Our Team
Our Team
Making up the foundation of Exercise Institute, and ensuring its success in the industry, are our expert coaches, trainers and team members. Each person brings with them their passion for exercise, their accomplishments and accreditations in the field, and their own goals as athletes.
Brad Hall
Coach and Trainer
Brad is the managing director of the Exercise Institute and has a long-standing history in elite sport environments. Brad was an elite cyclist who won several professional cycling races and cycling events in Australia, Asia, and Europe.
Since retiring Brad has completed degrees in Sports Science, Psychology and gone on to complete a honours level thesis in Sports Psychology in High Performance Coaching Environments.
Combined with over 15 years coaching and training experience, Brad has managed to work with professional athletes across triathlon and cycling, and achieved national titles and victories in
Paul Merkes
PhD sport science, Master’s degree sport science Bachelor’s degree physical education
Paul is originally from the Netherlands and like every child over there he got pushed on a bike as soon as he could walk. And like every kid from the Netherlands, as soon as he was able to run he turned to football (the European football). After many injuries he turned to mountainbiking, even though there are no real mountains in the Netherlands.
From that moment on his interest in cycling took an exponential curve upwards, it is therefore that both his master’s degree and his PhD project focused on road cycling. Paul moved to Australia in 2016 to do his PhD on improving sprint performance in road
Lindo Nkwana
Strength & Conditioning Trainer
Born and raised in South Africa, a country where the love of sport runs deep, Lindo’s journey into high-performance coaching began as a competitive 400m athlete. His curiosity about the body’s incredible ability to adapt and transform soon led him to Sprint Triathlons and Duathlons, igniting a lifelong passion for biomechanics, adaptation, and peak performance.
With over a decade of experience as a running specialist coach, Lindo has guided junior triathletes and provincial track athletes to unlock their potential and achieve extraordinary progress. Much of his expertise is rooted in
Sabine Bird
Coach and Trainer
Serene Lee
Coach and Trainer
Serene was a doctoral researcher in the phasal considerations of female cyclists. Her interest lies in the hormone-related implications for training and competitive performance. She has since published papers on fatigue resistance, carbohydrate supplementation and menstrual manipulation in female cyclists.
Having “retired” from competitive racing post-PhD, Serene would love to utilise her academic, work and sporting experiences to give back to the greater exercising community that have her given her
