The Team
Read about the team that helps you meet your goals.

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Carla Coelho | Holly Krohn | Laurie Ann Bulman | Leslee Bender | Tonya Dugger | Mike Ludens | Karolina Stepek

Carla Coelho

Carla Coelho is group fitness and Pilates instructor in the windy city. She always participated in sports and was active as a child but it wasn't until after her college career that she truly found her niche and began teaching. After a few successful years in sales, she felt as though she was missing something, that 'something' was helping people reach and realize their fitness goals.

After switching fields, she wholeheartedly jumped into the fitness arena and has never looked back. Carla finds fitness to be empowering and is willing to help clients reach their full potential. Carla believes that life cannot be fully lived without attention to health and wellness and exemplifies this with her students at each class.

Currently, Carla teaches various formats, such as, sports agility training, boot-camp, and weight training throughout health clubs in Chicago, including Equinox, Flirty Girl and I.D. gym. She is AFFA, ACE and Kettle-bell Athletics certified as well as Pilates Mat and Apparatus certified through Power Pilates. Carla enjoys being a fitness extraordinaire, finding new challenges and is overjoyed to be a part of the dynamic KoreFit^® team.

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Holly Krohn

Holly Krohn is currently a LIFE TIME FITNESS Master Instructor Trainer (MIT) in the Ohio and Indiana Region. Prior to moving to Ohio in 2008, she was the Group Fitness Department Head in Woodbury, Minnesota and a Regional MIT in the Saint Paul East Region.

A group fitness instructor with more than 20 years experience, Holly has presented material on Health and Fitness, Nutrition, CPR and First Aid, Customer Service, Management and Communication Skills for the corporate, medical and educational industries.

She is also a National Fitness Presenter/CEC Provider, Motivational Speaker and Master Trainer for The National Exercise Trainers Association. Holly has and continues to appear at numerous fitness conferences across the country at venues such as Life Time Fitness EMPOWER!, IDEA Fusion, DCAC Houston, SCW Manias and IFTA Fitness weekends.

She has earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Exercise Science from Youngstown State University in Ohio.

Holly also holds certifications from ACE and AFAA in Group Fitness and NASM in Personal Training and is a certified CPR/AED and First Aid instructor with the American Heart Association.

In 2010, Holly joined the KoreFit Team as a Pure Balance Instructor.

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Laurie Ann Bulman

Laurie Ann Bulman has more then ten years experience teaching pilates. After receiving a BFA in dance from the University of Colorado at Boulder she moved directly to NYC. There she not only danced and acted professionally but also began her teaching experience at many reputable gyms, physical therapy and wellness centers. She is currently certified with PMI- Physical Mind Institute.

Since moving to South Forida she is now running her own studio as well as the pilates director at The Boca Raton Resort and Club. There she developed one of their very first mind/body programs with south florida base life coach Geoffrey Schmidt. Her motto when teaching - Do the right form when executing movement or don't do it!!!!

She loves KoreFit^® and has confidently started to integrate the product into her clients workout programs. She loves the challege of balancing on one leg when doing the squats especially reaching one leg back!!!!!

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Leslee Bender

Leslee Bender (B.A. ACSM, NASM, AFAA, ACE) is one of the top fitness instructors in the country, with over 25 years experience in the industry. A 2010 finalist for IDEA Instructor of the Year, she is also the creator of the Bender Method of fitness training (2007). She has appeared as a presenter and fitness coach in over 20 countries.

Leslee is also the author of over 30 DVDs on training. Her mission is to maximize the impact of fitness exercises without any risk of injuring the spine. She is currently enrolled in the GIFT program at Gray Institute, which emphasizes continued research and investigation of the functions of human movement. She will also be launching the first national program for fitness professionals dedicated to total back safety in 2011.

Bender Academy of Training

These courses are offered as workshops for fitness professionals:

• Anatomy in Action
  This innovative program teaches fitness practitioners different methods of feeling and seeing how the muscles in the body react to gravity upon contact with the ground. It emphasizes the central idea that the core can generate energy for the entire body through the right set of exercises. Inspired by Gary Gray, this approach is both versatile and dynamic, and will equip trainers with a range of exercises to suit diverse client needs. Clients are understood as individuals with a range of abilities and goals, and this program will focus on ways to analyze different modes of walking, squatting and moving in all three planes of movement.
  

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Tonya Dugger

Tonya Dugger has been a fitness enthusiast for 15 years focusing various formats from cardio step, kickboxing, sports agility training, boot-camp, and weight training

After studying Musical Theatre at University of Arkansas at Little Rock , Tonya moved to Chicago. Although she had her eyes set on Broadway, she found a new passion…teaching Group Fitness.

Now officially a Chicago native, she has worked for various fitness facilities, including, Woman's Workout World, YMCA, Metropolitan Club, Crunch, Fitness Formula, Lakeshore Athletic Clubs, X-Sport and Bulldog Boot-camp. Her permanent home now is Equinox Fitness Clubs, where she is the Group Fitness Manager for Equinox's Gold Coast location. She has co-created formats of Cardio Junkie and Budokon Tabata. She provides fitness advice on behalf of Equinox for publications such as, Time Out Chicago, Competitor Chicago, and CS.

She is AFFA , ACE and Kettle-bell Athletics certified.

Tonya is excited to be a part of the KoreFit^® team.

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Mike Ludens

Mike Ludens is the owner of Beyond Fitness in Southern Wisconsin. He has been in the health and fitness field for over 15 years. He has been training Mixed Martial Arts fighters for the last 8 years until recently when he changed his focus to Personal Training, and Group Cardio/Core Balance Fitness.

While training fighters for Mixed Martial Arts events, Mike realized the great importance of having a very strong and fit core, as well as being able to connect the core to the upper and lower body. Once everything is connected, the overall performance of the body or athlete increases dramatically.

With this knowledge, Mike created Bounce Boot Camps. Bounce Boot Camps is a series of various Boot Camps that focus on various ways to train the core while gaining muscle, as well as increasing your cardio vascular levels.

Bounce uses many different forms of balance apparatuses and medicine balls with many various sets and timing to keep the body guessing and not getting used to the same workout. Mike is also a Law of Attraction teacher and an EFT(Emotional Freedom Technique) Practitioner as well.

Mike's training locations vary, however you can usually find him at Focus Sports Athlete Training Center in Delavan, WI or at the Big Foot High School Fitness Center in Walworth, WI.

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Karolina Stepek

Karolina is a group exercise instructor and a personal trainer. Growing up a chubby child, and was often bullied for her inability to perform certain activities and exercises. This experience only gave her the strength to work on her own weaknesses. She began judo training, and for several years she placed within the top-ten in Poland in her weight category.

After moving to the States in 2000, she continued being active, but there was always this one thing that was missing – she realized that she wanted to help others to overcome what she did. She got certified to teach groups, and focused on resistance training. Later, she also obtained certifications to teach yoga, Pilates, and Piloxing (combination of boxing, Pilates and dance). Karolina is a personal trainer, too, and works with variety of clients: from newbies who want to learn about fitness, to athletes who want to improve their results.

Karolina is also a published writer. Her work appeared in United Kingdom and was aired on NPR. She is currently in her final stages of work to receive a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing degree.

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