Staal
BlocksMembershipBefore you comeContact
A lifter pressing an empty bar overhead in a bare gym.
A rack of dumbbells along a gym wall.

Eight weeks before
you touch a
heavy bar

See what it costs

Two rooms · six coaches · no mirrors in the back

Squat · Hinge · Push · Pull · Carry · Squat · Hinge · Push · Pull · Carry · Squat · Hinge · Push · Pull · Carry · Squat · Hinge · Push · Pull · Carry · Squat · Hinge · Push · Pull · Carry · Squat · Hinge · Push · Pull · Carry ·

Start light, stay longer

Most people who quit a gym quit in the third month, with a sore back and a story about how they have no time. Almost none of them were too weak. They were too fast.

So the first eight weeks here are deliberately boring. You learn five movements with a bar that weighs nothing, a coach counts your reps out loud, and you go home before you are tired. After that we add weight, and we keep adding it for years.

A lifter setting up over a loaded bar on a rubber floor.

Meet your
coach

A coach standing at the edge of the training floor.

Every block is written by the coach who runs it, and the same person is on the floor when you do it. Nobody here hands you a printed plan and walks away, because the plan is not the hard part — the fourth week is.

How a first week goes

Four blocks, in this order

01Learn the five movements

A lifter holding a bar across the shoulders, seen from behind. Weeks
1—8
What you do: squat, hinge, push, pull, carry How often: twice a week, 50 minutes Load: an empty bar, and then a little

Two sessions a week, never three. You will leave with energy left and that is the point; the sore version of this makes people stop in March.

02Add weight on purpose

Hands closing around a dumbbell at the rack. Weeks
9—20
What you do: the same five, heavier How often: three times a week, 60 minutes Load: written down every session

This is where the notebook starts. Two and a half kilos at a time, and a week off the gas every fifth week, which almost everybody argues about and nobody regrets.

03Train around a bad week

A single bench and a set of weights in a quiet room. Any
week
What you do: the session you can do today How often: whenever the week goes wrong Load: whatever is left in you

Slept badly, shoulder stiff, back from a flight. Tell the coach at the door and you get a different session, not a lecture. Showing up at half is the whole skill.

04Keep going without us

A small group working through an exercise on mats. Year
two
What you do: write your own block How often: as often as it holds Load: yours to choose, ours to check

After a year most people do not need a coach standing next to them. We will read what you wrote, argue with one line of it, and leave you to it.

Take the first block
No mirrors in the back room · Chalk stays in the bowl · Put it back where it lives

We will not put a heavy bar on your back in your first eight weeks, however well you say you know the movement.

House rule, and the one people argue with

A member resting between sets against the wall.

Two ways in

Open floor

€39

per month, cancel with one month's notice

The floor, the racks and a coach in the room during opening hours. For people who already have a plan and want somewhere to run it.

Read the conditions

Coached block

€69

per month, first block is eight weeks

Everything above, plus a written block, a fixed hour twice a week and a coach who counts. This is the one we put nearly everybody in.

Read the conditions
Most
people
start here
The main floor after closing, racks in a row.
Doors 06:30 · Last session 21:15 · Sunday is for the sauna and we do not have one
A member finishing a set of sit-ups on the floor.

Before you come

First visit
Forty minutes, free, and you will not train. We watch you move, ask what hurts and tell you which block you are starting in.
What to bring
Shoes with a flat sole, a towel and something to write with. No belt, no straps, no shaker; you will not need any of it for two months.
Injuries
Tell us at the door, every time, even the old ones. We train around almost everything, but not around something we only hear about afterwards.
Stopping
One month's notice, by email or on paper at the desk. No freeze fee, no talk about why, and your notebook stays here if you ever come back.
Under eighteen
From fifteen, in the coached block only, with a parent at the first visit. The block is the same; the loading is slower.
Busy hours
Half past five to half past seven on weekdays. If you have any choice at all, come at ten in the morning and have the place almost to yourself.

Staal

Kanaaldijk 7
Tilburg
+31 6 000 000 00

Monday to Friday06:30 — 22:00
Saturday08:00 — 16:00
Sunday09:00 — 13:00

Staal is a fictional example. The gym, the address, the coaches, the opening times and the prices do not exist. Photographs are stock images and do not show this gym.