Grip and Grit Fitness

Testing week at the gym, and I always look forward to this one. The idea behind it is pretty simple. If you can’t put a number on your progress, you’re basically just guessing. So we get you under the bar and find out where you’re really at.

How we test comes down to you, though. If you’re chasing performance, we go for a one rep max and find your ceiling. If you’re more about feeling good and building strength that sticks around, we do a three-rep max instead. Neither one is locked in. Have a chat with us about what you’re after and we’ll point you the right way.

One thing that never changes. You’re never testing on your own. There’s always someone on the bar with you. A good spot means you can throw everything at the lift and not second guess it, and honestly that’s half the battle once the weight gets heavy.

Push hard. We’re right there with you.

Somebody tell Sean that’s not how you hold a plate.
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Honestly this is most sessions at the gym. We take the training seriously, the technique seriously, your health seriously. Ourselves?
Not so much.
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Good coaching is knowing when to push and when to have a laugh. If you dread going to the gym you’ll quit by March. If you enjoy it you’ll still be here in 5 years. Simple as that.
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Come train with us ➡️ Send us a DM 📧

• The best coaches are the ones who never stopped learning.

• You can always tell. There’s a real difference between a coach who’s still curious about this stuff and one just running the same sessions they ran five years ago.

• Most of what makes someone good at this comes after the qualification, not from it. And a lot of it is other coaches. Getting trained by someone better than you, having your blind spots pointed out, sitting on the wrong side of the whistle for once. You stay sharper when you’re still being coached yourself.

• A coach who’s decided they know enough will hold you back, slowly, before anyone really notices. The ones still working on their own gaps are the ones whose clients keep moving forward.

• Most of you already live this. You didn’t stop learning your trade the day you qualified. Coaching’s no different.

• That’s the room we try to keep at Grip and Grit. Nobody acting like they’ve got it all worked out.

The Copenhagen Hold doesn’t care how old you are; it just makes you better at it.

• In your 20s → build bulletproof hips before you need them.

• In your 30s–40s → protect your knees, groin & lower back.

• In your 60s+ → one of the strongest predictors of balance and not ending up on the physio table.

The people in our community who age the best in the gym aren’t doing anything flashy; they’ve just quietly shown up and done the fundamentals, year after year.

Program it. Do it. Thank yourself in 20 years. 💪

Everyone back squats.

Most people still aren’t getting half of what the lift actually offers.

The bar sits across your upper back, which lets you load more weight than almost anything else you’ll do. That extra load is the point. It’s what builds the kind of strength you can actually use.

Your whole posterior chain works together while your core braces hard to keep you stacked. That bracing shows up everywhere outside the gym, moving heavy furniture, lifting a kid into a car seat, getting through a long day on your feet without your back complaining.
What gets overlooked is the hip drive coming out of the bottom.
That same pattern is what helps you stand up from a low chair without thinking about it, or sprint after a bus without pulling something. Train it heavy in here and the rest of life feels easier.
Like anything, technique matters. Get the setup right and back squats become the lift everything else in the gym builds on.

DM us if you want to learn them properly.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

These are the people that make it all worth it. 🤍 The grind hits different when you’re surrounded by your crew. Come find yours. 💪
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Front squats are genuinely one of the best things you can add to your training and most people sleep on them.

The bar sits across the front of your shoulders, which means your body has to stay tall to hold it there. Chest up, core on, upper back working. You can’t cheat your way through it. And that position? It transfers directly to real life, lifting awkward things, carrying kids, getting up off the floor without feeling like you aged ten years doing it.

They’re also kinder to the lower back than most people expect. The upright load means less spinal stress, which is why we programme them regularly at GGF for members who want to train consistently without beating themselves up.

Like anything, technique matters. Get that right and front squats will build your legs, strengthen your core, and improve how you move in and out of the gym.

DM us if you want to learn them properly.

Hello everyone.

Please see the timetable for Labour Day.
Make sure to book your spot!

Thank you! 😊

Hey team,

Our 7am class will be the same as usual tomorrow morning.

We will see you there!
✌🏼

Elephant Walks 🐘
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Looks easy. Humbles you fast.
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If you spend most of your day sitting, your hamstrings and calves are probably shorter than they should be, and this is where you start earning that length back.
Every step loads the shoulders and wrists while your spine works to stay long instead of just folding in half.
Slow, small steps. Big stretch. It carries straight into your hinges, pulls, and gymnastics work.
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Warm-ups at Grip & Grit aren’t filler. They’re training.
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Take your time with it.
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