CrossFit Strength Station

Apr 26th, 2023

Best gym in Peterborough.
Jan 20th, 2023

Dec 20th, 2022

It is my 3 year anniversary at Crossfit Strength Station today so I thought it is time to leave a review of my experience. I came to Strength Station heavily overweight, lacking confidence and struggling with my mental health. From the start, Coach Oz got to know me, my strengths, my weaknesses and has been there for me when I was at my lowest. He has provided me with expert guidance and scaled workouts to suit my ability. Over these 3 years, Strength Station has been the 1 hour of my day where I don't have to think about anything but training hard. I turn up and follow the planned workout under expert guidance which has helped me learn how to execute the various movements safely, avoiding injuries and improve my technique. The gym has become my extended family. They have supported me and celebrated successes with me. On days where I feel that I haven't performed my best and put myself down they pick me back up, give me a fistbump and make me feel better. I love the vibe of the gym - its full of friendly, supportive people who leave their ego at home and know that we are all a work in progress, no matter where we are in our Crossfit journey. To date, I have lost 18kg, knocked 3 minutes off my 5km run time, have improved my maximum deadlift by 50kg, my snatch by 30kg, have gone from being able to barely do 3 burpees before having a break to over 20 without having to stop, have learnt various weightlifting and gymnastic movements, and have learnt that I am much stronger and more capable than I could possibly imagine. I know that I can face whatever happens in life and my career because I have developed a good, well rounded level of fitness and improved both my physical and mental health. I would recommend Strength Station to anyone who wants to train hard, isn't afraid to sweat, doesn't want to worry about planning their own training regime and wants to be surrounded by supportive and non judgmental people who all understand and appreciate how intimidating it can be to step foot into a gym and participate in classes with well established and experienced members.
Jan 1st, 2023

After attending this gym for 14 months I cannot recommend it to anyone. It was great when I started but I really witnessed its decline in the time I attended. There used to be 2 proper coaches, but now the head coach only coaches during the day and most of the evening classes are run by other gym members who lack knowledge and experience (having the bare minimum qualification which you can simply complete online with a multiple choice test at the end) and are therefore unable to advise on elements of the workout or dont have the ability to scale it where appropriate meaning less experienced members get a substandard experience. One thing that always annoyed me about this gym is that they pitch all over social media and on their website that they are all inclusive and they are a community/family. Well unless they mean a very dysfunctional one then this really isnt the case. Ive participated in sport and attended gyms all my adult life and Ive never been made to feel like an outsider or like I wasnt good enough as much as I was made to feel that way here. I often felt that more experienced members looked down their nose at me and often felt they enjoyed watching me struggle as they rushed to finish in order to stand there and smugly watch you whilst making patronising comments. And it doesnt matter how many times you say how uncomfortable this makes you, they will keep doing it. They regularly pitch that CrossFit is open to all. It really isnt. In the time I attended my fitness did not really improve and my self-confidence and self-belief took a battering as Ive never been made to feel as useless and incapable as I did here. I thought the measure of a good coach was to inspire the person youre coaching to feel motivated and capable, the head coach here often made me feel the opposite. The single worst moment of my time attending this gym was when another member (one who I had never met or spoken to before) decided they would help me with a movement by coming up behind me when I was laying on the floor and grabbing hold of my ankles. This was done without me having asked for help and without my consent and made me feel so uncomfortable that I could not finish the workout. In a world where gaining consent is rightly a key action before laying your hands on another person, imagine my surprise to have this same member shout in my face when I asked her not to do that and the owner then try and brush it under the carpet because he and Amy are friends, I was promised an apology and I never even received that. The gym owner has developed some serious delusions of grandeur. At times he seemed to think he was your life coach often heard saying Im not just preparing you for CrossFit, Im preparing you for life. That isnt what I joined a gym for and Im fairly certain most people dont want life lessons from someone who appears to be struggling to navigate life outside of the military successfully. Something that also always made me feel uncomfortable was the head coachs inability to separate his personal life from his work life, often sharing his marital problems and making derogatory comments about his wife which at times made myself and others feel incredibly uncomfortable. There was also a high turnover of members in the time I attended, with very few people who were there when I joined still being there when I left, so it would seem Im not the only one to feel this way. There are some nice people who attend the gym but on the whole, it is very very cliquey.
Dec 27th, 2022