Katalin Rodriguez Ogren
I’m a native Chicagoan who grew up on Chicago and Wells in my father’s photo/art studio. My brothers and I were raised in a creative environment provided by my artistic father and brilliant mother, a Cuban exile. Today, I feel lucky that I work close to where I grew up, in Chicago’s West Loop. As the Owner of POW! Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness, a WBE company, I strive to make the martial arts accessible to everyone, while simultaneously meeting their fitness goals. Since 2001, POW! has become the home of a wide variety of fitness, combat sports and martial arts classes, as well as, Chicago Krav Maga, POW! Kids and POW! Health and Wellness. For over a decade, I have offered 45+ classes a week that offer cross-training and intense interval training with a my martial twist. My customers want to be fit to fight back.
The first priority of my staff is to teach anyone, at any age. POW!’s instructors have mastered the art of “second nature” training, organically teaching members in striking, kicking, MMA and self-defense skills. You will find that some staff is highly pedigreed and actually pioneers in creating Chicago’s combat sports /MMA market over the past 20 years. But even the newer staff sets the bar high by teaching technique and motivating their students to learn more. POW!’s staff has a great sense of humor making the science of boxing, striking and ground fighting the most fun part of your day. As the Owner, I enjoy participating in each of the instructor’s classes because they all blend an authentic and progressive athletic training experience. Everyone invests in making the martial arts your second nature.
POW! is the culmination of Katalin’s training since the age of 9. With 32 years in the martial arts and now 18 in the fitness industry, she has developed a pedigree that represents accomplishments in the martial arts and fitness industry that has not been replicated. Katalin is a certified trainer, but has also developed areas of expertise in post-rehab training, special populations and kid’s fitness. Her style of training is thorough, disciplined, focused and kind.
Some of her key career highlights include earning 4 blacks in various martial arts, authoring two books, starring in 17 dvds, completing a 100 city speaking tour across America, authoring 4 industry educational manuals, publishing over 200 articles in national magazines and playing the role of three characters in one of the largest selling video games in history (Mortal Kombat).
Katalin’s book’s Weight Training for Martial Artists (Price Publishing) which is available in the POW! pro-shop, some Barnes and Nobles or on Amazon.com . Katalin’s is also a regular presenter for Revgear University.
I started writing in 1998. At the time, I was building a reputation for combining martial arts and cross training. I knew I was one of the few preaching an athletic approach to martial arts and boxing training, so I pitched an article to Inside Kung Fu. Once my first feature was published, I was hooked on writing. My first National article lead to several features and a monthly column. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to wrote for every major martial arts magazine, but I also loved boxing. I then got a job covering boxing in Chicago and Las Vegas for a bi-lingual boxing magazine called Chicago Boxing. This was fantastic! I was present during the days of Oscar de la Hoya, Hector Camacho, Andrew Golota, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. As challenging as it was to assimilate into the ‘scene’ as a female writer, I would not change it for anything. During this time I was still writing educational material and lecturing in the fitness and martial arts industry.
After I opened POW! I then moved onto covering the sport of MMA. Ultimate Grappling Magazine offered a great opportunity for me to dive into the MMA scene. I covered the fights as a independent features writer for almost 4 years. Since the UFC only had fights about once a month, it worked well with my operational and teaching educational responsibilities at POW.
Since having a family (3 kids) I have moved on from covering fights. Despite how busy the sport of MMA has become, my focus is on POW!’s fitness and training programming. Our classes always offer relevant and progressive fitness, instruction and training options. My most recent projects include completing a business program (Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business) and writing a book (Ultimate Guide to Strength Training for Martial Arts).
