Head Strength Coach
Marcus Adeyemi
Fifteen years under a barbell and eleven coaching other people under one. Marcus writes the strength templates every Ironhaus member starts on.
2014
Opened on Shady Lane, Austin
2
Locations, both capped on numbers
31
Coached classes every week
14
People maximum in any class
OUR
PHILOSOPHY
Three things we decided early and have not changed since, even when changing them would have been more profitable.
01
The coaching is the product. Everything else is furniture.
Anyone can buy racks. What decides whether you are still training in three years is whether somebody competent watched your first month, corrected the things worth correcting and left the rest alone. That is why we staff the floor at every hour we are open, and why every membership includes an assessment and a written plan rather than selling them back to you later.
02
We are training you for the next twenty years, not the next twenty days.
Nothing here is built around a six-week transformation. New members spend their first month doing less than they are capable of, because the positions built in that month are what let somebody squat more at forty-five than they did at twenty-five. It is a slower sell and a much better outcome, and it is the single thing we refuse to compromise on.
03
A capped membership is worth more than a cheap one.
We limit how many people can join each location, which costs us real money every month. In return you can walk in at six in the evening and get a rack, the classes stay at fourteen people, and a coach has time to look at your set rather than the queue behind you. A gym you cannot use is not cheaper, it is just wasted.
The staff
Who is on the floor
Four full-time coaches, all of whom still train here themselves. You will be introduced to every one of them in your first week.
Conditioning Lead
Nadia Brandt
Former 800m runner who now builds engines for people who lift. Nadia runs the conditioning block and the Thursday intervals.
Performance Nutrition Coach
Dev Raman
Registered nutritionist with a low tolerance for supplement marketing. Dev handles member nutrition reviews and writes most of what you read here about food.
Mobility & Recovery Coach
Elena Sokolova
Movement specialist who runs the recovery suite and the mobility classes that keep everyone else able to train.
I had been a member of three gyms in six years and never lasted past February at any of them. What was different here was that somebody actually wrote me a plan and then checked whether it was working. Two years in, I have pulled a 180kg deadlift and I have not missed a week since the first spring.
I came in after a shoulder reconstruction, fully expecting to be told to go away and come back when I was fixed. Instead Elena built the whole first block around what I could do and we worked outwards from there. I am pressing overhead again, which two surgeons told me was optimistic.
The capped membership sounded like marketing until I turned up at half six on a Tuesday and walked straight onto a platform. That is the whole reason I still train here. I pay a bit more than I did at the big chain and I use it roughly four times as often.
Questions we get asked at the front desk
I have never set foot in a weights room. Is this the wrong gym for me?
It is the right one, and roughly a third of our members joined having never touched a barbell. Start on Foundations, which runs four times a week and exists purely to teach the movements with the loads kept light. You will be shown where everything is, what to do and in what order, by a coach who does this every day.
What happens in the first week?
You book a movement assessment, which takes about forty-five minutes and looks at how you move rather than how much you lift. A coach writes you a twelve-week plan off the back of it, walks you through the floor and books you into whichever classes suit your week. Then you train.
Is there a contract or a joining fee?
Neither. Memberships are month to month, there is nothing to pay upfront beyond your first month, and you cancel from your account whenever you like. If you pay yearly you save two months, and you can still freeze it twice a year.
How busy does it actually get?
We cap membership numbers at both locations specifically so that the answer stays reasonable. Six to seven in the evening is the peak and you might wait for a specific rack, but you will not queue. Classes are capped at fourteen regardless of the hour.
Can I use both locations?
On Unlimited and Performance, yes, with no extra charge. East is the strength room with twelve platforms, South Lamar leans towards conditioning with the sled track and the rower wall. Plenty of members use one in the week and the other at weekends.
