The ten questions we are actually asked

No. Most people who walk through the door have never touched a barbell, and the Foundations course exists for exactly that. Six weeks, six people, and an empty bar for as long as it takes.

You will not be dropped into a room of experienced lifters and told to keep up. That would be a bad way to learn and an unpleasant way to spend an hour.

Usually yes, and it is a common reason people come to us rather than a reason to stay away. The return to training programme starts with four unhurried sessions working out what your body will take at the moment.

We are coaches and not clinicians, so we do not diagnose and we do not treat. If you are under a physiotherapist or a doctor, we will work to what they have told you and we will ask you to keep them in the loop.

Eight at most in small group strength and over fifties strength, six in Foundations, four in a return to training group, and one in a private session.

Total membership is capped as well, not just session size. When we are full we run a waiting list rather than adding bodies to the floor, because a crowded floor is how coaching quietly turns into supervision.

Please book. Every session is capped and the popular ones do fill, particularly the early mornings and the Saturday slots.

Booking opens a week ahead and takes about ten seconds. If you cannot make a session you have booked, cancelling frees it for somebody else, which the somebody else appreciates.

Clothes you can move in and shoes with a flat sole. Running shoes with a thick soft heel are the one thing that genuinely makes lifting harder, so a cheap pair of flat trainers is worth more than anything else you could buy.

Bring a water bottle. Everything else, including chalk, belts and straps, is here already and you are welcome to use it.

Yes. Two showers, both with a changing cubicle, and a bench and hooks in each. There is a rail for towels and a hairdryer that has been threatening to give up since 2019.

They are clean and they are perfectly adequate, and we would rather tell you that than call them a facility.

There are eleven spaces in the yard, free, first come first served. They fill at the 6.45am and 5.30pm sessions.

On street parking on the surrounding roads is free after 6pm and all day Saturday. The station is a seven minute walk and there is a covered rack for bikes just inside the roller door.

Yes. You can pause for up to three months in a row, twice a year, and we do not ask why. Illness, work, a new baby, a holiday, a bad month. It is your business.

A pause takes effect from your next billing date and nothing is charged while it is on. Tell us before that date and you will not be billed at all.

Send us an email and we will stop the payment. There is no notice period beyond the month you have already paid for, no cancellation fee, and no conversation you have to sit through first.

You keep access until the end of the month you have paid for. If you come back later, you come back on the same terms as everybody else.

People who want a bodybuilding show prep, a competitive powerlifting career, or a coach who will shout. None of the three of us do any of that well and there are people nearby who do.

It is also not for anyone looking for a quick transformation. Strength is slow, and the only version of this that works is the one you are still doing in three years.