100 Starting Strength gyms in 5 years

[Hanley]

Whether he would now I don't know.

Yeah, his old gym really mixed shit up. Xfit, mma, powerlifting. Nice f'ing locker rooms. Fuck. Amazing looking place.

[platypus]

… as it is incredibly clear that the StSt program can be done in any gym, anywhere.

Assuming it has a squat rack, barbells, round plates, and an acceptable floor for deadlifting. That's asking a lot.

[Chebass88]

… as it is incredibly clear that the StSt program can be done in any gym, anywhere.

Assuming it has a squat rack, barbells, round plates, and an acceptable floor for deadlifting. That's asking a lot.

Every single commercial gym I’ve ever been in has been suitable for getting stronger.

I’m also not particularly offended by dodecagonal plates - even if you have to do singles - do them and reset the weights. Or just do T&G deadlifts, and the misaligned plates don’t matter so much. Regarding a floor - as long as it is reasonsably hard, it is prefect for deadlifts. Maybe it wouldn’t stand up to dropping the bar, but provided you put it down in a calm fashion, it is no problem.

With the exception of two gyms (both YMCAs - my own fault, I should have done a little more homework before going there), they’ve all had racks. The barbells aren’t ideal, but they do in a pinch. If that was all I had to train on, I’d make it work.

[hsilman]

I did my LP at a city rec center for $75/year. 32mm bars with terrible knurling and a single power rack.

[asdf]

you don't NEED to pay us $250 / month anymore

That's actually a good idea (rates that get reduced with training time at the gym) [pauses, considers].

Paul Horn had that realization and so created an open gym option for those who have completed their LP. I think his gym is divided into two sides: one for people being coached, and the other for open gym. I think the open gym is monitored by a coach (at least at times), who can also help with form checks, programming questions, etc. Pretty sure there's key-card 24-hour access as well.

[Hanley]

you don't NEED to pay us $250 / month anymore

That's actually a good idea (rates that get reduced with training time at the gym) [pauses, considers].

Paul Horn had that realization and so created an open gym option for those who have completed their LP. I think his gym is divided into two sides: one for people being coached, and the other for open gym. I think the open gym is monitored by a coach (at least at times), who can also help with form checks, programming questions, etc. Pretty sure there's key-card 24-hour access as well.

I'm guessing that'll be a model for franchises. Smart setup.

[KOTJ]

you don't NEED to pay us $250 / month anymore

That's actually a good idea (rates that get reduced with training time at the gym) [pauses, considers].

Paul Horn had that realization and so created an open gym option for those who have completed their LP. I think his gym is divided into two sides: one for people being coached, and the other for open gym. I think the open gym is monitored by a coach (at least at times), who can also help with form checks, programming questions, etc. Pretty sure there's key-card 24-hour access as well.

I'm guessing that'll be a model for franchises. Smart setup.

Reynolds is looking for a 14 year old model to setup his deadlift demo.

[BenM]

I just have one thing really to add to this thread.

[KyleSchuant]

I did my LP at a city rec center for $75/year. 32mm bars with terrible knurling and a single power rack.

I think we can be fairly certain that the person who wants to pay $75 a year is not Reynolds' target demographic.

Having small group coaching limits the numbers, so you have to charge a bit.

First up, anyone not familiar with it needs to bear in mind that people with money to pay for training generally work 9-5, so that 80% of training sessions are 0600-0800 and 1700-2100. You get some retirees, students and stay-at-home mothers during the day, and the occasional shift worker, but those 6hr a day are mostly it.

If you train people mornings then you have to have shower facilities available, which increases the size of property you need, so a higher purchase/rental cost, and means a lot of cleaning, too. Plus, do mornings and evenings and you're there 16 hours a day and start to hate the place. So a lot of black iron gyms just go for afternoons and evenings.

For example, let's say you go Mon/Wed/Fri and a group at each of 5, 6, and 7pm. You'd want a group of 6. If they're all newbies then you don't need 1:1, and 4 is a good number. But you go for 6 because someone will sign up and barely ever come and there'll be 1 who comes about half the time, leaving you with 4 most sessions. So that's 18 people you can sign up while working Mon/Wed/Fri 5-8pm. If you want to be more generous with time and allow 90' a session then that's 12 people. Toss in Sun/Tue/Thu and you double your potential numbers.

You can do lunchtimes and so on but they tend not to be super-regular, as professionals often work through lunch, change their hours and all that. Anyway with all that you get 3-6 days a week of work, 9-18 hours for 12-36 people.

For each client there's 15-30' a week on programming for them, communicating back and forth about injuries and how they're feeling, answering all sorts of questions and so on; some will be 0' but there's always someone who takes up an hour or two of your week. And there's cleaning and paperwork admin.

Now think of how much you'd like to earn, add in rental of the facility and utilities, and divide that up among 12-36 people.

Now you see why most gyms will also have an "open gym" thing going on, or large group classes or whatever, and charge more than $75 a year.

For reference, I believe Sullivan charges USD400 a month for Greysteel.

[Allentown]

More than anything, I’m proud of our style of training. Our training is simple, hard, and effective. We have outstanding customer service and our gym is impeccably clean. Those qualities seem so simple, but they’re not. A lot of gyms have great training but are in shithole locations that are dirty—and that’s who we were too, at one point—and some people want that and love it. But when you get heat, A/C, and locker rooms, it’s amazing the people who come out of the woodwork to join. The training we had before and the training we have now is exactly the same, but now we have around 900 members instead of 60.

As HSilman noted, we already have lots of black iron gyms. But they're mostly pretty grungy, death metal is playing, and the owners are grumpy and sweaty and throw you out for not squatting. And nobody wants to go to the toilet after a sweaty 300lb powerlifter has been in there. Adding in customer service and cleanliness would make a big difference.

Now, whether it's a big enough difference to make a place wildly profitable, I don't know. But a guy who built a gym from 60 people in a dusty garage to 900 people in 14,000 square feet might know.

This x100.
Heat, AC, clean locker rooms, showers... and rusty cages and wooden benches. It's perfect.

lot of cleaning

Interns. Group of 3 interns, come for the lunch class, clean the gym between lunch and the 3-4 PM class, help coach for the evening. Pay them in coaching and experience. You get a clean gym and more eyes and help building community, plus a coaching pipeline. They get free coaching, free gym membership, free experience.
Or charge them, I guess. If they've bought into you being such a fantastic coach they are willing to buy into a pyramid scheme.

[jwilson625]

you don't NEED to pay us $250 / month anymore

That's actually a good idea (rates that get reduced with training time at the gym) [pauses, considers].

This is part of the reason why I stopped using SSOC. After a while (assuming you get a decent coach that can actually correct your technique), you're effectively paying $200/mo for programming and a "looks solid" or maybe one little cue to work on now and then.

[strega]

The real goal to might be to get like 20 gyms underway, make it appear sustainable/profitable, then sell out to some investor group or something.

I’ve been on a few M&A teams over the years. Different sectors but if I ran the standard sort of logic, forget Wichita Falls. I’d need to see a brand new facility owned by the corporation that models the new franchise model. That site would have to show profitability on its own separate from Wichita Falls and Rip. After that is under their belt, do it again. Only after they get a handful of gyms running and successful as a corporate-owned model should they start selling franchises. With those initial steps under their belt, sure build it up to 20 franchises and look for a partner or sell out. The fact that they seem to be going from zero corporate owned to a franchise model is a big red flag.

[HulkSmash]

you don't NEED to pay us $250 / month anymore

That's actually a good idea (rates that get reduced with training time at the gym) [pauses, considers].

Paul Horn had that realization and so created an open gym option for those who have completed their LP. I think his gym is divided into two sides: one for people being coached, and the other for open gym. I think the open gym is monitored by a coach (at least at times), who can also help with form checks, programming questions, etc. Pretty sure there's key-card 24-hour access as well.

I'm guessing that'll be a model for franchises. Smart setup.

Yeah, I like this set up. I'm guessing they'd add an intermediates class later on that transitions from the SSLP to HLM/TexMethod or a 4 day split.

[Chebass88]

you don't NEED to pay us $250 / month anymore

That's actually a good idea (rates that get reduced with training time at the gym) [pauses, considers].

Paul Horn had that realization and so created an open gym option for those who have completed their LP. I think his gym is divided into two sides: one for people being coached, and the other for open gym. I think the open gym is monitored by a coach (at least at times), who can also help with form checks, programming questions, etc. Pretty sure there's key-card 24-hour access as well.

The "open gym" or key card option is probably the best idea of the whole bunch. A trainee gets to go in when they want, use equipment, and then leave, without having to share a power rack with a class of people who are likely not at a similar level of advancement. Also, not having lifts micromanaged by someone is a pretty nice feature.

[Allentown]

The "open gym" or key card option is probably the best idea of the whole bunch. A trainee gets to go in when they want, use equipment, and then leave, without having to share a power rack with a class of people who are likely not at a similar level of advancement. Also, not having lifts micromanaged by someone is a pretty nice feature.

But... why would they choose to use bad equipment? Location, environment, price, and quality of the equipment are all important. Due to the lack of "cardio-bunnies" and the "no-show" members who subsidize the free-weight-using members, price is going to have to be higher than a non-dedicated black iron gym. We've seen that the equipment is, (ahem) very sub-par. The environment is going to be determined from above- who knows how open they are to someone doing more than three sets of 5?, so it could vary, along with the location.

[asdf]

There are many features of Horn's gym that attract people. It's clean and has great equipment. Paul and Ness are charismatic, nice people. The gym promotes itself as being an anti "bro" space and against histrionic lifting. All of that, plus the somewhat high cost work as a filter. The gym attracts a friendly, educated clientele. A lot of people are willing to pay more to be isolated from idiots and douchebags.

[Griff]

But... why would they choose to use bad equipment? Location, environment, price, and quality of the equipment are all important. Due to the lack of "cardio-bunnies" and the "no-show" members who subsidize the free-weight-using members, price is going to have to be higher than a non-dedicated black iron gym. We've seen that the equipment is, (ahem) very sub-par. The environment is going to be determined from above- who knows how open they are to someone doing more than three sets of 5?, so it could vary, along with the location.

Reynolds is probably the brains behind the franchise model, but the WFAC cosplay equipment has to be a Rip mandate. Reynolds seems like he'd be more pragmatic--just outfit with decent stuff Rogue/Sorinex/Legend/etc. Walking into a gym with rusted racks and being told to lay down on a butcher block would be a pretty big turnoff to... a lot of normal people. Seems like the setup is meant to cater to those who have already drunk the kool-aid. Narrowcasting I guess.

[hsilman]

Gotta be honest, if I was gen pop and I walked into a gym, even with a big "Starting Strength" sign out front, and it was full of wobbly racks and 8th grade shop class benches with "SS" engraved or burned on to all the equipment, I would nope the fuck out of there.

If I knew about SS, I'd want to join a SS gym, probably. I mean, not me personally, but in general. But to get walk-ins? I'm not seeing it.

[jwilson625]

Gotta be honest, if I was gen pop and I walked into a gym, even with a big "Starting Strength" sign out front, and it was full of wobbly racks and 8th grade shop class benches with "SS" engraved or burned on to all the equipment, I would nope the fuck out of there.

If I knew about SS, I'd want to join a SS gym, probably. I mean, not me personally, but in general. But to get walk-ins? I'm not seeing it.

something something narrowcasting

edit: Griff beat me to it

[Cinic]

This franchise appears to closely model the setup that Ray Gillenwater has going in Costa Mesa, CA with The Strength Co. They have 8 racks and an Airdyne. Well except that he has Rogue racks. I dropped in there a year ago and it was a great place to train. They allowed me to train w/o supervision as my coach at the time knew Ray and vouched for me.

Must be having success there as they're opening another location.