Iowa State turns out many students that become successful entrepreneurs each year and Erica Ziel is no exception. She is the founder of Core Athletica Incorporated and has become a sought-after expert in fitness-infused pilates and personal training.

Ziel, a graduate from Iowa State and a 28-year-old wife and mother of three, has become a fitness guru to many mothers-to-be in Newport Beach, Calif. With the launch of her “Knocked-Up Fitness” exercise DVDs and classes, she helps women stay fit during pregnancy and after.

After graduating from Iowa State with a degree in kinesiology and health in 2005, Ziel moved to California to start an internship with Frog’s Club One in Long Beach, meeting her husband shortly after and settling down to create a family of her own. While completing her internship, Ziel began training in Pilates through the John Garey program.

“As time has gone on, I’ve done my own thing and I just always wanted my own business,” Ziel said. “I’ve always been interested in prenatal fitness, which I have done, and it seemed like at the end of college every paper I had done had ended up being about pregnancy and exercise. I just found it really fascinating.”

Ziel realized quickly with each pregnancy that Pilates was a great way to stay fit and added great benefits to the pregnancy and delivery of the baby.

“When I became pregnant for the first time, I felt like I knew what I was doing,” Ziel said. “So with each [pregnancy] I felt like I was taking the knowledge I had learned, my training, and always constantly taking new courses and using my own experience I started to develop my own style of training. Specifically with prenatal [fitness] I realized there’s a need for it, and it’s just so beneficial.”

By the time the third pregnancy came around, Ziel had started her website Knocked-UpFitness.com along with her fitness business, Core Athletica Incorporated. Ziel became determined to get her year and a half ambition to film a pregnancy fitness video set into motion.

“I had definitely found a need for prenatal fitness videos,” Ziel said. “I’ve watched and done a lot of them. I felt there was a great need for prenatal exercise videos to be more challenging and to have more appropriate exercises”

Ziel said she realized that although she could not please everyone, she could at least provide a challenging video to women that were already active before pregnancy. However, the videos also allowed modified movements to those less active.

Ziel’s mother, Carol Ziel, a research associate at Iowa State, admires her daughter’s achievements.

“[Erica] set her sights on what she wanted to do and attained one of her goals already by doing the DVDs,” Carol said. “She’s already had people asking her to produce another set of DVDs for non-pregnant women.”

Ziel’s inspiration for wanting to motivate others is knowing how great the results were for her during each pregnancy and seeing the results in others.

“Having those deep core muscles can make for a faster easier labor,” Ziel said. “A lot of the women I work with are amazed at how much improvement they see but it’s also important to workout smart,” she adds.

Carol touted Iowa State’s education to be a big factor in Erica’s success.

“She seems to really have the ability to take the education she obtained here at Iowa State, mesh it with the workshops she attends and puts it all together with her own spin on it.

“She enjoys what she does,” Carol said. “When she was here at Iowa State, she started a fitness program at the hospital, and she enjoyed seeing the improvement.

“I think that’s where my daughter gets her greatest thrill, is seeing her clients improve over time.”

As for living in California, Erica admits now that she has a family of her own she does miss being near family, but her mom knows it’s where she needs to be.

“It would be nice to have her here, but she’s in a good place,” Carol said. “My husband and I, we are proud of her and what she’s accomplished. I think really it’s just the beginning for her.”

“I’m a farm girl at heart and I always will be,” Ziel said. “I feel that growing up in Iowa and having amazing parents, taught me not only to be down-to-earth but to have good morals and values, and to know what’s really important in life.”

Ziel’s videos are available on Amazon. For more information about becoming fit during or after pregnancy people can visit her website.