The Good Gym Guide

This conversation is with Sabrina Moore of Donut Barbell in Cardiff. Sabrina is a 3x British champion powerlifter in the 63kg weight category, and a women's powerlifting coach who focuses particularly on the impact strength training can have on our mental health.

We spoke about her journey to strength training, the role of training and potentially competing in supporting our mental health, and how to make a welcoming and inclusive yet appropriately-challenging lifting environment.

This conversation is with Professor Geraint Harvey. Harvey is the DanCap Private Equity Chair in Human Organization at Western University in Ontario. His research focuses on the employment relationship and the changing nature of work. Back in 2016 he published a paper titled 'Neo-villeiny and the service sector: The case of hyper flexible and precarious work in fitness centres' about the parallels between modern working arrangements of gyms and personal trainers and medieval serfdom.

I was keen to talk with Harvey about this and to ask for his help in imagining alternatives.

Today I am speaking with Abi Nolan, the founder of Supply Yoga. Supply is a social enterprise changing the culture of access to wellbeing services through an innovative cyclical business model - paid subscriptions for their online classes subsidise wellbeing services for marginalised communities in east London.

It's an extremely well thought-through way of doing things that has run successfully since 2015 and is an inspirational example of putting some of the ideas discussed in the last episode with Laura McCafferty into practice.

I was keen to ask Abi about the specifics of how Supply works, and especially about the behind-the-scenes running-a-business stuff and developing healthy, trusting relationships with their partners.

This interview is with Laura McAfferty, the founder of Inclusive Wellness, a social enterprise and community committed to increasing accessibility, diversity and inclusivity in the private health & wellness industry.

We spoke about the need for continuing personal development on these subjects and the potential role of standards in improving practice and giving marginalised people better access to health and wellness services. We also spoke about the potential pitfalls that any fixed approach might have, like one-off certifications or directories that aren't regularly updated.

I'm so excited to share this conversation with Justice Williams and to reflect on how his world-leading work at Fitness for All Bodies can inform our renovation of Bristol Co-operative Gym as we make it more welcoming and adaptable to more people commonly excluded from gyms.

I found this conversation with Justice enormously moving and inspiring. His conception of fitness offers a completely different paradigm from what is commonly presented. He views gyms as one of many potential spaces for community building, and fitness as a tool for self-knowledge and reconnection to ourselves and each other.

Above all, it is a philosophy rooted in love, and in how much there is to gain from dismantling the Fitness Industrial Complex and opening it up to more bodies. By reproducing larger societal power dynamics, the conventional fitness industry robs diminishes us all by making us want, as Justice says, "something that is not a part of who we are". His vision of an alternative encourages us to acknowledge and recognise what has been taken, and work collectively to strengthen ourselves and our communities. The implications of this go far beyond getting fitter.

The Good Gym Guide Podcast • Series 2, Episode 1

The first interview of this special series of the Good Gym Guide, made to support Bristol Co-operative Gym’s crowdfunder, is with Conor Heffernan, a historian of strength currently based at Ulster University whose blog Physical Culture Study is the best resource I know of for learning about the origins of many of the characteristics of gyms nowadays, as well as some of the fascinating things that have been lost to history.

We cover a lot of ground - the lost history of co-op gyms, historical trends in classes and changes in the coaching relationship.

Learning about the history of these common gym features can help us see how recently they occurred, and this in turn can hopefully help us feel more confident in challenging them and imagining alternatives.

Similarly, knowing that there have been many co-operative gyms in the past, and that this was in fact the dominant form of governance for a while, can give us confidence that what we're doing is not impossible.

Hopefully we can also learn a little from the demise of those historical co-op models too - to prioritise being welcoming and accessible, and to keep our finances in good order.

There is something particular about this time in history that feels as though it may be a good time for a revival of community-owned fitness spaces. The pandemic demonstrated the importance of those "third places" that are not home or work, and we have noticed how much our members have valued being able to train together again rather than being online. We feel that community-led gyms could be an important "third place".

We also believe that co-op gyms may potentially be more resilient than profiteering models - we were extremely grateful to our members for continuing their subscriptions through out the lockdowns to keep the gym going and this was in real contrast to what happened at the discount gyms, where the majority of members cancelled or froze their payments and many gyms closed.

• Physical Culture Study - a fantastic resource for strength training history

• If you’d prefer strength history in podcast form, Conor has appeared on the No Lift podcast many times

• Strength & Health magazine

• Globo Gym - the archetypal grim gym from Dodgeball

• Hercules Gym - the historic co-op gym in Dublin

• Ivy Russell - pioneering English weightlifter

• Pumping Iron - the documentary that inspired the ‘80s bodybuilding boom

• Jane Fonda Workout - the video that inspired the ‘80s aerobics boom

• Nautilus - classic resistance training machines

• Turnverein - 20th century German gymnastics-and-nationalism political movement

• Hippolyte Triat - early French physical culturist

• Saxon brothers - Arthur, Kurt and Hermann, the Saxon Trio of performing strongmen

• Legs, Bums and Tums - the article I link to describes the class as having “stood the test of time” even though it started in the 1990s ha ha

• R.E. Morgan and G.T. Anderson - Conor’s article on the sports scientists in Leeds who started modern circuit training

• Zumba - form of dance aerobics class created in Colombia in the 1990s

• Richard Simmons - iconic fitness class video instructor

• Planet Fitness “lunk alarm”

• The “Grecian ideal” - could refer to holistic self-development in classical gyms or the mathematical approach to bodybuilding based on Greek sculpture

• Eugen Sandow's Institute of Physical Culture

• Bourneville - model village built by the Cadbury company for their workers, including recreational facilties to improve their health

• The Pathé clip of the hired personal trainer that Conor referred to

• Vic Tanny - pioneer of the modern expansionist chain gym model

• Dan John on carries

• Old Man Yells at Cloud - top-tier Simpsons reference

• Most photographs on this website were taken by Paul Samuel White

• Production support by Yas Clarke

• Graphic design by Steph Weise

The Good Gym Guide Podcast • Series 1, Episode 6

For this, the last episode of the series, I spoke with Darren Faulkner, one of the founders of Primal Gym in Leeds. 

When I asked Darren to imagine his ideal training environment, he paused for a while, looked around, and then said that he felt that Primal Gym was pretty much it. He is in the rare and enviable position of having made his dream gym a reality.

In this interview, he talks us through the systems he has put in place to bring people into this vision and help them achieve what they want from their training. Everything has been thought through, from the design of the entrance and waiting area, to the initial tour, consultation, and ongoing training.

Primal Gym was named by The Telegraph in 2017 as the best facility in the UK for “those who hate the gym”, so where better to learn about alternative gym design?!

When Darren and I sat down and recorded the interview, we spoke for about 40 minutes, which included a lot of me waffling. In editing, it was hard to cut our much of what he said because so much of it felt important.

Maybe let’s start by talking about values. If you watch any of the introductory videos on Primal Gym’s YouTube channel, every coach that’s interviewed refers to their three values of fun, community and results. It’s clear that this isn’t just a marketing slogan but that the staff really embody those ideals.

Holding those values at heart like that seems to have meant that the culture of the environment has stayed true without the need for formal rules.

Similarly, I think the amount of opportunities for feedback and contact with members, both individually and in a community or group setting, keeps everybody involved on-task and prevents that culture from drifting. It also acts as a form of accountability that helps people stay on course to their goals and reasons for training.

There is an idea of “functionality” at Primal Gym that extends beyond just the training philosophy to influence many of the other systems and processes. Everything is measurable, trackable, with the end-point of improved function and performance. 

For example, the use of the InBody scanner and Functional Movement Screening in the initial consultation rather than more wooly, feelings-based self-assessment of our current state.

We know that tracking progress makes us more likely to stick to the habits that affect it, so there are huge benefits to this, if you are a goal-oriented person.

Perhaps surprisingly, there may also be benefits in terms of body image. Drs. Jessica Alleva and Phillippa Diedrichs, at UWE’s world-leading Centre for Appearance Research, have developed a “functionality appreciation scale”. They say that “body functionality has been identified as an important dimension of body image that has the potential to be useful in the prevention and treatment of negative body image and in the enhancement of positive body image. Specifically, cultivating appreciation of body functionality may offset appearance concerns”. I hope to do a podcast interview with them at some point.

So perhaps one way of getting away from bullshit diet culture might be to reframe quantities of fat and muscle mass in terms of how they serve certain functional or performance goals, if someone has them, or to reject the whole quantitative approach if someone just wants to train because it feels good and improves their health. Those are separate interests to both how our body is seen by society and how our body performs in competitive situations, that don’t necessarily have anything to do with body composition.

We also know, however, that that approach doesn’t work for everyone, and Darren says as much, in how Primal Gym knows its audience and redirects other people to yoga studios and other training spaces. This is what excites me though - the idea of a pluricultural range of places that serve their particular audience very well, rather than a monoculture that serves a very small percentage of the audience they attract, simply because nothing else is available. Darren made similar observations when he was talking about niches and Personal Training.

Reaching the end of this series, I am struck by how many times common themes have emerged across the different interviews. I think everyone has mentioned wanting to train outside, many people have mentioned play, community, belonging, natural light, water... I am going to start creating a sort of Pattern Language, informed by the visionary architect Christopher Alexander, to keep a track of these recurrent ideas, and then one day we can hopefully make a place that fulfils them all.

• Primal Gym

• The Telegraph article naming them as the best facility in the UK for “those who hate the gym”

• The Leisure Database Company put out the UK fitness industry’s end-of-year reports

• Industry heads that Darren referred to: Paul Chek, Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Gray Cook

• UWE’s Centre for Appearance Research (which has a great podcast), where Dr. Jessica Alleva and Dr. Philippa Diedrichs developed their Functionality Appreciation Scale

• My hero Christopher Alexander, the architect whose Pattern Language I mentioned at the end

• The above photos come from Primal Gym

• Most other photographs on this website were taken by Paul Samuel White

• Production support by Yas Clarke

• Graphic design by Steph Weise

The Good Gym Guide Podcast • Series 1, Episode 5

This episode is with Gina and Chris Hopkins from Adaptive Martial Arts. AMA provide martial arts training for all abilities. Rather than coaching in a particular lineage or tradition, they take an innovative mixed approach, drawing from multiple disciplines to best suit the specific people they are working with in their classes.

They give some examples of how they assess a potential training venue as being truly, naturally accessible rather than just tokenistic, and get really specific about  the journey they take new, possibly anxious trainees on, from the moment they make contact with AMA through to becoming a regular class member, and maybe even on to grading and competition.

Gina and Chris spoke about all aspects of their training environment, from regulation and governance, business and finances, considering all stakeholders, marketing, communications, coaching, layout of the space, design of clothing and equipment.... It is clear that they had already put so much thought into every aspect of what they do, and I learned so much from hearing them talk about it.

It was so helpful to hear more direct, formal advice about making sure a venue is accessible. At the co-op gym, we have started talking more seriously about the possibility of having our own permanent space, and we must hold these ideas about the unchangeable aspects of a building at the front of our mind, making sure that it serves all of the people we want to train with as a shell, even before we start making the changes we can to it.

I hadn’t paid much attention to making sure that the venue is on major bus routes and that there is ample parking before. This is probably because I cycle of walk everywhere. It’s a typical example of not thinking about something just because it doesn’t directly affect me, and as a result excluding a bunch of people. It just emphasizes the importance of cooperation, and of having as diverse a range of directors and stakeholders as possible, and having good systems for consultation. This is clearly something that AMA do well, and you can see that in how proudly they display their board of directors on their website.

This leads to talking about what they said about approaches to business. Finding sponsors and grants has enabled their classes to be more affordable and subsidised other forms of access, such as flexible payment systems. It’s also created links with other local small businesses and acts as a form of marketing.

Being incorporated as a Community Interest Company - a CIC - is a solid foundation for their ability to be resilient while being innovative, and it gives an added layer of trust for the user. This is a relatively new form of company, having only been introduced in 2005. On the CIC34 end-of-year report, social enterprises must show that their activities have been for the broader good, that their stakeholders have been properly consulted, and that no one’s been paid in a way that’s not in the interest of the public.

It makes sense to me that gyms and sports clubs, which, at least nominally, have the main purpose of improving the health and wellbeing of their users, should be registered as a CIC or some other form of social enterprise, like a community-benefit society or even a charity. It could be a great symbol of difference from the more profit-driven models.

Anyway, back to the classes. I loved the rejection of aspects of traditional martial arts lineages, like the strict hierarchy, the dogmatic approach to coaching, but the retention of others, like, in a piece that I actually ended up cutting out, how they use the gi - the traditional clothing - as a sort of comfortable barrier when introducing new trainees to the amount of physical contact required in grappling.

I loved hearing about Gina’s experience as an elite athlete, training under different coaches, and how that has translated into what she looks for in her own team at AMA.

Last thing I will say is about how exciting I found the idea of setting up a system of disability-inclusive accreditation and grading for martial arts gyms. This could be a fantastic opportunity to take what AMA are pioneering in the UK to other Mixed martial arts gyms. MMA is one of the fastest-growing sports in this country, but it is still very young. The idea of having that sort of influence at this stage of its development, while most MMA gyms are independent and perhaps open and malleable, is really exciting. It could really alter the wider culture of those spaces, making them more inclusive and spreading self-defence skills among some of the most potentially-vulnerable people in our society, while also creating communities that reduce isolation and improve physical and mental health. Also, of course, it opens up a whole new group of customers, so it works for the gyms in that sense too!

• Their website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

• They have some nice examples of their workshops and classes and also some instructional videos on their YouTube channel

• Government information about CICs

• Grappler’s Heart tournament

• If you’re interested in the history of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, The Hero with a Thousand Holds has some incredible maps about its early days (plus, I just want to link to that incredible project…)

• The above photos are from Adaptive Martial Arts

• Most other photographs on this website were taken by Paul Samuel White

• Production support by Yas Clarke

• Graphic design by Steph Weise

The Good Gym Guide Podcast • Series 1, Episode 4

This episode is with Charlie Bones, who runs the X-Ray Spexercise Punk Aerobics classes. In the familiar environments of music venues and pubs, she pairs classic punk culture with simple aerobic exercises to share the benefits of physical activity with people who can’t stand gyms and gym playlists.

She talks about how she creates an environment where people feel okay to make mistakes, get sweaty, and look silly, and how she avoids common problems of coaching large groups - like cueing better technique without making people feel singled-out.

Charlie’s imagined training space combines huge, unconstrained dreams of beaches, jungles, water slides, live music - with provision of overlooked essentials like childcare, life skills, and affordable food. It’s an environment that wants you to feel good while training, as well as afterwards.

I was really struck by the combination of thinking at that grand scale as well as thinking really specifically about how training spaces must provide affordable childcare if people with children are to use them, drawing on her and her daughter’s own experience. This is obviously hugely important, both for allowing new mums to navigate their relationship to their changing bodies, and potentially to avoid the social isolation that can happen after having a baby.

I think there are further implications for this too - it is not always suitable for someone who’s just been pregnant or had a child to go back to the exercise routine they had before. It may be important to spend some time focusing on pelvic floor health, or specific sorts of core stability, or just spending time reconnecting with your body in its new state before jumping back in to where you were before. At the moment though, that’s not accessible in gyms, coaches aren’t trained in it, and, outside of the gym, we don’t have the same systems for healing and rehabilitation in this country as there are in France, for example.

This is SO important, but it’s so misunderstood, with GPs often prescribing the opposite of what is required - kegels, for example, instead of connected breathing and relaxation exercises. Of course, this is just one of many examples of how the fitness industry, and healthcare more generally, prioritises the needs of men, who don’t experience this in the same way. Pair that with the body image culture we have and the pressure there to get your pre-baby body back and it’s a recipe for real problems, but also an opportunity to make a real difference through quite small changes in how we educate our coaches and what classes we offer.

I thought it was so interesting too how she identified that gyms could be a great service for young people in the same way that sports clubs are, but perhaps reach kids who aren’t drawn to the gendered, competitive culture of most sports. Teenagers, especially, might be able to get a lot from spaces that allow them to explore their bodies, and body image, through exercise. This makes me think of intergenerational social spaces where we could also train together - it would be nice to talk to someone about this in a future episode.

Related to that, I thought it was interesting how there would be a sort of informal space for children to move in - the adventure playground - but that as adults we expect more formal structures - classes, schedules, sets and reps. There are organisations that challenge this and try to offer, for example, playground games for adults - but, to my closed mind, it all gets a bit cringe. There is definitely something interesting there though, and some way of doing it better.

One thing that might be related - which I ended up editing out of the podcast - was Charlie saying about a friend who doesn’t come to her classes because he goes raving and gets all his exercise there. Dance seems to be a sort of acceptable form of adult play, but it’s interesting that that is seen as different to what happens in a gym.

The last bit I wanted to say was about how, even though the space that Charlie imagined was conceived in opposition to the normal shite, it was rooted in fun and compassion, love for movement, and for sharing that with others. It was a real pleasure to talk about.

• X-Ray Spexercise’s Facebook and Instagram

• Classes happen at the Exchange, the Lion, and Wellsping Healthy Living Centre

• Charlie’s done sessions for Extinction Rebellion and Bristol Sisterhood

• She’s fundraised for Bristol Refugee Rights and Calais Refugee Solidarity Bristol

• The X-Ray Spexercise logo was designed by Maesy Hook, and Charlie’s amazing sportswear was by Betty Bottom Dollar (see the Facebook page for some great progress photos and videos!)

• Bands that have donated music to use in classes are Hagar the Womb, the Sporadics, Inner Terrestrials, the Blunders, the Menstrual Cramps, Dog Shite, Anthrax UK, Spanner, Mad Dog Collective and China Shop Bull

• The American group doing punk aerobics that Charlie mentioned

• All the photographs above came from Charlie

• Most other photographs on this website were taken by Paul Samuel White

• Production support by Yas Clarke

• Graphic design by Steph Weise

The Good Gym Guide Podcast • Series 1, Episode 3

This episode is with David Sully, who runs two very different exercise groups in Bristol - the LGBTQ fitness classes at Hamilton House and the Yate Active Wellbeing Group. 

Although the content of these classes, and the people who go to them, are very different, in both settings Dave creates a space where exercise is used as a tool not just for improving our physical health, but also to start conversations and build relationships.

Dave talks about his experience of using exercise to improve his mental health, how this led him to train as a PT and start the classes, what he’s learned in the years he’s been doing them, and how he’d take these lessons into the running of a permanent, dedicated training space designed around the needs of these groups and others under-served by most gyms.

It was really inspiring to hear how he recognised a gap in the provision of services that he felt he needed, and then created them so that they were available to others.

Similarly, about how his experience of feeling isolated and unconfident can be turned into empathy and compassion in his practice as a coach. It made me think about what we each bring of our own experience to our training. How there are as many reasons for training - and coaching, or any other sort of gym work - as there are people in the gym, and whether it’s possible to create an environment that serves all of them without excluding others.

I really appreciate how specific Dave got about aspects of that - like saying about how some of his Yate group like training in bare feet. That idea will recur in another episode in this series actually - episode 5, with Adaptive Martial Arts. It’s easy to say platitudes about “oh, it should be a space that’s welcoming to everyone”, but achieving that is probably impossible. Having specific examples and specific guidance is much more helpful, especially when given by people directly affected by thoughtless design.

• The LGBT Fitness Class on Facebook

• The Dance Music Arts Collective above Hamilton House that the class is part of

• Yate Active Wellbeing Group website, with a video introducing the project

• Fitness classes at the Birmingham LGBT Centre

• The history of the Bristol Lesbian and Gay Switchboard, from the EXCELLENT Outstories project

• Bristol Bisons (rugby) and Bristol City Panthers (football)

• All the photographs above came from Dave

• Most other photographs on this website were taken by Paul Samuel White

• Production support by Yas Clarke

• Graphic design by Steph Weise