Fire Force Grows Elmhurst CrossFit Community, Teaches Students To Be Fit For Life

The simplicity of the workouts is often what attracts people who head to Fire Force Fitness CrossFit in Elmhurst.

Though the workouts don’t rely on the bells and whistles found at a health club, Fire Force clients are challenged in ways that allow them to grow and improve physically. 

Located in the heart of Elmhurst’s downtown, the gym opened in July and has gained a loyal client base seeking to build strength, power, speed and agility.

Owners Kyle Matousek, 28, and David Kaczmarczyk, 32, had the idea to open a gym while working out one day in Matousek’s garage.

Matousek was involved with CrossFit for about five years before opening the gym. Both of the men work as firefighters, and when Kaczmarczyk learned his friend was into CrossFit, he started working out with him regularly. When Matousek shared the idea for opening a gym, his friend encouraged him to do it.

Now the men are building more than a business; they are building a community of people who share a love of fitness, he said.

CrossFit is designed to scale a fitness program based on a client’s ability and fitness level.

“We are preparing you for the unforeseeable, whatever may get thrown at you,” Matousek said. “CrossFit incorporates the whole body. We make you more efficient at everything you do, whether carrying groceries or being a competitive athlete.”

Matousek and Kaczmarczyk act as coaches, not personal trainers. They are there to ensure clients are taking proper precautions, working to their level and also pushing themselves to achieve more.

The coaches are all CrossFit Level 1 certified as well as CPR and AED trained, along with ANSI certification.

Clients of any fitness level can do CrossFit, he said.

The coaches do not want to limit clients, but they do assess their fitness levels when they come to the gym for the first time and begin to push fitness levels from there.

“Everything is performance based,” he said, adding where a client begins depends, for example, on how much weight a client can squat and how they handle a squat.

Classes are an hour long and each of the classes are coached; no student is ever alone, he said.

A CrossFit class includes a warm up, strength or conditioning—typically one or the other will take place during a class, but not both. A class is divided up by strength with students falling into novice, intermediate and expert levels. The level of assistance a student receives also will vary based on experience and fitness level.

But, Fire Force Fitness is more than a gym, he said.

“The group of people we have here and the community we have built are absolutely incredible,” Matousek said. “We leave the egos out.”

Many of the gym’s students have heard about CrossFit and want to try it out, he said. The students want something different and once they start going, they like the community.

“They like that you are going to be pushed. It’s not like a being in a ‘big box’ gym where you may get an OK work out. The hard work is going to get you fit,” Matousek said. “In the long-term it’s the hard work and the effort to create a fit lifestyle that has a payoff.”

The gym has been successful and new clients are always welcome. New students are encouraged to contact the coaches first to set up a time for an evaluation.

Since opening last summer, the owners have watched many of their CrossFit clients grow and create a sustainable lifestyle of fitness, Matousek said.

“They may come in with little fitness experience, and then you see them come in every day and see them grow as an athlete and get faster and stronger," he said. "It’s just very rewarding.”

Fire Force Fitness CrossFit is located at 174R N. York St. Contact them at 331-642-8026, by e-mail or visit the website