A private strength studio in a mews off Glebe Street, for people over forty who want to get strong, come back from an injury, or stop feeling old. No membership, no gym floor, no mirrors: a ninety-minute assessment, a twelve-week programme priced as a whole, and progress measured in kilos and minutes in a book you keep.
Coaching
01
The way most people train here: an hour, one coach, the rack to yourself, a programme written from your assessment, and your numbers in a book. Available as single sessions at £65 or, for nearly everyone, as a twelve-week programme at one, two or three sessions a week with the assessment and the reviews built in.
£65 a session on its own.
02
Three people at most in the room with one coach, each working their own programme from their own assessment, on fixed morning, lunchtime and evening slots. The attention of one-to-one at less than half the price, with the company of two people who are also fifty-something and also learning to deadlift.
£28 a session, or £195 a month for two sessions a week.
03
Our main work: men and women from fifty to eighty who have been told to get stronger (by a physio, a doctor, a bone scan or a fall) or who want to carry their own cases at seventy-five. Five lifts, taught slowly and loaded carefully, with balance and the getting-up-off-the-floor built in, and the numbers in a book.
The same prices as one-to-one and semi-private: £65 a session, programmes from £1,380 for twelve weeks, semi-private £195 a month.
04
The gap nobody fills: the physio has discharged you, the knee or the shoulder or the back is "better", and you are frightened of it. Twelve weeks of weekly coaching that starts where the physio stopped, with their notes, their say on what is allowed, and a programme that rebuilds the strength the injury took, with reviews shared with them.
£1,560 for twelve weeks: the assessment, liaison with your physio, a weekly coached session, the homework and three reviews.
05
Not a diet. Eight weeks of fortnightly half-hour conversations with Ioan alongside your programme, about the one or two things that would make the training work better: usually protein, sometimes breakfast, occasionally the wine. Written down, adjusted, and dropped the moment it is not realistic for your kitchen and your week.
£240 for eight weeks (four half-hour sessions and messages between), alongside any programme.
06
For clients who have done a programme in the room and moved away, travel, or want to train in their own gym: a programme written for the kit you have, updated every four weeks, form checks from the videos you send, and a half-hour video review each month. Not offered to people we have not assessed in person.
£95 a month, no contract.
Programmes
£1,380
£57.50 a session: assessment, programme, homework, two reviews. Enough for most people over fifty.
£2,520
£52.50 a session. The sweet spot for strength; what most clients do.
£195
Your own programme, a shared coach. £28 a single session. After the assessment.
The assessment is £60 and credited; a single session £65; return from injury £1,560; nutrition coaching £240 alongside a programme. Including VAT.
How we work
Ninety minutes before anything is programmed: your history, the physio's letter if there is one, how you move under a light bar, what hurts and what does not, and what you want. The programme is written from it, not from a template, and the fee is credited against the programme.
Strength for adults is five basic lifts done well, with weight added when the form earns it. We teach the squat, the hinge, the press, the pull and the carry over the first four weeks, and most people lift more by week twelve than they thought possible at week one.
Return-from-injury clients come with a physio or a consultant, and we talk to them, with your permission, before the first session and at each review. Mari holds a sports rehabilitation degree and Ioan a strength and conditioning master's; neither of us pretends to be a physio.
Sessions from 6:30 in the morning to 8 at night, booked a week ahead, in a room that is yours for the hour. Semi-private sessions are three people at most on fixed slots. If you need to move a session we need 24 hours; if we do, you get it free.
The assessment
Your story and the letters, how you move under a light bar, four baseline measures that go in your book, and an honest ten minutes about what it will take and whether we are the right people. Sometimes the answer is a physio first, and we say so and refund the fee. The programme arrives in writing within three days if you want it.
Results
To stop being frightened of her back
Bone density, after a scan
Back from a shoulder operation
The studio
One power rack and platform, a competition bar and a lighter one, a trap bar, calibrated plates from half a kilo, kettlebells to forty, a rower and a bike, a rehab corner, a shower, coffee, and a plant. One client or group of three at a time; there is no floor to share and nobody to be watched by.
What is in the roomClients
I had a bad back for twenty years and a GP who said "core strength" and nothing else. Mari watched me move for an hour before I touched a bar. Twelve weeks later I deadlift sixty-five kilos and I pick up my grandchildren. The numbers book is the most motivating thing I have ever owned.
A bone scan at sixty-six sent me here. Three of us on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday at seven, each with our own bar, Ioan loading one while the others rest. The follow-up scan was better and I have made two friends. £195 a month.
My physio discharged me and I was terrified of the shoulder. Mari rang the physio before we started, sent her the reviews, and twelve weeks later I press a dumbbell overhead and swim. The physio said it was the first time a trainer had ever contacted her.
An assessment £60, credited against a programme. Twelve-week one-to-one programmes £1,380 for weekly, £2,520 for twice a week, £3,420 for three times, including the assessment, the written programme, the homework and two reviews. Semi-private £195 a month for two a week. Return from injury £1,560 for twelve weeks. A single one-to-one session £65. Everything includes VAT and is on the prices page side by side.
It is who most of our clients are: the average age here is fifty-three and the oldest is seventy-eight. The first four weeks teach the five lifts with a light bar, in a room with nobody else in it, and the weight goes up only when the form earns it.
Ninety minutes: your story and the letters, how you move under a light bar, four baseline measures that go in your book, and an honest ten minutes about what it will take and whether we are the right people. The programme arrives in writing within three days if you want it.
After the physio or surgeon has finished the acute treatment and said loading can start, yes, and the return-from-injury programme keeps them in the loop with written reviews. During acute treatment, no; we say so and send you back to them.
No. One client or one group of three at a time, in a room you book, on a programme written from your assessment. There is no floor to share and nothing to be a member of.
Most people lift noticeably more by week four because the technique improves, and the deadlift goes up about forty kilos on average over a first twelve weeks. Strength that lasts takes twelve weeks to build and a year to keep, and we say that at the assessment rather than promise six.
Your story, the letters, how you move under a light bar, four baseline measures in a book you keep, and ten minutes on what it will take and whether we are the right people. £60, credited against a programme, and refunded if we say we are not.
