Questionspeople ask

No. Roughly half the people who book a first session have never held a barbell, and the first session is built around that — you spend most of the hour with a coach and an empty bar.

The people who find it hardest are not beginners. They are people who have trained for years alone and have to be told something they were doing wrong.

Whatever you own. Trainers with a flat sole are better than running shoes because you are standing on the floor rather than moving over it, but if all you own is running shoes, wear those and nobody will say anything.

There is nothing to buy before you come. No belt, no straps, no shoes, no shaker.

The membership runs from 19 to 71 and the split is close to even by gender. The 09:30 classes skew older, the 17:30 and 18:45 skew late twenties, and Saturday morning is the widest mix of the week.

You will not be the weakest person in the room, because everyone works from their own numbers on their own rack. There is no shared weight and nothing is compared.

No, and this is the single most common reason people put off booking. The warm-up is eight minutes and deliberately easy. The conditioning piece is four minutes and gets scaled down on a first session.

Getting fit first is not a thing that happens. It is the thing this is for.

There is not one, in the sense that matters: you will not be asked to sign anything, hand over card details, or set up a direct debit at the end of the hour.

The honest version of the catch is that we will ring you once, within one working day, to ask what you thought. If we do not reach you we will send one text. That is the entire follow-up.

A real session, in a real class, for the full hour. You warm up with the group and then work with the coach on your own bar while the class runs.

You can read the whole thing minute by minute on the first session page rather than taking our word for it.

Yes. Tell us when you book and we will put both of you in the same slot. It is a common request and it is a good idea if it is what gets you through the door.

One email to cancel@forgeathletic.club. You will get a reply confirming the last date you are charged and nothing else — no phone call, no exit survey, no retention offer.

Membership is monthly with 30 days’ notice. There is no minimum term.

No. You can book on this site, or write your name on the whiteboard, or tell a coach. All three work and always will.

Yes, up to three months in a year, free. Email and tell us the dates. Injuries, work trips, new babies and bad winters are all normal reasons and we do not ask which one it is.

Nothing. Nobody will send you a "we miss you" email. If you come back after six months a coach will spend the first session finding out where you are now rather than where you were.

Barbell classes cap at twelve, because there are six racks and four platforms and two people can share a rack without either of them waiting. Conditioning caps at sixteen.

When a class is full it is full. We do not add a thirteenth person.

After your fourth week, yes — written on paper, specific to you, and yours to keep whether you stay or not. Before that you follow the class, which is the right thing to do while a coach is still learning how you move.

Usually, and it is worth a conversation rather than an assumption. Arjun holds a Level 4 qualification in lower back pain management and a fair proportion of the 09:30 class is there on a physio’s recommendation.

Tell us what it is when you book, in the box on the form. It genuinely helps.

No body composition scans, no body-fat calipers, no BMI, no before-and-after photographs, no weigh-ins, and no nutrition plans sold as an add-on.

We coach lifting and conditioning. If you want to talk about food a coach will happily talk about food, and will not sell you anything.