off the clock
Outside the studio
Soccer, travel, brunch, Bravo, Karol G, and the real stuff — the things I'll absolutely talk about in class.
Get to know meBorn and raised in Norwalk, Connecticut by way of Colombian parents — Spanish was my first language — I moved to Boston for school in 2010 and never left. I’m Carolina Quinn (born Carolina Cadavid), better known as Caroleena on Instagram, @carolinalikegasolina. My first name is pronounced "car-oh-leeh-nah" — but my friends call me Caro or Lina for short.
By day, I've spent 10+ years in corporate America, first in merchandising and now in marketing, at places like Wayfair, Reebok, and Drizly. By night (and very early morning), I'm on the mic.
I loved group fitness for years before I ever taught it. I used to daydream about being an instructor and talk myself out of it — I was sure I'd be judged for not having "the right body type." Then my mom passed away, the world shut down, and somewhere in all of that I finally asked: why not me? I started with barre, and a little over a year later — after three auditions, because none of this is as effortless as instructors make it look — I landed my dream job teaching strength in 2023. I've been collecting the craft ever since: my 50-hour Yoga Sculpt training, my 200-hour YTT, and most recently my NASM-CPT, adding personal training to the mix.
Here's what I believe about bodies: movement is for all of them, and the shape of someone's body doesn't determine its ability — there's always more than meets the eye. I've dealt with diet, weight loss, and body image my whole life. I'm on a GLP-1 now, and I coach other people on them to hold onto their strength while they lose. I want every body in my room to feel seen and valued, because movement is a gift, not a punishment.
And what I believe about the craft: a great hour of training is engineered, not improvised. Whether it's a room of two hundred mats or one client and a rack of dumbbells, the programming comes first — the loads, the sequence, the music, the cue that lands at the exact second your muscles need it. None of it is an accident, and all of it has one job: making the hardest hour of your day the one you can't wait to come back to. That's the spark.
