How we started
A coach who got tired of selling packages
Marcus Ellery spent eleven years coaching in commercial clubs where trainers were paid commission on what they sold, members were signed onto twelve-month contracts they could not leave, and the business model depended on a substantial share of them never coming back after February.
He opened this gym in 2009 with three decisions already made, and they have not changed since: coaches would be salaried employees with a fixed session load, membership would be month to month with no contract, and every member would get a written programme whether they paid for coaching or not. Each of those decisions costs this business money. Together they are the reason our members stay for years rather than months.
The rest followed from that. A registered dietitian rather than a supplement shelf. A licensed physical therapist on the floor rather than a referral list. Capped classes with a waitlist rather than a room with forty bikes in it. None of it is complicated and almost none of it is common.
Every coached member gets a written programme they keep, in plain language, with the reason for each block of work spelled out. If you leave us, you take the programme with you. We would rather be the gym you understood than the gym you were dependent on.
By the numbers
Sixteen years, in four figures
- 16
- years coaching in Woodside, under the same owner
- 1,400+
- members assessed, programmed and retested
- 18,000
- square feet across four floors and three studios
- 9
- languages spoken by the coaching team
How we work
Four commitments, and what each one costs us
An assessment before a sales pitch
Your first appointment is ninety minutes with a coach and costs nothing. We measure what you can actually do, ask what you actually want, and write you a plan. If the honest answer is that you need a physical therapist and not a gym, that is what you will be told.
Coaches on salary, not on commission
Nobody here earns more by selling you more. Our coaches are salaried employees with a fixed session load, which is why they will tell you to take a week off when you need one and why the same coach is still there in year three.
One price, cancel any time, no contract
No twelve-month lock-in, no initiation fee, no annual maintenance charge that appears in March. Membership is month to month, cancellation is a form at the desk or an email, and the price you join at is the price you keep for as long as you stay.
A floor that is never a free-for-all
Capped class sizes, a coach on the floor during every staffed hour, equipment that gets serviced on a schedule we publish, and a hard rule that nobody trains a movement they have not been shown. Busy is fine. Chaotic is not.
The business model
Most gyms are designed around people who do not come
It is not a secret and it is not a conspiracy: a large commercial gym sells far more memberships than its floor could hold, and the arithmetic only works because most of those people stop attending by March. Everything else follows from that — the contract, the notice period, the initiation fee, the annual charge, and the sales floor at the entrance.
We are the other shape. Membership is month to month precisely because it forces us to earn it every month, and the whole business depends on people actually turning up. That is why we publish when the gym is busy, cap every class at what the room holds, and pay coaches a salary so nobody has an incentive to sell you a session you do not need.
- No contract, no initiation fee, no annual charge, no notice period, no retention call.
- Coaches on salary with a fixed session load — nobody earns more by selling you more.
- Classes capped at the room's real capacity, with a waitlist rather than an extra body.
- Busy hours published honestly, including the ones we would rather you did not know about.
- No supplements sold anywhere in the building, and no coach commissioned on one.
- Every written programme is yours to keep, including if you leave for somewhere else.
Credentials
Certified, insured, and happy to prove it
Nationally accredited coaching certifications
Every coach on this floor holds a nationally accredited personal training or strength and conditioning certification, is current on CPR and AED, and carries their own professional liability cover on top of the club's. We will show you a coach's credentials before you book with them rather than after — ask at the desk, or ask the coach.
A licensed physical therapist on the floor
Priya holds a doctorate in physical therapy and works here rather than in a clinic, which means restrictions are read rather than guessed at and problems get caught while they are still an annoyance. She takes every post-rehab referral personally.
A registered dietitian, not a nutrition certificate
Elena holds the registered dietitian nutritionist credential — an accredited degree, a supervised practice programme, a national examination and a licence. In a field where anybody may call themselves a nutritionist, that distinction is the whole point.
CPR, AED and insurance, current
Every coach is current on CPR and AED and carries professional liability cover on top of the club's. Certification bodies and expiry dates are on the wall by the desk and available on request for any coach.
Equipment serviced on a published schedule
Inspected monthly, serviced quarterly, with cables and straps replaced on a fixed cycle rather than at failure. The log is on the noticeboard, in pen, and you are welcome to read it.
The people
Six coaches you will actually meet
Not a stock photograph of a fitness model. These are the people who run your assessment, write your programme, take your class and notice when you stop coming.
Free assessment, free trial week, no contract
Book a free 90-minute assessment
Ninety minutes with a coach, nothing to sign, and a written twelve-week programme you keep whether or not you join. Every membership is month to month with no initiation fee and no notice period, and the trial week is free.