Glasgow gym launches weightlifting workshops to help beginners

After the huge success of their women’s weightlifting workshops held earlier this year, PureGym has launched a permanent weightlifting class targeted at helping beginners find their confidence in the free weights area.

Past research conducted by the gym chain found that 1 in 4 people would rather face injections and spiders than go to the gym, and a survey of its members revealed that with 1 in 3 members having considered quitting due to a lack of confidence, the biggest reason is not knowing how to use the equipment properly (60% stating that this made them feel the least confident about joining a gym).

To combat this and help gym-users develop the confidence to enter the free weights area and trust their ability to develop their own workouts, PureGym’s Learn to Lift workshops will be led by expert coaches and teach members how to lift weights confidently and safely, with the correct technique.

The original run of workshops were launched for International Women’s Day in March 2022 and were female only. Following member feedback, the workshops were extended with a total of 999 workshops attended by 2557 members and have now been extended to all genders. 92% of members that booked onto the workshops did so in order to check their form, 83% wanted to gain confidence using the free weights area and 81% wanted to learn how to use the free weights area. Following the workshops PureGym saw both a 12% boost in member confidence using the free weights area and a 24% increase in confidence in safely using kit as a result of the skills acquired from the coaches.

The Learn to Lift workshops will now be a regular feature for all gym-goers in all PureGym locations, with content being changed on a monthly basis to ensure that members develop a breadth of knowledge across weightlifting, from the big three (the back squat, conventional deadlift and flat bench dumbbell press) to more advanced deadlifting, benching and squatting too.

Stephen Rowe, chief marketing officer at PureGym, said: “The confidence and success of each of our members in their own fitness journeys is the most important thing to us, and we want every individual to feel comfortable from the moment they enter our gyms, to feeling happy with how their workout went when they leave. Our previous research has shown that one of the biggest issues our members face is confidence, so we were thrilled to see that our previous weightlifting workshops were able to boost this for so many of them.

“We are very excited to announce the launch of these classes on a more permanent basis, and hope that it will continue to help our members develop their own training plans, and have trust in themselves to both enter the free weights area and use the equipment safely and effectively.”