There’s a real rhythm to Stephanie Grace’s life. Actually, there are real rhythms.
The one she’s best known for is her music.
The one she’s becoming increasingly known for is her physical training work.
Both provide rhythms for herself and others for contentment, inspiration and good health. One might deduce that Stephanie is both a trained musician as well as a seasoned athlete.
A GIRL AND HER SONGS
This vibrant young millennial has had a drive since childhood, inspired by parents who exposed her to the country music that has become her trademark genre early on. At the still-tender age of 28, she can look back on opening for such stars as fellow Berks Countian Taylor Swift and The Charlie Daniels Band. Notably, she has performed in Nashville, released several CDs and has written more than 70 songs.
This Douglassville talent started singing in public at age 7. By the age of 18, in 2015, Stephanie was the opening act at the annual Lyons Fiddle Festival.
She and her band are featured at some 50 gigs each year, primarily in this region of the state and at nearby venues in bordering New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
Photos By John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
“Generally, we perform within a two-anda-half to three-hour drive,” she says, “but in the past year, I started working with an agent, and we’re building and expanding.”
While music is her forever first love (along with her husband, Ryan Foltz, a Douglass Township police officer), Stephanie has a second passion: physical fitness.
Though never an athlete during her years at Boyertown Area High School, she did begin trips to her local gym, Snap Fitness Douglassville, at the age of 19.
“After graduation, I knew I wanted to do music full time,” she says, “and I simultaneously fell in love with fitness.”
Photos By John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
LOCAL AND LOVING IT
She found her local gym, small and family oriented, to be just perfect.
“The last few years of high school I was not feeling great on stage,” Stephanie says. “As a teen, I didn’t like my body, and truthfully, I was a couch potato. I knew I should be in good – at least better – shape for my heart and lungs for performing and endurance.”
She started researching options, which brought her to Snap, just five minutes from her parents’ home.
Her go-to person became her trainer, Adam Schanely.
“Through working with him, I genuinely became confident with exercising,” she says. “Through 2016 and 2017, in those two years, I saw the way exercise and training impacted my body image and my overall health.” Better eating habits became part of her new routine.
“I began researching recipes,” she says.
Her involvement at Snap evolved into a job working the front desk for two years. Clients knew her from her dedicated workouts. With Schanely being the only trainer at the gym, Stephanie found herself fielding questions, primarily from female clients.
“I was certainly hesitant to give any advice because I wasn’t certified,” she says, “but I saw a pattern that women were more comfortable working with fellow females.”
Many questions focused on women’s strength training.
Photos By John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
A MATTER OF STRENGTH
“That’s what was always most important to me – not to be skinny, but to be strong,” she says, “and not bridging that gap [being unable to provide certified advice], well, it all kept haunting me.”
So, after discussions with Ryan and her parents, Tom and Roseann Grace, Stephanie decided to work towards earning her trainer’s certification.
“Everyone said: ‘Go do it,’” she recalls. In May 2019, Stephanie obtained her personal trainer certification through the International Sports Sciences Association.
Still, she had one very real concern despite her intentions.
“I was afraid folks would think I gave up singing, and that would have devastated me,” she says. “I couldn’t see how people would really think I’d throw that away.”
While her worries may have been real at the time, the reality post-certification was a different thing. Being a personal trainer enabled her to set her own hours, which served as a complement to her musical engagements.
While at Snap, she began developing a client base with a free “meet the trainer” session where she could work with potential clients on setting goals. Despite the challenges, her small client base there expanded.
Photos By John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
CHANGING COURSE
But in the spring of 2020, the pandemic struck, and that initiated a rethinking of her own ability to continue working out and carving an independent career path. Opportunity knocked at the couple’s Douglassville area townhouse.
Stephanie and Ryan transformed their Covid-era “little house gym,” as she fondly called it, into a modest but state-of-the-art basementlevel workout facility able to accommodate one or two clients at a time.
There’s no treadmill, but the compact gym is replete with the requisite exercise equipment designed for strength training, Stephanie’s specialty, as well as resistance training and cardio conditioning. Her first acquisition was a power rack with barbells and plates. She bought an additional 1,000 pounds of barbells second hand through a client. There’s also the standard pulley-based resistance machine and weighted gym balls.
To promote her business, Stephanie does her own marketing and created the website: stephgracefitness.com. By word of mouth in the Douglassville area, several of her female acquaintances from Snap sought her out.
Her home client base consists of many local young moms (and dads) able to squeeze in workout time around work and child care responsibilities. (A saving grace here – Stephanie does permit the occasional older child to come along as a small corner off the gym is reserved for children to watch their iPads or do little workouts.)
The first consultation with a prospective client is done by phone.
“I find out what their goals are, what they are hoping to accomplish and whatever limitations they may have,” she says. “Then, we schedule the first session. There’s no pressure; I don’t do the contracts many trainers do. I don’t want to make folks feel the pressure of monthly subscriptions.”
Photos By John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
OLDIES AND GOODIES AT FITNESS
In addition to the moms she trains, Stephanie also has a more senior clientele looking to stay healthy and active.
“Several are 50-plus,” she says, “and my oldest client right now is 70. They see the value in being strong and how important that is as they age. They motivate me, really, and at the end of the day, their intent is to maintain independence as they age.”
Indeed, Stephanie says that at age 28 it’s easy to take basic movements for granted, from reaching higher shelves to sitting on a toilet — efforts that can be dicey for the elderly. She sees her clients bucking those fears through strength and resistance training, retaining as much muscle mass as possible.
“It’s great to see how youthful, really, my clients are,” she says. “I’m happy to be their cheerleader. As they say, move it or lose it.”
She notes that consultation and assessment are important to establish clients’ base abilities as well as their goals.
“Sometimes people will convince themselves that they can’t work with a trainer until they’re ‘in better shape’ — but this defeats the whole purpose!” she asserts.
“My big thing is you have to figure out what your starting point is,” she says. “It’s important not to overshoot.”
Stephanie notes an early-on example of assessing one 35-year-old female client.
“I had her do squats, lunges, step-ups, all in one session,” she says. But the next day the client reported knee pain.
“TRUST THE PROCESS”
“That was a lesson learned. It’s not a person’s age, but it’s understanding their training history. A trainer needs to ask such things as when did you last do squats, how heavy are the weights you’ve lifted and how long ago did you do these things.”
Again, age is not the determinant. Stephanie recalls an 80-yearold client able to do subtle squats by bending her knees with a bit of support. She went on to moderate exercises.
“What’s neat about exercise is the body adapts,” she says. “It’s good to do more, deeper exercise but to ease into it.”
Photos By John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROCESS
“It’s the process. Trust the process.”
Trusting the process is important for young folks just being introduced to fitness training.
Stephanie notes that while small children may like to emulate their parents and other adults in their world, they are not yet true candidates for training.
“I don’t want your kid to resent fitness,” she says.
While research varies, the optimal age to begin training is at ages 13 or 14, something that especially benefits bone density and strength in growing adolescents, she shares.
Stephanie’s gym décor is sparse, as one might expect, but there are a few motivating quotes on the walls, and at the holidays, bits of seasonal accents appear. Music, so important in her primary vocation, is also woven into the workout experience.
“I rely on Spotify, especially lots of 1970s and 1980s music,” she says. “The Bluetooth speaker was one of the first things I bought for the gym.”
She trains both on individual and partner bases — pairs of friends, spouses or partners, sometimes a mom and adult daughter. She’ll also write programs clients can use in their homes and can provide group instruction offsite.
Stephanie encourages her clients to exercise on a regular schedule. The importance of balance is critical on two levels: healthy does not entail restricting foods or beating yourself up if you miss a workout, she says.
“I recognize and try to make sure clients feel motivated on the days they aren’t here,” she says.
She also tries to be cognizant of what might be happening to a client on a given day — maybe a sick preschooler or a bad day at work.
“I adapt to what the client is feeling that day because it’s going to be different every day the client comes in,” she says. “I recommend training as often as you can. It can help work out the pain of the day, and training provides a tool belt for that.”
Her satisfaction in her training work comes through her clients’ accomplishments.
She sees them start with the handfuls of basic exercises — squats, hip lunges, pressing, lifting and resistance — and observes them graduating to more advanced versions of the same.
“It’s magical what happens to your body and your outlook when you’re consistent,” she says. “I feel really proud.”
