Expand<\/a><\/p>\nBaronski faced personal challenges in recent years, but credits the gym\u2019s clients with helping him push through.<\/p>\n
\u201cI signed my lease March 1, 2021, and March 2 I found out my father had terminal cancer,\u201d he said. \u201cThe community rallied around me. I found my home in the gym, and I found a lot of comfort as I was caring for my dad. A lot of the clients who signed up actually (physically) helped build the gym. I think our community, more than the training, is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, in 2023, Baronski was diagnosed with myxoid liposarcoma, a rare type of cancerous soft tissue sarcoma that develops in fat cells, leading to three surgeries and 30 rounds of radiation, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot to overcome that year,\u201d Baronski said. \u201cThere was a three-week period where I wasn\u2019t coming to work and my clients were running the gym. My members took on everything I went through. As much as I take on their personal life, they ended up taking on mine and it\u2019s never meant to be that way. If you have a bad day, you come in here and I\u2019m going to work you through your bad day, and you\u2019re going to feel better. It was the opposite for a couple years. We got through that, I felt better, and the last few years we\u2019ve been able to rebuild and regrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
After starting with about 30 to 40 members, the client base grew to more than 150, leading to the new spot in Blakely, which has about triple the space of the Eynon location, Baronski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crowded at times, so we knew we had to make a change,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery single person who comes in here has some sort of individualized strategy based on what we see in our assessment and their goals. Our powerlifting crew is a little more serious, a little more intense. The vibe kind of molds to the time of day and the group we\u2019re training. I think one thing we do really well is meet people where they\u2019re at from a training standpoint, and from a personality standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leah Cruciani of Jermyn, who met Baronski about a decade ago at another local gym, is grateful for his impact on her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the time, I was injured and I was going to the gym to get in shape,\u201d she said. \u201cI own a horse farm and train horses, and he kind of got me back in pieces for my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baronski also helped Cruciani, 56, recover from significant shoulder and hamstring injuries, and develop into a national champion powerlifter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe definitely changed my life in so many ways,\u201d she said. \u201cI went to the gym to get stronger and it morphed into something else. I think the majority of his expertise comes from his experience. He\u2019s definitely a people person. He can read you and know what you need before you even open your mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
After buying the building with his brother, Mike, the process began to transform the former A&A Auto into a gym, Baronski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an eight-month journey,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce it was ready to go, as a gym owner, that was where I was able to take over and kind of build my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BLAKELY \u2014 Steve Baronski strives to change the trajectory of people\u2019s lives through training programs. He opened Square…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2118,60,11466,1057,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,289,181],"class_list":["post-314771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-blakely","tag-business","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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