The room
A converted mews coach house: forty square metres, a four-metre ceiling, exposed brick, one tall window onto the lane, rubber flooring, a plant that has survived six years. One client or group at a time; the door locks.
The studio
Forty square metres, and the door locks.
A coach house in a mews, converted in 2018 for exactly one thing: a person learning to lift, with a coach, and nobody else in the room. Six parts of it, so you know what to expect before you walk in.
What is in the room
The rack and the platform
A single power rack with safeties set for you, a competition bar and a lighter women's bar, a trap bar for the people whose backs prefer it, calibrated plates from half a kilo up, and a lifting platform with blocks for the hinge.
Kettlebells and dumbbells
Kettlebells from 4 to 40 kilos in two-kilo steps, adjustable dumbbells to 32, a suspension trainer, bands in five strengths, a plyometric box, and two sandbags for the carries.
Conditioning
A rower, a bike, a sled on the lane outside, and a stopwatch. We do not do much conditioning; strength is the point and a walk is the rest of it.
Rehab corner
A plinth, foam rollers, a mirror you can turn to the wall, balance pads, light bands and the kit a physio would recognise. Used in the first weeks and then less.
The small things
Filtered water, decent coffee, a kettle, a shower, a changing area with a door, chalk, and the numbers book on the shelf with your name on it.
Why one rack
A gym is a room full of people watching you learn. This is not that.
Most people over forty who have never lifted are not frightened of the weight; they are frightened of the room. One rack, one coach and a locked door removes the room. There is no music unless you want it, no mirror unless you turn it round, nobody waiting for the bar, and nobody younger doing it faster three metres away. People say, at the end of the first programme, that the room was the thing that let them start.
- One client, or a semi-private group of three, at a time
- Booked by the hour; the lane parking comes with it
- A shower, a changing area with a door, coffee
Start with the assessment. Ninety minutes, and an honest answer.
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.