Built for people who were done starting over

In 2017, getting a serious training session in Vanasthalipuram meant a commute. The gyms nearby were built around rows of machines and monthly targets; the ones with a real free-weight floor and coaches who knew what they were looking at were half an hour away, in traffic, in the direction nobody wants to drive after work.

So we built one here. A black training floor with red light, a full wall of iron, plate-loaded machines that hold up to daily abuse, and — more importantly — coaches on the floor rather than behind a desk. The logo on the wall says Vanasthalipuram's largest fitness centre. That was the intention from the first day.

What we did not expect was how much of the work would turn out to be about people who had already tried and quit. Members arrive having bought memberships they never used, having followed programmes written for somebody else, having been told to just do cardio. Most of them have never been taught a single lift properly. That is the actual job, and it is the one we are best at.