About Us
At Free Range we help each person achieve their best in a friendly, safe, and fun environment. We choose highly trained team members who care about people and want to use their education, skills and talents to help everyone they meet achieve their personal best.
We offer Strength Training for all levels - Tim’s Strength Lab is the best place for beginners and those healing injuries to start and Elygah’s Group Fitness classes are for those who want to kick it up a notch with cardio, challenge, and getting their heart rate up. She also offers personal training.
AJ’s dance classes are a blast and so good to reduce stress and get your heart rate up.
Bill’s Tai Chi and Qigong classes will help you reduce stress, gain balance and flexibility, and move with mindfulness.
Reiki and energy work with Dawn help release stress and encourage healing and Andrea is our highly trained massage therapist who rounds out our healing treatments.
And yes, we have yoga. Dawn teaches a wide variety of classes, private yoga, and Yoga Therapy sessions for all to enjoy ease, awareness, and deep compassion.
Meet the Team
Yoga. Yoga Therapy. Private Yoga. Reiki. Relaxation. Meditation. Breathwork.
Dawn uses ease, awareness, and movement to help people reduce pain, feel better, move better, and change their lives. She is a Certified Yoga Therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). She has been teaching yoga for 20+ years and has taught more than 6,000 group classes and held hundreds of private yoga therapy sessions. Her goal is to help people feel better (mind, body, spirit) so they can find their own power and bring more good into the world. She has taught yoga to a huge variety of people with many various conditions, illnesses, and injuries. She believes in meeting each student where they are at and helping them get stronger, develop resiliency, and be their best - mind, body, and spirit.
Dawn is a 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher and went through a rigorous 2 year Yoga Therapy training. She has more than 1100 training hours including iRest, the Reembody Method, Anatomy, Kinesiology of Yoga and Therapeutic Yoga Intensive -Functional Synergy. YogaFit Levels 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Pre-Natal/Postpartum, Sweat, Props, Kids, Seniors, Restorative Therapeutics, Pranayama, YogaBack, Anatomy and Alignment Levels 1 and 2, and YogaFit for Warriors (for people with PTSD.) Additional education in Kinesiology at Western Illinois University including Anatomy and Physiology, Sport and Exercise Psychology, Motor Behavior, and Wellness Program Development and Administration. She has a MS in Instructional Design.
Dawn is also a Level 2 Tera Mai™ Reiki practitioner.
Contact Dawn at 309-333-5069 or email
Dawn Piper, Free Range Owner Certified Yoga Therapist, Yoga Teacher, and Reiki Practitioner
Tim Piper, Ed.D., CSCS*D
Strength Training
Tim Piper got his B.S. in Fitness and M.S. in Exercise Physiology from WIU and his Doctorate from NIU. Finding an early passion for training led to his competition in basketball, cross-country, track and field, road racing, Powerlifting, Weightlifting, Highland Games, and Strongman.
He is recognized by the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach-with Distinction (CSCS*D). He has been teaching at the college level and coaching the sports of Weightlifting, (a.k.a. Olympic Lifting), and Powerlifting for over 30 years each. He is certified by USA Weightlifting as a National Level Coach and is a World Marshall Level judge in the World Drug Free Powerlifting Federation.
He has been the strength and conditioning coach for countless athletes in almost any sport imaginable. Aside from coaching athletes, his personal training experience has included working with professional musicians, dancers, recreational ultra-endurance competitors, older adults, and he has worked with a large number of individuals with acute and chronic illnesses, issues and ailments. In his spare time, he has authored two books and over 50 publications in both peer-reviewed journals as well as trade journals and magazines.
Tim teaches his students and athletes how to safely and effectively become stronger, more confident, and improve their overall fitness. His Strength Lab Class is designed around the student’s past and current injuries, illnesses, and issues in a personalized approach. If want to learn how to lift safely but don’t know where to start, this class will put you on the right path.
Email Dawn Piper to sign up or call or text 309-333-5069
Bill Maakestad
Tai Chi & Qigong
An introduction to two ancient mind-body arts that are as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago. If you want to lower your stress level, reduce your anxiety, restore your balance, and increase your overall sense of well-being, you’ve come to the right place. All ages welcome! Open to new as well as to continuing Tai Chi/Qigong students.
In his Tai Chi & Qigong class at Free Range, Bill is dedicated to offering guided exploration of these two ancient Chinese energetic arts—energetic, because both practices are centered on the belief in an intrinsic life energy known as qi (“life force” or “spirit breath”). The practices are related and for centuries have been practiced together, though recently they have been receiving significant attention in the West because many respected research institutions, such as the Harvard Medical School and Mayo Clinic, have recognized their superior health benefits. Bill welcomes people of all ages and abilities to attend his class and learn first-hand about the active, mindful relaxation that Tai Chi and Qigong offer.
Bill, who retired as a professor from WIU in 2009, began his training with Willie Jones, an experienced martial arts practitioner of Taekwondo as well as Tai Chi. Bill has continued to study and incorporate contributions from David-Dorian Ross, International Tai Chi Instructor; Dr. Peter Wayne, Director of Integrative Medicine Research at Harvard Medical School/Brigham & Women’s Hospital; and especially William C.C. Chen, legendary Tai Chi Master who helped introduce the West to Tai Chi.
Email Bill or call 309-255-8256
Andrea Hopper, LMT, CCT
Massage Therapy
Andrea has been providing massage therapy for 10 years and absolutely loves what she does. Throughout that time, she has trained in a wide variety of modalities and treated hundreds of clients from all walks of life. This experience has given rise to a completely unique integrative style of therapeutic massage that benefits everyone. Each of us has a very different story and that needs to be reflected in the way we receive treatment. Her individualized approach to your sessions will leave you feeling at ease, comfortable, and on your way to healing.
Modalities include; Certified Cupping Therapy, Deep Tissue Massage, Ashiatsu Deep Feet Bar Therapy, Personal injury, (motor vehicle accident or work related injury recovery L&I) Manual Lymphatic Drainage, Myofascial Release, Neuromuscular/PNF Techniques, Trigger point and Tender point alleviation, Clinical Massage for a specific pathology (ex. Chronic headaches, carpal tunnel syndrome, post operative scar tissue realignment, athletic injury, body re-balancing) Stretching, Relaxation/Swedish Massage, Aromatherapy, Hot Stone Massage, Cryotherapy and Thermotherapies.
Contact Andrea by sending a text to:
206-795-6893
AJ (Aya Zahra)
Zumba and Belly Dance
AJ fell in love with dance by the age of five and took classes in ballet through college. In high school, she studied both ballet and jazz with the Bonnie Haney Dance Company in the Fargo, North Dakota area. Later, she took swing dance lessons weekly, for years, at both the Wabasha Street Caves and the Tapestry Folkdance Center in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and belly dance classes at The Cassandra School in Minneapolis.
She’s been certified in Zumba since 2010 and in Belly Dance Fitness since 2013. When she moved to Macomb, she was thrilled to join the belly dance troupe, Banat Casablanca, and enjoyed many Belly Fit classes with Anne Dixon when she was teaching at Free Range Yoga.
Email AJ at dance@ayazahra.com
Elygah Lyons
Group Fitness
Elygah was raised in and around Macomb. She found a love of running, fitness and the outdoors at an early age which has continued to be an important passion in both her personal and professional life.
She became a CNA in high school and loves to help people become the best versions of themselves.
She is a current Exercise Science Senior at WIU working towards her bachelor's degree.
She is currently certified through NAFTA as a group exercise instructor; and is working towards more certifications.
Contact Elygah: 309-333-6925
Audrey Thomann
Personal Training
Audrey is working on her Master of Science degree in Kinesiology at WIU and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science in May of 2024. She has experience as an exercise specialist at a rehabilitation center as well as coaching/teaching experience for weight lifting, personal fitness, basketball, and more. She played multiple sports in high school including basketball, volleyball and track and field. She played one year of collegiate basketball and is now the Vice President of WIU Women’s Club Basketball team. She’s always enjoyed spending time working out with others and can’t wait to help people enjoy a healthier lifestyle!
She will be applying to doctorate programs next year to pursue her goal of becoming an occupational therapist.
Contact Audrey: 309-265-4004