Sometimes it can be scary to ask for help. The fear of rejection can be enough of a gut punch for people to even consider reaching out for assistance. While this was a struggle for Steph Maderas, she was able to overcome it once she found out what her passion was.
Growing up in Chicago, Maderas spent a lot of her childhood hanging out with close friends and family. When she turned 17, her family moved to Northwest Indiana and she graduated from Hanover Central High School.
After high school, Maderas noted that she started to gain weight. She touched base with a trainer and was able to lose more than 50 pounds from working out. This helped her decide on devoting her time to help people feel as good as she did following her weight loss.
“I was starting to feel better about myself than I had in a long time,” Maderas said. “I got my personal training certification to help others feel the same way. I started training people before working a few years at a gym.”
One year removed from working at the gym, Maderas wanted to pursue something more expansive. In 2014, she decided to open her own place.
Today, Maderas is the owner of Revolution Fitness in Crown Point. While starting a business from scratch can be stressful, she’s happy that she took a risk to focus on her passion.
“I quit my full time job to open my gym so I was pretty scared,” Maderas said. “Finding people within my network and throughout the community to help me has been so important. Nobody can do everything by themselves.”
Revolution Fitness has a wide range of members to help out Maderas at the gym, including her coaches.
“One of my coaches is over 60 years old,” Maderas said. “It’s inspiring for people to see that someone can still be a trainer at that age. One guy trainer we have is a former member of the military and everybody loves him. Even our newest coach has made a lot of progress already. It’s great because most of our members are 40 or older, so it’s a nice environment for them to work with our coaches.”
The first coach, Mary, is actually the reason Maderas thought about opening her own gym. They had planned to train together for the Warrior Dash and led to the birth of Revolution Fitness.
Maderas also strives to make an impact by giving back to the community. This includes collecting food for families on Thanksgiving, owning an angel tree for children in the community and raising money for breast cancer research by sponsoring Barbells for Boobs.
“It’s really important because not everyone can afford Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas gifts for their kids,” Maderas said. “It’s good for us to help out when we can. I’m all about helping people and want to spread kindness in any way possible.”
Aside from the gym and assisting the community, Maderas spends a lot of time with her family and friends. She enjoys going camping and attending sporting events for her stepchildren.
In the upcoming years, Maderas envisions Revolution Fitness becoming even bigger. Whether that means doubling the size of the gym or creating a second location, she wants to create more opportunities to incentivize people to work with a trainer.
Maderas is all about creating an atmosphere of inclusion. She wants everyone to know that Revolution Fitness is a safe place for people to learn about exercising without the fear of judgment.