A low-lit room of people holding a wide standing shape, the teacher in among them with her own arms out
Four people · 41 sessions · nobody teaches more than fourteen

You are told who, before you are asked to pay.

Every row on the timetable has one name against it and that name does not change without a fortnight's notice. Here they are, and here is each one's own column of the week.

Saturday 09:15 · Strong Backs · the teacher stands in the row and holds it too
A woman with cropped grey curls folding forward in a sunlit room, arms hanging loose
Margaux demonstrating the long fold, Tuesday 09:00
Founder · teaching since 2004

Margaux Thiry

Opened the first floor in 2017 with a borrowed machine and one 06:45 that three people came to. Teaches the two hundreds and both Level 4 sessions, and does the Sunday-night sheet herself, which is why it goes up at six and not at five. Trained first as a physiotherapist in Liège and still thinks like one: she will ask you what you do for eight hours a day before she asks you anything else.

14 sessions a week · the longest and the hardest
Her column
  • Tue18:30Load · Level 4
  • Wed17:00Long Hour
  • Thu09:10Long Hour
  • Sat10:15Slow Hundred
  • Sun09:00Slow Hundred
Return and First Six Weeks · with us since 2018

Rita Soenens

Fifty-eight, taught school gymnastics for twenty-two years before this, and has the loudest and clearest voice in the building. Every first-timer in the place meets Rita, because she runs three of the four First Six Weeks and both weekday Returns. Keeps a paper notebook with a line about every person she has taught since 2018 and reads it before each session.

11 sessions a week · all of them Level 1
A woman with short blonde hair holding both palms out mid-instruction in a wide sports hall
Rita counting a class in, Friday 09:00
Her column
  • Mon08:15First Six Weeks
  • Tue09:00Return
  • Wed08:20First Six Weeks
  • Wed19:15Return
  • Fri09:00Return
  • Sat12:10Return
A man sitting on a box with a clipboard, writing while the person beside him talks
Bram taking notes before Strong Backs, Wednesday 18:05
Load and Strong Backs · with us since 2021

Bram Ketelaar

Came from a strength gym in Charleroi and spent his first six months here being told to slow everything down. Writes the weights on a clipboard before the session rather than deciding in the room, which is the single reason Strong Backs runs to the minute. Will tell you that your grip is the problem roughly every third week until you believe him.

7 sessions a week · Level 3, and the heaviest things in the room
His column
  • Mon18:20Load
  • Tue07:40Strong Backs
  • Wed18:15Strong Backs
  • Thu17:30Load
  • Fri07:40Strong Backs
  • Sat09:15Strong Backs
Spine, Early Forty and the twelve-thirties · with us since 2022

Derya Aydin

Twenty-nine, teaches more sessions than anyone and almost all of them are short. Took over the lunchtime half-hours in her second month and turned them from the quietest thing on the sheet into the thing that closes first. Runs the machines on a Monday evening and is the person to ask if you want to know what a session will actually feel like before you book it.

9 sessions a week · nothing longer than sixty minutes
A woman in black kneeling on a machine mid-demonstration, looking back over her shoulder at the room
Derya setting a machine up, Monday 17:05
Her column
  • Mon12:30Thirty at One
  • Mon17:15Spine
  • Tue06:45Early Forty
  • Thu13:00Thirty at One
  • Fri17:55Spine
  • Sun11:55Spine
Eight mats set out in two rows on a wide timber floor, blocks squared at the head of each
EightSet out at 06:20 by whoever has the first session · never nine
“
The hardest thing about running a timetable is refusing to add to it. Every empty Tuesday afternoon on that sheet is a decision, and every one of them is the reason the Wednesday evening is any good.
Margaux Thiry · founder · said at the staff meeting on 12 January and written on the wall the same afternoon
Who covers whom
  • Margaux awayBram takes the hundreds, shortened to eighty, and says so on the sheet the night before
  • Rita awayMargaux takes Return. First Six Weeks is moved rather than covered — it is a course, not a class
  • Bram awayStrong Backs runs lighter with Derya; Level 4 Load does not run at all
  • Derya awayThe twelve-thirties run with Rita. Everybody notices and everybody says so
  • Two away at onceHas happened twice. Both times four sessions were cancelled with two days' notice and refunded without being asked
Training, and what it is worth

Everyone here teaches somewhere else one day a week, on purpose.

A studio where all four teachers only ever see each other turns into one accent very quickly. Margaux teaches a hospital rehabilitation group on Wednesday mornings; Rita runs a school session on Thursdays; Bram coaches a rowing club; Derya spends Saturday afternoons at a studio in Liège. None of that is on this timetable, and all of it ends up in it.

  • QualificationsTwo physiotherapy degrees, four teaching certificates, and one gymnastics coaching licence that predates all of them
  • Hours observedEvery new teacher sits through forty sessions before taking one, and teaches their first six with somebody at the back
  • Paid forPreparation, the Sunday sheet, and the fifteen minutes after a session — not just the fifty-five in the middle
  • Turnover since 2017One person, who moved to Hasselt and still covers the Saturday hundred twice a year
  • What we do not doHire anybody to teach a session they would not choose to attend
What each of them actually teaches →
Ask for one by name · we will tell you if they are the wrong one for you

Book a row, meet the name on it.

If you want Rita, take a Tuesday 09:00. If you want to be left alone, take a Thursday 20:00. Either is twelve euro the first time.

Open the week
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