Gym moving to Medical Mile wants to ‘represent yourself to yourself’

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) A local personal gym has relocated near Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile.

REVfit operated in the Grand Rapids area for about 15 years. It made the move to 740 Michigan St. near Eastern Avenue to help “vaccinate the Medical Mile,” owner and personal trainer Autrey Stirgus said.

Stirgus said as a personal trainer, he works to help people serve themselves.

“For a lot of people that I work with, they’ve served their families, they’ve served their communities and then they resent that they didn’t serve themselves,” he said. “So what we do is we come alongside them and just go, ‘Hey, let’s get you back, get you back to yourself’.”

He said this is true for many who work in the medical field, they make up a large part of his clientele.

“From the time they enter medical school, to residency, to fellowship, when they begin to enter their practice in their mid-30s, if not later and all that time they have been told to serve everyone else and not themselves himself,” he said. “So what we do is just say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. We know you’ve worked hard to get where you are. We just want to come with you and reintroduce you to serve you first before you can serve everyone else.’”

When the 2,500-square-foot location opened near the Medical Mile, Stirgus jumped at the chance.

It’s exciting to welcome another player into the fitness arena, especially one located so conveniently close to downtown. REVfit will be a valuable addition to our thriving fitness community here in Grand Rapids, Advantage Real Estates Mark Ansara, who represented Stirgus in the move, said in a release.

Stirgus, originally from Seattle, has been going to the gym his whole life. After college, he began working in the television industry and moved to Grand Rapids when he got a job as a sports anchor at Fox 17.

He later changed careers and a 70-year-old at his gym encouraged him to pursue something he loved to do.

“I said, ‘Jack, if you could do it all over again, what would you do?'” Stirgus recalled. “And he says, ‘Autrey, I would do something that I loved.’ And at that moment, I decided, why don’t I do personal training? Rest is history.”

Stirgus said his love for personal training is what drives him, and being able to train people is a “blessing.”

“What sets us apart? We love what we do,” he said. “I love to serve people. I love coming up with someone and saying, ‘Hey, you’re amazing, but we have to get to work.’ Once the transformation happens, that’s the fun part for me, when people actually start seeing the results.”

He and his wife worked 12- to 17-hour days to get the new place ready. It is officially set to open on October 1st, although some customers have already stopped by for training.

REVfit is by appointment only. New customers start with comfort, Stirgus said. He said if someone is interested in getting a personal trainer, they should ask a lot of questions and make sure it’s a good fit.

“If you go to personal training, it’s a relationship,” he explained. “So you have to feel them out and the personal trainer can feel you out. Not all relationships will please you, but do you respect them? That is the most important thing. And will they be able to help you and help you get to where you are?”

He said Grand Rapids is a good market for the fitness industry because it tends to be health conscious.

“For us to come here, the enormity of it, to be down on the Medical Mile, to be a minority on the Medical Mile, it’s a huge responsibility and I’m so ready for it,” he said.