Chase and Viva Crouse, recently married and living with their first child in New York City, realized something needed to change.

With the high cost of living and the expectation of growing their family, Chase, who had been working in ministry for several years, saw the need to embrace other opportunities.

He then began working as a personal trainer at a gym, and, amidst an environment that often values ​​vanity and exhibitionism, he began to wonder whether, as a Catholic, the concern for the body and diet was good and truly necessary.

It was then that he turned to the theology of the body, terminology used to define the series of teachings of St. John Paul II on the gift of self and how this involves the entire person, including and especially the body.

“My light-bulb moment came in Audience 15, Paragraph 2, when he talks about this idea of self-gift, self-donation; but what he says is that self-donation is impossible without self-mastery,” Chase explains.

Inspired by the new theological perspective and the supernatural view of the body and the importance of a healthy life, Chase wanted to get involved with a Catholic gym or fitness company, but to his surprise, he found none in 2019.

Then, in 2020, he and his wife decided to launch Hypuro Fit, the first Catholic fitness app, to provide excellent exercise and nutrition techniques connected with the faith, leading the user to integrate a healthy spiritual life into physical wellness.

“One of our taglines is self-mastery for the sake of self-gift,” shares Chase, a graduate of John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego with a master’s degree in biblical theology.

Now a mother of four, Viva is also one of the coaches on the program. For her, Catholics should take care of body and soul, as both are gifts from God, and she explains how exercise is fundamental to responding to God’s call.

According to her, “it is so much more than just about how we look or even about how we feel, but a lot of the why behind it is how we can serve.”

“The purpose of that is to be able to better serve in whatever our vocation is. As a mother, as a father, to be able to raise good and healthy children, to keep up with them. It’s a demanding job. Or if you’re a priest or religious, the jobs are demanding, and so we physically need to be able to wake up every day and serve to our fullest potential. We never know what God is going to call us to. So, when he calls us to do something big, and maybe it takes some physical exertion, we need to be able to say that ‘We’re here and we’re ready.’”

The Hypuro Fit app works through a subscription, and users have access to individual and personalized coaching with one of the 12 trainers, various types of gym exercises for all levels, a macro calculator (to estimate the macronutrient needs of a person based on age, physical characteristics, activity level, and bodyweight goals) and food log, a habit tracker, a community board, nutrition information, and more.

“But also, the Catholic approach to all this, so we have sections on prayer, on theology of the body, and how to live an integrated, holistic Catholic lifestyle,” Chase adds.

For those who rarely exercise or do not know how to start, Chase says that the important thing is to take the first step and that each person has a different pace and circumstance.

“The workout doesn’t have to be a 90-day blitz. If you can just go on a walk a couple of days a week, if you can do a very light resistance training one day a week — it doesn’t have to be crazy. You don’t have to go from 0 to 10, you just need to go from 0 to 1; and when one becomes easy, go to two, and then two becomes easy, go to three.”

Viva also highlights the direct communication between users and trainers through the app, including advice from herself and Chase, so that even those who have been training for years or those who want to start as total beginners can find the right program for them. “You’re never alone on your journey. ... And today is always a good day to start,” she encourages.

For Chase, the most important part of the apostolate is “to help Catholics to know an authentically Catholic and a technically excellent approach to exercise and nutrition.”

Chase, alongside Dan Burke — founder and president of the Avila institute for Spiritual Formation (and former executive director of the Register) — wrote the book The God of Endurance: A Practical Guide for Incorporating Exercise and Nutrition Into Your Spiritual Journey (Sophia Institute Press, 2025), offering readers practical ideas to build sustainable and healthy habits to strengthen body and soul in daily life.

“When I started this, I looked at Catholic doctors and lawyers, and they didn’t try to ‘Catholicize’ surgery; they tried to be the absolute best surgeons they could be while being an intentional disciple of Jesus Christ, and that’s the approach we’re going to take,” Chase explains. “So our exercises, our nutritional protocols are based in science; it’s science rooted in faith, and it’s this idea of self-mastery for the sake of self-gift.”