Eastern Europeans find American dreams building up Middletown gym

MIDDLETOWN - Sergei and Lana Karaliou immigrated to America from separate Eastern European countries, but found a joint future here as fitness experts at Underground Gym in Middletown.

“It was all about different countries, cultures and traditions,” Sergei said. “We started with small hiccups at the beginning and graduated to bigger ones as we went along. It was a very unique and different experience coming from our country. I could go for hours about how different it was from our homes.”

Sergei grew up in Belarus and came here when he was 18.

“It was all about the opportunity,” Sergei said. “I was a second-year student and an engineering major. I wanted to continue that education here in the United States, but the cost of the education here was too expensive compared to where I was from. I also needed a job to pay the bills, so I got some retail jobs, and I worked them during the day, but I always had the dream in the back of my mind to do something great with fitness. It was a passion of mine since I was young.”

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Lana, Sergei’s wife, moved here from Ukraine when she turned 19.

“I grew up in a very small village there,” Lana said. “I came to New York, and I saw it was a melting pot. I met people that were on different journeys in their lives, and you could see they were able to achieve a lot, which was inspiring. That made me appreciate the opportunities and I wanted to stay here because of it.”

Lana worked a couple jobs while she went to school.

“My first job here was McDonald’s in New York City,” Lana said. “From there, I worked in the restaurant industry as a bartender while I went to school for eight years. I originally went to school for finance, but I changed it to human resources. It helped me to pay for my bills and schooling, but I knew that I couldn’t do it forever. I wanted more for myself.”

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Learning the language and the culture

Both Lana and Sergei had their own ways of learning and mastering English while living in the United States.

“A lot of learning to speak this language came from going to work every day and interacting with people,” Lana said. “Work helped a lot, and I eventually got the hang of speaking English through that medium.”

Sergei, on the other hand, learned to speak English back in his home country of Belarus as a foreign language.

“I learned English as a foreign language from the first grade since I was 6 years old,” Sergei said. “Since then, I’ve also been fluent in Russian, German and Belarussian. That’s how the school system was when I was young and still is to this day. It’s just required that you learn a foreign language from that age, and it ended up helping me as I grew older.”

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Fitness had long been a part of Sergei's world. “It was always integrated into my lifestyle,” Sergei said. “I started doing some fitness coaching in Neptune with my previous co-owner of Underground Gym, Greg Mihovich, before Underground Gym began.

"I was also working at The Atlantic Club in Red Bank at the same time, and I was enjoying my time with both of those jobs," he continued. "I enjoyed helping people and taking them to the next level. It was all about putting in the effort to become a better version of yourself. It was fulfilling to see people evolve.”

In 2006, Mihovich opened Underground Gym in Neptune and Sergei was his employee. In 2011, Mihovich moved the business to Red Bank and made Sergei a co-owner. During this time, Mihovich decided to leave and make Sergei the sole owner of Underground Gym.

Love and business

While Sergei was committed to his fitness job, Lana was working an office job in the city. They were both talking on Tinder, and they pursued their relationship from there.

“We met at the end of 2016,” Lana said. “We had a lot in common, including the same immigration path. We came from different countries, but we both spoke Russian. The background was very similar and fueled our connection. We felt calm and it wasn’t too crazy. We wanted to get to know each other and spend time together. We became best friends and business partners.”

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After Sergei met Lana and they hit it off, he lured her away from her office job in New York City and asked her to come and help him run Underground Gym.

“Before, we were a one-on-one facility,” Sergei said. “With Lana’s introduction to the business, we had set up a group training position. We needed an extra person to schedule people and talk to customers. It was basically an administration job. Lana came at the right time. She finished a nutrition course at Harvard School of Nutrition and that made her very qualified to do what she does now. She became even more integrated into the business.”

Last year, the couple moved the business to its current home on Route 35 in Middletown. Lana and Sergei believe they complement each other well.

“Sergei is more a business owner, looking over the big picture and examining little things,” Lana said. “I am a person who looks over day-to-day tasks and I play more of an inside role. We do different things but work well together. There are many different aspects to this business, and we all make our own contribution. That’s what it comes down to in the end.”

Underground Gym is more than just your average gym or fitness center.

“It’s a fitness studio where we work individually with every client on a different kind of service,” Sergei said. “It depends where they’re at with their health and wellness, along with the way they want to be. Before they start any program with us, we sit with them and determine if there are any hidden gaps in their health and wellness habits.

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“We propose a one-on-one plan for them, and we agree to meet with them once a week or a month," he continued. "It all depends on where our clients want to be with their health. We aim to collect this information and data to give our clients the best recommendation possible. Underground Gym is a system designed to help people with their health and wellness.”

Sergei and Lana want to increase the volume of their clientele and offer more sophisticated services for their customers, including better programs.

“It’s all about people who want to take their health to the next level,” Sergei said. “We want to constantly have a dynamic approach. What we did 10 years ago does not work today. We are constantly looking for ways to improve.”

Underground Gym

Owners: Sergei and Lana Karaliou

Location: 327 Route 35, Middletown

Phone: 732-686-6566

Website: www.undergroundgym.com

Hours: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays; 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Underground Gym in Middletown fulfills American dream for immigrants