Empower Fitness recently opened in McPherson, Kansas in February of 2024. Empower Fitness is a luxury gym located at 400 N. Maple Street. The gym is open 24 hours, the staff are present Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Emma Yowell is the current owner of the gym.

Yowell has been involved in athletics all throughout her life. She started playing basketball in kindergarten and finished her senior year of high school. Yowell expressed, “I just did not want to continue basketball through college.” 

Yowell attended the University of Kansas and earned her major in exercise science. During her time at the University of Kansas, she competed on the women’s rowing team all four years. “Being on the rowing team was one of the best things that ever happened to me!” stated Yowell. 

Yowell started to have an interest in fitness when she was in the fifth grade. She had a spectacular relationship with her personal trainer, and from then on knew she wanted to pursue something fitness-related. 

Yowell started her coaching career in high school with her personal trainer, Shelly Prescott. “I learned so much from her, she is still someone I look up to,” Yowell expressed. While in college she did an internship with a gym called the Underground Lab. During that time she was able to coach multiple classes and had the opportunity to work with several personal training clients. 

She also spent some time at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where she had an internship for about five to six months. After all of her internships, she thought it was time for her to come back to her hometown and pursue her dream of opening her own gym. 

Yowell has dreamed of becoming a gym owner since the fifth grade. “I have always been involved in athletics, it would just make sense to open a gym,” said Yowell. She also believed giving back to the community she grew up in was very important. 

Yowell has been looking for the building space for the past three years. She looked at a couple of other building spaces but felt like they were not big enough. She found the perfect building in July and it took about seven months to remodel and get it ready to open. “I just fell in love with the building, especially with the big motorcycle on the outside,” stated Yowell. 

Yowell’s main goal in opening her gym is to make women feel welcome. Yowell said, “I know it can be intimidating walking into a gym as a woman.” Its small class sizes set Empower Fitness apart from other gyms in the area. 

She caps it at five people per class, so she knows everyone can get the attention they deserve. She offers a strength class which starts with a main lift, then hit intervals, ending with cardio. That class is offered three times a day.  She also offers a prenatal and postpartum workout class, which no one else in town offers. 

“Empowering women to get out and work while you are pregnant since it is one of the best things you can do to prepare for labor.” States Yowell. One of her biggest challenges with opening a new gym is, “just getting people to buy in.” said Yowell. Her pricing is set higher than other gyms in the area, mainly because she wants people who will respect the space and equipment. All of their pricing is available on their website. 

Empower Fitness is a 24-hour gym available via a key fob, or a Bluetooth app on your phone. “I know a lot of people in McPherson work shift work and I just want to make sure they still have time to work out,” said Yowell. There are multiple cameras inside and outside of the gym ensuring the safety of the members.