Coaches
The Owner of Empower Fitness, Emlynn Tursick Hewitt was born and raised here in Carpinteria. Emlynn grew up swimming and playing soccer. She excelled at both sports until she was recruited to go to Arizona State University on a swimming scholarship. At ASU, Emlynn swam competitively and earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Movement Science (2008). Soon after graduating, Emlynn moved back to Carpinteria, started Tursick Personal Training while also getting her Master’s degree in School Counseling and Guidance from Azusa Pacific University (2010).
Emlynn has been training clients regularly since 2009. Some of those clients she still trains to this day. In 2012, she started bootcamp classes where a small group of 6-8 people would meet outside in Carpinteria to do Bootcamp-style workouts. In 2016, when her daughter, Sadie, was one year old, Emlynn thought it would be a great idea to move her business to an actual location of it’s own and re named it Empower Fitness.
Emlynn may have been training clients officially since 2009, but in reality she has been doing this her whole life. In her pre-teen years, she would write workouts for her coaches to give to her swim group, she would do “drylands” on her own, and she would always recruit a friend to do it with her!
Fitness is Emlynn’s passion and she loves sharing it with her clients and friends! She hopes that her joy for fitness will somehow, become your joy for fitness; ultimately, helping you to lead a new and healthier lifestyle!
When not training clients or coaching classes, Emlynn enjoys exploring the outdoors with her husband (Jedd), daughter (Sadie), and two sons (Brixton & Bowen); as well as swimming and going mountain biking.
A Carpinteria native, Teresa Till is a fitness professional with over 11 years of experience and has a passion with changing lives through group fitness.
Teresa became a certified Jazzercise instructor in 2008, and as of 2015 also became, along with her sister, owner of Carpinteria Jazzercise. More recently, Teresa began training at Empower Fitness where her love for the program grew and advanced into becoming a coach. She loves the energy and atmosphere of leading group fitness classes. Her goal is to make a positive difference in every one of her students’ lives no matter where they are in their fitness journey. She looks at each student individually to help them meet their personal goals and push out of their comfort zones, all while having fun!
When not coaching or teaching Jazzercise, she enjoys time with her husband, Kevin and their three children, Kai, Lily, and Nova, exercising or relaxing at the beach.
Teresa also has her BA in Psychology and is a Kindergarten teacher.
Alyssa Wigle, born and raised in Carpinteria, Ca. Growing up, she was a dancer and a cheerleader and did both competitively. In 2012, she discovered her passion for fitness after obtaining her own personal trainer at a local gym. She really saw the value in having a professional teach her how to lift weights with proper form.
Like all moms tend to do, she took a pause on fitness when she had her daughter in 2015. After about two years, she knew that she wanted to get back into working out and find a fun community to inspire her. It was at this point that she found Empower Fitness. She started working out at Empower Fitness, achieved her personal training certification through NASM, and then started coaching and personal training.
Alyssa enjoys personally training her clients; specifically she loves helping clients to make individual goals and devises a plan to achieve them.
When not coaching and training you can find her spending time with her husband, James, and daughter, Makenzy.
Ryan McHugh grew up in Salt Lake City and Huntington Beach. For the past four years, he has been living in Santa Barbara working as a Regional Sales Manager for Kona Brewing Company.
Ryan was a division I track and field athlete for Long Beach State. Since College, Ryan has been doing workouts similar to Empower Fitness. He says he enjoys Empower Fitness because not only is it a great workout but the atmosphere is similar to being back on a team where everyone has a friendly comraderie and works hard together to achieve a common goal.
Leading an active lifestyle is important to Ryan, so when he isn’t in the gym coaching or working out you can find him doing other fun activities such as running, hiking, surfing, golfing, and yoga.
Johnny was born and raised in Santa Barbara. In 2011, he moved down to Carpinteria and started working in Sales for LinkedIn.
Johnny started doing functional fitness classes similar to Empower Fitness in 2012 and he hasn’t looked back since. For Johnny, coaching is in his blood and he loves to make the classes fun while also helping every member in their fitness journey.
When Johnny is not at the gym or out playing a sport, you can find him spending time at home or out on a stroll with his wife and son.