Foundations
Six weeks to learn the five lifts we use most, in a group small enough that nobody gets lost at the back.
£120 for the whole six weeks, or £24 a session
Details
A small gym at Ashcombe, open since 2017
Learn to lift properly, at a pace you can keep
Gain United is a strength and conditioning gym run by three coaches. We teach ordinary adults to squat, hinge, press, pull and carry, in groups of eight or fewer, and we cap the membership so the floor never gets crowded.
Beginners welcomeEight to a sessionNo contract
2017Opened, and still the same three coaches
8People in a session, at most
110Members, capped. A waiting list after that
1Site. There is no second branch and there will not be
What this place is
A gym floor, three coaches, and your name written in a book
We opened in 2017 because the three of us wanted to coach properly and could not do it anywhere that put thirty people in a room at once. Everything here follows from that. Sessions are capped at eight. Membership is capped too. Every member has a written programme with their name on it, and a coach who knows what happened in it last week.
Most of our members had never touched a barbell before they came. A good number are in their fifties and sixties. Several arrived after an injury, expecting to be told to be careful, and were instead given a bar and a plan. Nobody here is preparing for a stage or a platform, and that is fine by us.
What we do not do is sell transformations, count anybody's calories out loud, or shout. Strength is slow. The only version that works is the one you are still doing in three years, so we build for that.
Programmes
Five ways in, depending on where you are starting
Every one of them uses the same lifts and the same standards. What changes is the pace, the group size and how much of a coach's attention comes with it.
Small Group Strength
The session most members do most weeks. Your own plan, written for you, run alongside seven other people and a coach.
£15 a session, or from £65 a month on membership
Details
Over Fifties Strength
The same lifts, the same standards, at a pace that respects a body with some history in it. Daytime sessions, no rush.
£14 a session, or included in any membership
Details
One to One Coaching
An hour with one coach and nobody else waiting. Useful when something specific needs sorting out, or when a group room is not for you.
£48 a session, or £270 for a block of six
Details
Return to Training
Four unhurried sessions to work out what your body will take right now, then a route back into the room at a pace you can hold.
£190 for the first four sessions, then normal rates
Details
How it starts
Three steps, and the first one is free
Come and look at the place
A free joining session, forty five minutes, no sales conversation attached. You see the floor, we hear what you are after, and you decide in your own time.
Start where you actually are
Never lifted before, or not for years? Foundations is six weeks of learning the lifts. Trained before? You can walk into small group strength from day one.
Pick how often you come
Two sessions a week from £65 a month, unlimited small group at £95, or coaching alongside it. Everything rolls month to month. See membership.
The week
Twenty eight coached sessions, Monday to Saturday
Early mornings from 6.45, lunchtimes at 12.30, evenings from 5.15, and daytime and early evening over fifties strength sessions. Saturday runs from 8am to lunchtime and is the busiest morning of the week.
Everything is bookable a week ahead. Every session is capped, so booking is worth doing rather than turning up hopefully.
Membership
Three plain prices, no contract beyond the month
Two a Week
£65 a month
Two sessions a week, whichever two suit you.
Most members
£95 a month
Come as often as the timetable allows.
Coaching Plus Membership
£220 a month
Unlimited sessions and three private hours a month.
Every membership includes your own written programme, coaching in every session, and the freedom to pause for up to three months at a time. The joining session is free and there is no joining fee.
The coaches
The same three people, since the day we opened
Ruth Adeyemi
Ruth spent eleven years teaching secondary school science before she started coaching, and it shows in how she runs a room. Everything gets explained once properly, then practised until it is boring, then loaded.
Meet the coaches
Tom Whitcombe
Tom was a plasterer for fifteen years and came to lifting through a back that had stopped cooperating. Getting it working again took him two years and taught him most of what he now knows about patience.
Meet the coaches
Sadie Larkin
Sadie competed in weightlifting for six years, stopped when it stopped being fun, and found she liked coaching considerably more than competing. She writes most of the programmes that go into the log.
Meet the coachesGuides
Everything we find ourselves explaining twice
Written by the coaches here, going back to the year we opened. No products in them, because we do not sell any.
Training around a busy life
The guide for the season where everything else is louder. What the honest minimum is, what to cut first, and how to lose a fortnight without losing the habit.
Read it
Training in your fifties
What genuinely changes after fifty, what does not change at all, and why this is the decade where strength training stops being optional.
Read it
Sleep and recovery
When a lift stalls and the programme looks fine, this is usually where the answer is. What sleep does, and what to do in a week you get none of it.
Read itWhere to next