Kim Merkel de Fernandez is a certified ACE Group Exercise instructor, NASM personal trainer, and Polestar Pilates Instructor who has been working in the fitness industry since 1989.  She teaches a variety of fitness class formats including Ballet Physique, Body Blast, Boot Camp, Core Conditioning, Extreme Lift, Kickbox, Step, Glide, Pilates, Ski Conditioning, Spinning, YogaFit, and Zumba.

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Kim began her fitness career in the aquatics industry, while coaching both swimming and diving for more than a decade.  She has worked with summer club, year-round, high school and college-level swimmers and divers.  She was a National Ski Patrol member, but suffered a severe knee injury during a skiing accident which ended her skiing career.  The grueling rehabilitation that followed ignited Kim's passion for fitness and inspired her to help other individuals learn how to move efficiently.  She loves to help people train effectively to either prevent future injury or recover their confidence, strength and endurance post-rehab.

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Kim has taught group fitness classes at the University of Denver since her freshman year of college, where she studied Business Management with a specialty in Speech Communication.  She continued teaching group fitness classes and training individual clients at the University of Denver Ritchie Center.  In addition, she has had the privilege of working with several of the DU athletic teams over the years teaching off-season conditioning classes.  

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Kim's passion for fitness is apparent to everyone who meets her.  Because of her exuberant energy and tremendous work ethic, Kim has won awards for creative athletic fitness programming and training.  She also has presented professionally as a fitness expert at several events around the country.

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Kim's primary goal is to encourage everyone to GET UP AND MOVE!!!  Our bodies are meant to function, and the first part of that word, fun, should be the driving force inspiring people to get fit!  Secondarily, Kim wants to encourage people to feel good about their bodies and help them achieve their personal fitness goal; whatever it may be.  For Kim fitness is a way of life, and she believes that if everyone finds enjoyment in it, then it will become their way of life as well.I am passionate about functional fitness and ensuring that people move correctly throughout their daily lives in order to prevent faulty movement patterns, and ultimately, injuries.  So many people view fitness as something to be accomplished via visiting a gym or scheduling time for a killer workout.  However, daily life provides a myriad of opportunities to make our bodies more fit and healthy.