MEET OUR TEAM

JODI FAITH GLICK -

Creator of BUDDHA WARRIOR

Jodi’s mission is to empower and train her clients through kickboxing, strength training and yoga. She believes very much in helping others find their inner power and outer strength.

Jodi’s mentor and kickboxing coach Angelo Squizzato describes her best  “Jodi is the epitome of what BUDDHA WARRIOR means. She transmits strength, fierceness and a bit of MADNESS balanced by the softness of her spirituality.

Jodi’s journey in life has provided many lessons which she has boiled down to a simple philosophy:

MIND.BODY.SPIRIT.

We must find balance between the calm and the storm, male and female energies, mental strength and human compassion, inner peace and inner fighter. We must train the mental, physical and spiritual as one. The journey and combination of these lead to the balance one can find for their life. Jodi combined her experiences, teachings, and lessons to create BUDDHA WARRIOR.

Since 2012 Jodi has been embracing the fitness world as a Certified ISSA personal trainer.

Jodi is a certified yoga teacher. She completed her 200 hour private yoga training through ASHTANGASANA YOGA as well as her 200 hour yoga teacher training with Forever Om Yoga.

Jodi is also a former national level NPC bikini competitor and former owner of 9ROUND KICKBOXING.

LEORAH EISENBERG

Leorah grew up a little girl with dancer/performer dreams. As years passed, her “physical activity”  was a journey that led her down a few formidable paths. The movement & physicality that dance gave her, transformed  into running, and eventually, she found her way into the gym. Working with weights and learning the balance/benefits of mixing weight training with cardio activity was life-changing.

Leorah’s passion for fitness became one of building strength from the inside out. In her early 30’s, she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. After months of illness and no activity, Leorah found herself back on a fitness path with an added goal to learn about nutrition and overall health & wellness. Leorah fell in love with boxing and continued to find strength and happiness with weight training. She will forever enjoy and thrive as a student, but decided to set out down the teaching path to share with, and coach others. As a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, and Corrective Exercise Specialist, Leorah has found a passion for guiding others to find balance and safety in their workouts & fitness journeys. She incorporated her love for boxing and received a certification as a boxing instructor. Furthering her scope of coaching and training, she also received a certification in nutrition and wellness as a PNL1 Health Coach. 

Throughout the years Leorah has always mixed yoga & pilates into her own practice, but became genuinely committed once she took her first Inferno Hot Pilates class. She eagerly completed Level 1 & 2 Inferno Hot Pilates Instructor training and Yoga Sculpt Teacher training. Leorah continually strives to incorporate her experience and knowledge as she cues & guides students in challenging, creative & fun sequences in all her classes. When not teaching, Leorah loves spending time with her husband, 3 kids, and golden retriever.

LAURI STERN

Lauri arrived at her first yoga class 20 years ago reluctantly. As an AFAA and ACE certified aerobics instructor and personal trainer, Lauri believed exercise was about training the body alone, and was dubious yoga had a place in her exercise regime. However, she kept coming back because yoga spoke to the long-ignored dancer within her and Lauri enjoyed moving her body in a way she hadn’t in years. For a while, Lauri struggled with quieting her mind, but came to appreciate the magic of yoga: linking breath with movement transforms the body, mind and spirit. Like B.K.S. Iyengar states, “Yoga does not transform the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.”

Lauri gravitates towards teaching creative vinyasa flows that incorporate power, grace, humor, mindfulness and breath with a keen focus on alignment and anatomy so students may safely approach their practice at their own pace and in their own way to bring them a greater sense of connection to themselves and others.

Lauri also teach Warrior Sculpt/Tone classes which have brought her back full circle to her personal training and aerobics life! Lauri’s class is set to upbeat music where students use body weight, hand weights, leg bands and blocks to firm, tone and strengthen large and small muscle groups. As in her yoga classes, Lauri works to ensure her students maintain good alignment to keep joints and muscles working safely. Students leave class feeling toned, happy and perhaps sore in some good spots the next day.

Under the nurturing direction of Lourdes Paredes and Pam Udell, Lauri has completed her 200 hour Yoga Alliance certification and worked with Pam for two years developing her YogaTone 360 concept, from which she teaches her Warrior Sculpt/Tone classes. Lauri gratefully acknowledges the study of yoga is a continuous journey. Each of us is our own teacher, but Lauri feels blessed to have four wonderful children, a husband, friends, fellow yogis, her dog and life as her fellow teachers along with her!

YAMI SCHWARTZ

Yami was born and raised in Cartagena, Colombia and moved to Chicago in 2014. She has been in the area since with her beautiful family. After arriving in Chicago ten years ago, she went to a hot yoga class in the city to start some fitness activity, and she fell in love with the spiritual component of yoga. The first class was challenging, but at the end she felt totally revitalized. Yami also started building a new relationship with herself based on self-acceptance, self-love, and self-respect. Moved by personal curiosity, she completed her 200HR yoga teacher training with Forever Om Yoga in Lake Forest, as well as Level One Journey Into Power with Baptiste Yoga. This learning process sparked a passion within her to start teaching and sharing this beautiful, wisdom-filled, and transformative practice. Yami believes and teaches that Integrating yoga and mindfulness in your life can make a powerful and positive impact on your well-being, as it creates balance between mind, body and soul… on and off the mat. 

ALLIE MERGES

Allie has been dabbling in yoga on and off for close to 20 years as a way to complement her training in various sports and dance, but her passion for it really solidified in adulthood as a way to reduce stress and foster positive mental health.

Allie completed her 200-hour training at Zen Yoga Garage, where she took a deep dive into the movement, history, and philosophy of yoga. Allie loves the energy of entering a flow state in a breath-to-movement Vinyasa class, and is passionate about sharing the joy and healing yoga has brought her with others on their yoga journey. Allie aims to fill her classes with lightness, challenges, and even laughter. She's excited to be on this journey with you!"