Length is the only thing that really changes.
Below, every session we run, ordered shortest to longest and drawn to that length. The bar is the session; the space to the right of it is the rest of the hour you keep.
Twenty-five to a hundred
One measure, 0 to 100 minutes, used on all ten. Prices are per session if you pay as you go; a card or a monthly brings them down by a third.
Floor only, lights low, no music. Built for the evening you nearly did not come. Five a week and the one we would put a first-timer in if they were nervous.
Mon 19:30 · Tue 19:40 · Thu 20:00 · Sat 13:10 · Sun 13:00The lunch one. Starts on the minute, finishes on the minute, and nobody will talk to you afterwards because you have eleven minutes to get back. The fullest half-hour in the week.
Mon · Tue · Wed · Fri 12:30 · Thu 13:00Tuesday 12:30 · minute nine of thirty 06:45, three mornings. Forty minutes because that is what fits between a shower and a train, and because an hour at a quarter to seven is a thing people book twice and then stop.
Tue · Thu · Fri 06:45Pulling, hanging and carrying. The only session where you will be handed something heavy in the first five minutes, and the one most people come to after a year of sitting badly.
Tue 07:40 · Wed 18:15 · Fri 07:40 · Sat 09:15Rotation, side bending, and the bit of your back that has not moved since school. Slow, awkward and the session people are most surprised by — it is harder than it looks from the door.
Mon 17:15 · Wed 07:15 · Thu 18:40 · Fri 17:55 · Sun 11:55Four people, two teachers, and a written note about you that we actually read before you arrive. For after a birth, an operation, or eight months of being told to rest by somebody who then stopped answering.
Tue 09:00 · Wed 19:15 · Fri 09:00 · Sat 12:10Heavier, slower, counted. Three sessions, one of which is Level 4 and by invitation. If you have been coming for a year and nothing has got harder, this is the one you are missing.
Mon 18:20 · Tue 18:30 (Level 4) · Thu 17:30The beginning, run as a proper course you can join at any point. Six names, six weeks, and at the end of it somebody tells you which of the other nine you are ready for and which you are not.
Mon 08:15 · Wed 08:20 · Thu 08:00 · Sun 10:50Six a week and the spine of the place. A full hour means the warm-up is not rushed and the last ten minutes are not cut, which is the whole argument for it over the forty.
Mon 07:00 · Tue 17:15 · Wed 17:00 · Thu 09:10 · Fri 16:45 · Sat 08:00Twice a week, at the weekend, with tea in the middle of it. A hundred minutes is long enough to go back and fix something properly instead of filing it for next time.
Sat 10:15 · Sun 09:00Sunday 09:00 · the ninety-fourth minute
Sunday 08:40, between the hundred and the First Six WeeksFour machines, eight mats, and a kettle.
People ask what the equipment is before they ask what the sessions are, which is backwards, so here it is once and then we will not mention it again.
- On the floorEight mats, eight sets of blocks and straps, and a box of folded towels nobody has ever had to ask for
- Along the wallFour machines, two of them twelve years old and better than the new ones
- Weight2 kg to 28 kg, in pairs, because Strong Backs needs it and nothing else does
- Not in the roomMirrors, a sound system you can hear over, a screen, a camera, or a scale
- DownstairsTwo changing rooms, one shower, and a bike rack that fits nine at a squeeze
Six questions, answered the way we answer them on the phone.
What do I wear?
Something you can bend in and socks you do not mind sitting on the floor in. That is the whole answer. Nobody in the room is looking at what you have on, including us.
I have a bad knee. Which one?
Return, on a Tuesday or a Friday morning, with two teachers in the room. Tell us on the phone rather than in the doorway and you will have been thought about before you walk in.
Can I come while pregnant?
Yes, to Return and to Quiet Twenty-Five, at any stage, and to Spine until you would rather not. Rita has taught the Return sessions for six years and will ask you two questions at the door every single week.
Is anyone here my age?
The youngest person on the books is nineteen and the oldest is seventy-eight. The 12:30s skew to people in their thirties, the morning sessions to people in their fifties and sixties, and the Saturday hundred is everybody at once.
What if I miss three weeks?
Then you miss three weeks. Pause the month by text and nobody will chase you, phone you, or send you a message about momentum. Come back to the same session you left and start from where you are.
Do I have to talk to anyone?
Once, at the start, when we go round the room and ask what hurts. After that you can say nothing for fifty-five minutes and leave without a word, and three people do exactly that every Thursday.
Pick by length, not by name.
Most people get this wrong at the start and book the hour because it sounds serious. Book the forty. If it is too short you will know by the second week, and nobody has ever complained about leaving wanting more.