Kyla Lowell wasn’t planning on opening a martial arts studio in the middle of a pandemic.

Then again, opening a martial arts studio was itself not exactly on her life plan just a decade ago when she took her first class. The first degree black belt and former electrician began learning Shao-Lin Kempo — a combination of karate, kung-fu and jiu-jitsu — when her then-9-year-old son was being bullied at school.

Lowell’s husband, Wayne, and son, Wyatt, began classes at the Thurston Shao-Lin Kempo studio, with instructors Mike and Maria Zimmerman. Lowell, who was teaching electrical apprenticeship at the time, thought it looked like fun but didn’t think she had the time.

She tried it anyway, and found that it helped her manage her stress.

“It’s a good way to get stress built up in your body out, without needing to touch anybody,” said Lowell, who recently offered some stress classes for fire evacuees.

It was a traumatic and transformative event that led Lowell to become an instructor.

She and her husband survived the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in 2017. Her martial arts training provided her a calmness to be able to survive, she said.

“It’s really what brought me here,” she said. “I didn’t want to spend another day of my life pulling wire. I just want to be here, helping people, doing this — teaching our youngsters, and our oldsters — there’s other ways. Like anti-bullying and all this stuff that led my son to want to be here. He was basically failing in school, to achieving, having something you’re passionate about.”

The martial art does not have to be time intensive and many students come twice a week for 45-minute classes, Lowell said, though at one point she was training five hours a day.

The Zimmermans have been instrumental in her opening the High Desert Shao-Lin Kempo studio on the north end of Redmond (located at 2757 NW Seventh St., Suite F), as well as “Master Pearl,” Robert Pearlswig, eighth degree black belt and headmaster of the American Schools of Shao-Lin Kempo.

“They provided me with this roadmap to create this fun, safe place to learn,” said Lowell.

Lowell opened the studio in the beginning of June, but because of COVID-19 guidelines for travel, it was Aug. 20 before she was able to hold a grand opening celebration attended by the instructors of the other nine American Schools of Shao-Lin Kempo.

Lowell and her husband relocated here from Springfield early in the year both because they wanted to live here and because with only three other martial arts studios, it seemed like a reasonable place to start a new one.

The shutdown because of the pandemic delayed her plans until June, she said.

At the same time that High Desert Shao-Lin Kempo was opening, other martial arts studios in the area were closing — and parents were looking for an outlet for their children’s energy, said Lowell.

“Redmond needed this type of art that is so fluid … that you can do it without touching each other,” she said.

As with every discipline, whether ballet or martial arts, it’s a way to get energy out and provide positive reinforcement, she said — and just as in her own case, it’s often contagious within a family.

In the time between starting classes and the grand opening, 125 students had signed up for classes.

“Martial arts becomes a way of life, usually when one kid comes in, (their siblings) will watch and say I want to do that too.”

Lowell offers both individual and group lessons, for ages 4 to adult. Following health guidelines and providing quality instruction are both very important to Lowell, so she has limited numbers in the classes, checks students’ temperatures on entry, requires masks and maintains a six-foot distance in classes. For the time being, the training is non-contact and mannequins — nicknamed Bob, Billy and Joe — stand in for the aggressor in training.

“We want to be able to give them the training they need and a safe place,” she said.

The studio has a waitlist.

At the first rank, white belt, students learn certain strikes, kicks, jumps and stances which are foundational for the art and also help with skills such as riding a bike or playing soccer, said Lowell.

New students begin at white belt level, including those who had been studying another type of martial art, she said.

Shao-Lin Kempo is “an ancient solution to modern problems,” said Lowell, with a focus on “effort, etiquette, sincerity, self-control and character.”

“It’s a good way to get stress built up in your body out, without needing to touch anybody.”

Kyla Lowell, High Desert Shao-Lin Kempo studio