should start teaching pilates and developing my own method and classes.

So I went into a random gym in Williamsburg that didn’t have a pilates. I met with the owner and was like Hey can I start a pilates program? And he had full trust. He was like I love this - Do you want to start next week? You have free reign to do whatever you want, I believe in it. And I was like - okay - I had never taught a class in my life. I started a pilates program there and it was such an evolution from then to now.

M How would you describe your style?

K To put it simply, I root everything in root core stabilization. Proper core activation. And that also comes because I was an athlete training at such a high level and it wasn’t until I started training into pilates that I learned how to properly activate my core and that I was doing it incorrectly the whole time. So my thought was - first of all, I could have been insane volleyball-wise because my strength is just crazier than it was then and volleyball is a lot of core strength and power from your core. But I also felt - wow - if I was training at this high level and was never taught how to actively and properly engage my core, how many people are walking around in the world that don’t know how to do that? Because it’s such a crazy and monumental shift when you start to engage correctly how much stronger and how much more connected you are within your body. You can do body weight movement you’ll be shaking and it will be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done in your life. Because once you tap into that strength there, everything else is connected to it. Even now, if I drop a pen or something, I’m this this position where it’s just second nature, I’m more aligned, more upright, more strong.

M With pilates, why would somebody go to reformer versus mat pilates?

K I’m biased because I love pilates. I think they’re both really great but I also think they’re equally important. It’s a tough question because both are vehicles that are super connected. Mat sometimes can be more difficult because it’s easier to cheat on a reformer. You have springs on a reformer.

M I wonder if it’s almost like the difference, with ceramics, being on the wheel versus hand building. Where you have the structure of a machine being different than doing whatever you want with your body. I - at this phase in my life, it’s the first time I’ve worked out regularly, for the past year or so - and I remember going to pilates years ago and being like nothing is happening, like I’m doing these motions but I feel like nothing is happening. And now, doing pilates, like after class today, it was really hard. But I feel like if I took that class a year ago, I would have thought it was easy because I was out of shape, just because I was doing it wrong. It’s kind of crazy how much of it is being conscious of your body and being able to engage it. Which is really difficult to learn.

K That’s why if somebody leaves a class of mine and they say they didn’t feel anything,I always say that’s why the mind body connection is so important. Also I think why pilates is so amazing. For your body and your muscles and your posture, pretty much everything for functional daily life and mobility. I guess kind of circling back, I do focus on function and mobility in my classes.

But putting that aside, I think that it’s a really amazing exercise, not only physically, but also in training your body in mindfulness, in meditation, and breathwork.

Once you start to kind of tap into that, you become mindful of many more things in your life. Silly things like what I said before about picking up a pen, or sitting in a chair. At this point, I’m always kind of thinking about it, but that’s also because this practice has totally shifted my life.

If you’re not connected and not actively intentional, you’re not going to feel anything.

You’re going to feel like you just went to a class and are like what just happened, I did nothing. I’ve had people who have come to my class and then I’ve started training them privately and they’re like oh, and I’m kind of like what were you doing before?

M I think as someone who was that person, it’s like, okay I’m literally just moving my leg around, versus I’m using all of these different muscles to move my leg, it’s being passive versus active.

K And it’s also building inner body tension. I talk a lot about that and it’s like - we’ll be doing an exercise like a toe tap and I’m like if you’re not thinking about this, it truly feels like you’re doing nothing. But then, you start to control it and I start to say imagine my hand is pressing on your shin, or fighting to lift your leg then your your core is tapped in.

I’ve probably done a million toe taps in my life and I still get shakiness from it when I’m engaged and intentional about it.

M I feel like it’s also - I’ve recently been doing cardio and strength training - and with some of the strength training stuff, it took doing it so many times to learn how to do it, and like today during [pilates] class there were certain things that because I don’t do pilates that often, I had to kind of sit up and look, but I feel like once you do it regularly it’s also possible to become more present because you know what the movement is, being able to emulate it versus trying to figure out what it is.

And like, with modeling, is pilates what you do for being embodied and knowing how to move, or is there a different type of training that you do with that?

K Yea, I think that pilates has helped. Because, especially when I started modeling, it’s kind of weird. It’s not really natural - or maybe that was just my experience - on video and talking to people I feel natural, but now [with modeling] there’s kind of a flow state that I’m in. It’s a very creative process. I also feel like my best classes are when I’m really engaged. Obviously I aim to be that engaged every single class, but my mind shifts somewhere else. You could say it’s a flow state. It’s super creative and artistic. Movements that feel good and flow together. It’s a similar thing when you’re in front of a camera. You’re not going to get good images if you’re just like stiff and shy and sitting there or standing there.

You really have to be moving and embodying movement.

M So with where you’re at in your life right now, bringing it back to tea, in your current life in New York, how does tea come into your day to day?

K I actually think I drink more tea now than ever because this studio has tea available all the time.

Sometimes I feel like I drink more tea than water.

I have a cup that I have out all day, and even if I need to step out to see a client outside of the studio, I always have tea with me, I drink it all the time. I think winter, this winter, I’ve been more intentional about doing nighttime tea. With my schedule it’s been so crazy sometimes I get home and I’m just tired. But I’m drinking tea all day.

M What do you like?

K I love green tea. Green tea all the time. Different kinds, different flavors, different variations. I love peppermint tea as well. Those two are my main staples. Then sometimes I’ll mix in other kinds of herbal blends, especially at night.

Thanks for reading TEA FOR TWO - come on our retreat <3