Dina Castillo

Listed In: Personal Instructor Personal Trainer

• Dina Castillo
  Chicago IL
  Tel: (708) 288-9182

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Dina Castillo is the co-owner of UNICUS Fitness a fitness service company based out of Chicago. She co-owns the company with her husband Frank Nunez and remains highly active in the fitness industry. Dina’s involvement in the industry has proven that she is a great candidate for the Top Trainer Award. Dina attended the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL) where she earned a double major in Fitness and Sports Management and a double minor in Business Administration and Strength & Conditioning. While at UWL, Dina was a four-year collegiate athlete on the women’s soccer team earning the leadership role as captain her senior year. Dina also worked on campus in the university recreation center and weight rooms for students and athletes. After college, Dina completed her certification exam and continues to earn continuing education credits for her title as a Certified Strength & Conditioning Coach from the National Strength & Conditioning Association (CSCS-NSCA). The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) is an international nonprofit educational association founded in 1978. Dina is 1 of nearly 30,000 members in 52 countries to hold this certification. Unlike any other organization, the NSCA brings together a diverse group of professionals from the sport science, athletic, allied health, and fitness industries. These individuals are all in pursuit of achieving a common goal—the utilization of proper strength training and conditioning to improve athletic performance and fitness. Dina applies her certification, background and expertise in a variety of fitness and sports endeavors. Dina did not leave her soccer background far behind after college, she continued to develop herself as a coach and currently holds both the US Soccer Federation D Coaching License and the Illinois Youth Soccer Association "E" Certificate. You can find Dina year round coaching for numerous travel soccer clubs throughout Illinois and passing along her soccer and strength and conditioning knowledge. Dina also works with many clubs and organizations in coordinating speed, agility and strength clinics and camps throughout the season to educate parents and players on the correct development of youth and training. In addition to training local soccer athletes, Dina traveled oversees as a People to People Sports Ambassador Coach/Leader during the summer of 2007. Dina traveled with 11 kids from Illinois to the Netherlands for a 10-day cultural learning experience and a chance to play soccer against teams for all over the world! Dina coached a U15 Girls team and served as a leader, friend and role model for the girls. In addition to coaching year round, Dina owns UNICUS Fitness with her husband Frank Nunez. UNICUS Fitness is a fitness service business based out of Chicago that started in July of 2003 with dreams and hopes of helping people achieve their fitness goals. After working in the health club environment and seeing memberships be sold and people not even utilizing their membership or failing to see results, Dina and Frank took away the membership concept and focused on delivering results! Since July of 2003, UNICUS has grown into 5 distinct divisions of services from: Corporate Wellness to Personal Training to Specialty Fitness to Personnel Wellness to Facility Management. Dina has developed the Facility Management division by attracting clients such as Parkway Properties, Grubb & Ellis and the Federal Aviation Administration to allow UNICUS to manage their onsite corporate fitness centers and enhance employee participation in wellness. Outside of facility management, Dina works side by side with Weiss Insurance Agency to coordinate employee health fairs and onsite fitness programs in the workplace. In addition, Dina has created the Wedding Boot Camp program, which has been designed to get brides and grooms in shape before their big day! With over thousands of brides/grooms participating in the program, it has shown to be a huge success with the average of 1 dress/pants size lost per month! The Wedding Boot Camp DVD Training Set has been created and should be in stores sometime in 2008! Dina also helps her husband and co-owner with the development of the HEAT program; a nationally recognized training system devoted to Fire & Police personnel. UNICUS has worked with over a dozen municipalities in improving the departments’ wellness and individual’s lives. Even with all the work of owning a business, Dina works daily on working with individuals and groups to help them realize that fitness is a day to day commitment and a lifestyle. In addition to working in the fitness business, Dina stays active with her own personal challenges and variety. Check out some of her latest adventures: Since I absolutely despise the cold, I put myself in a 105 degree room for 31 days straight! An avid practicer of Bikram yoga, I decided to take it to the next level and take on the 31 day challenge. 90 minutes, 26 postures, 2 breathing exercises and the HEAT, I did it and will do it again. UNICUS Fitness partnered up with Body Solid to put together training exercises on their newest piece of equipment for their website. Need some new exercise ideas, check out….http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=bodysoliddotcom 70.3! 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run: Half Ironman Triathlon First triathlon ever! I figured, why not go for the distance. I needed something that would challenge me and make me stick to my training. Plus I joined on with Team in Training to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma. Rim to Rim to Rim Well, going to one rim of the canyon to the other and back, 45 miles…. IN ONE DAY (rim to rim in 1 day, is our challenge). Turns out the one rim was on fire, so we could only go 36 miles. We hiked 36 miles from 4:30am to about 9:00pm. 17 hours, 36 miles Chicago Marathon Finisher 2002 & 2003 To find out more about me, my latest adventures, check out www.unicusfitness.com

• Certifications: C.S.C.S-NSCA
• Education: Universtiy of Wisconsin-LaCrosse
• Gym / Studio Affiliation: UNICUS Fitness
• Areas Served: Chicago & Suburbs

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By: z151248

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Dina is like the 'Dan Gable' of personal training

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By: noelc

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Dina's great ability is to motivate you, as a fitness trainee, to push yourself further and higher than you would by yourself. Her open, non-condescending, approach to fitness training should be a model to all trainers worldwide.

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Dina is one of the co-owners of UNICUS Fitness, along with her husband. She is known as the "Smiling Assassin" because she is so cheery as she is killing you into shape! She is so sweet and smart and a great role model because she keeps herself in such fantastic shape. She is the inventor of Wedding Boot Camp and also does sports conditioning programs for soccer club teams in Chicago. Her company, UNICUS Fitness, also has the largest private training facility in all of Chicago and right on Michigan Ave, called The Fitness Lair.

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