Going to the gym can be scary, especially if you’ve never done any formal training, haven’t been in a while or are going alone. This is a sentiment I’ve been hearing echoed a lot lately from the women in my life, and I personally have been slowly working on getting over the fear of looking silly at the gym myself. With these things in mind, I reached out to a friend of mine, Madelyn Steurer, who I’ve gone to for advice about curating a sustainable fitness routine for myself; especially since I just finished my final club soccer season and was starting to really miss the accountability of playing a team sport. Maddy told me that many women ask her about her gym routine, organized lifestyle and overall killer confidence and productivity. Based on these inquiries and her personal ambitions, she decided to start creating a platform she could use to connect with people and help them cultivate a personal routine that fosters confidence, productivity and overall well-being. I sat down with her to ask her about this passion product of hers. She’s a senior, and she lives down the hall from me in Welsh Fam. I’ve paraphrased her answers here for length and continuity.
Tell me about yourself. What are you studying? What are your hobbies?
I’m studying Marketing and Romance Languages — not the “language of love,” which I actually get asked a lot — I study French and Italian. I love to travel, I’m constantly doing that. I’ve been an actress my whole life, I did professional theater when I was in school. I still perform to this day, mostly in a pageant setting. I compete in the Miss America organization. I took this year off to focus on career studies. I would call myself an Influencer, that’s what people say. I’m signed to a modeling and talent agency based in the Midwest, and that’s kind of something I hope to continue after graduation.
What are you doing after school?
Right after graduation, I’m interning at the National Gallery in Ireland. It’s an educational and curatorial internship for three months. I also just got finished talking to my professor for my French Film Studies course and he wants to arrange an internship with his film production company in Paris after that, so that’s where I’ll be.
Tell me about your background, journey to fitness, where your training knowledge came from, etc.?
I’ve been dancing since I was three years old. I also became a cheerleader in high school. I came to Notre Dame and thought cheerleading would be fun, but I didn’t know how to tumble and I didn’t really feel I had the skills that are required, but I tried out anyway. And I made it! I don’t know how. I cheered here for a little bit, and I think that’s where I found my love of lifting. That’s the first time I had a legit lifting schedule. I started to become more religious about my schedule after I quit cheering, which I did for my own reasons, and it actually gave me a lot more time to invest in my own lifting regimen.
I just love strong women in mind and body—I’ve never wanted to be stick thin or anything, I just think strength is awesome. I’ve appreciated going into the gym because I think it’s more of a mental hump than a physical hump to get over. That’s the thing I enjoy the most about being in the gym.
Tell me about your idea: What is it? What inspired it?
It’s going to be called Train for Truth, and it’s more like holistic coaching. Physically, spiritually and mentally, because a lot of young and even older women ask me how I maintain my lifestyle and how I do so many things, and do them at the capacity that I do. Or they’ll ask me about my gym regimen and confidence and I decided that I’ve been getting so many questions about things and so many people asking me to physically take them to the gym and train them that I thought why don’t I just have one hub for all these things. I think they’re really important things for women to learn, and it’s not necessarily something you can really have a one stop shop for.
So I’m creating this training program, and I think it’s going to start pretty casual. It’s not going to be a paid program, it’s just out of kindness and so I can send it to people who have shown interest. But I would also like it to grow especially because social media is something that I do and I see it becoming like a platform on a larger scale. I actually [had] somebody reach out to me who wants to handle my social media content strategy for it, so that’s pretty cool. She’s doing it freelance in exchange for honest feedback about her services and posting about it and stuff.
Originally I know we talked about a spiritual component, how do you see that fitting in?
Originally I wanted to blend spirituality and physical training a lot more than I think my vision is now. I’m afraid some people will be turned off if it’s based around biblical teaching. But if someone expresses interest in a small bible study once a week or something where we go over some Word and take that into our physical training I will be all for that. I definitely want something that’s tailored toward each person. Once it’s up, you’ll be able to go in and book your session. It’s split up in three distinct programs right now: physical, spiritual and mental. I would like to have times that might overlap so you can work on more than one, but I’m still working that out.
Is it something you envision doing wherever you are or would you continue virtually?
I’d like it to be an “I’ll meet you where you are.” But, overall I see it becoming a life coaching thing, and I follow a lot of younger life coaches who do it virtually. I also have a YouTube channel where I’d like to take this as well.
Advice for someone trying to start a gym program?
My advice to anyone who hasn’t started a gym program but would like to is to put aesthetics aside and focus on who you want to be as a human being and thinking about the gym as a place for cultivating mental clarity rather than a certain physical aesthetic. The more you focus on what your body looks like, the less motivated you’ll be when you’re not hitting your PR.
Parting message for our HCND readers?
What bothers me that I see a lot on our campus is women not stepping into their full potential. Either they compare themselves to the people around them or are in a classroom made up of predominantly males and they’re too afraid to speak. I think this program will be really great so women can blossom. This is by no means me saying that I’m going to force who I am upon you but making it about you and taking your truth and making you the best you can be. Just helping you with the skills I’ve learned and through confidence.
Maddy also shared with me that nutrition will be part of her program. She also said that eventually this is something she would like to monetize, but if it goes that direction she wants to focus on making it affordable and more accessible than most programs out there. You can email her about this program at trainfortruth@gmail.com and put “Coaching Inquiry” in the subject line.
She’s been a joy to talk to about fitness and life and I hope her passion for this subject has helped you gain a little extra motivation to maintain your own healthy routines.
