Knurl — Personal training in Glenunga, one client at a time

One trainer. One client. Nobody watching.

Every session is one hour with one coach, and the room is yours for it. No classes, no crowd, no mirror wall facing the door. Strength training for adults starting anywhere, from never having held a bar to coming back after years away.

The empty studio in morning light: one black rack with a bar, plates on a low rail, a rubber floor and a tall window onto gum trees — The room in Glenunga, before anyone's in it.

A quiet room with good bars.

One rack, and good bars we keep clean and chalked. Bumper plates, a rubber floor, a tall window onto the trees and a door that closes behind you.

Music only if you want it, at the volume you like. Nobody else is booked in your hour, so there's no one waiting for the rack and no one to perform for.

Start from wherever you are.

Maybe you've never touched a barbell. Maybe you lifted years ago and stopped. Maybe you train alone and want a second pair of eyes. Maybe you'd simply rather learn it without a crowd.

All of those start in the same place: an hour where we watch you move.

First, we watch you move.

Your first hour here isn't a workout. We'll ask what you'd like to be able to do, then watch you squat, hinge, push, pull and carry, mostly with nothing in your hands. Nobody's scoring it.

Everyone's squat is shaped by their own proportions, so there's no single right one: there's the one that suits you.

Try it. Make the thigh longer and watch the torso tip forward to keep the bar over the middle of the foot.

By the end of the hour we know where to start, and so will you.

This is about how a lift is shaped for your proportions. It isn't a health check.

Short thigh, average, long thigh: the same squat on three bodies, each with the bar over the middle of the foot. The longer the thigh, the further the torso leans.

Twelve weeks on one bar.

Your first program is written after your assessment. Here's the shape one often takes, told the way it happens: on the bar.

One first program, drawn for this page. Yours is written for you.

A coach's hand resting on a client's shoulder as the client stands under the bar in the rack — A hand on the shoulder says 'stay tall here' faster than words do.

What the hour feels like.

Arrive. Ten easy minutes to warm up while we talk about your week. The main lift. One cue at a time, never a list, until the positions start to feel like yours. The work around it. Two or three movements that help the main lift along. Something carried. We finish walking with weight in your hands. Notes. What changed today, written down, so next time starts there.

You'll leave a bit tired and clear about what's next.

Before your first hour.

What to bring. Flat shoes or socks, clothes you can move in, water. We have chalk, belts, wrist wraps and a towel for you.

Do I need to be fit before I start?

No. That's what the first weeks are for.

I've never touched a barbell.

Plenty of people start that way. We start with the empty bar, and often a broomstick before that.

Is it only barbells?

Mostly, with dumbbells, kettlebells and bodyweight work where they suit you.

How often would I come?

Usually once or twice a week. We'll settle it together at the assessment.

Can I bring a friend?

It's one client an hour, so the room stays yours. A friend can book the hour after yours.

A doctor has asked me to be careful with something.

Bring that advice with you and we'll plan around it. We coach training; we don't treat anything.

What does it cost?

We'll talk it through at the assessment, before you commit to anything.

A chalked hand closing around the knurled bar, a grey wrist wrap half wound at the cuff — Chalk and wraps are here to borrow.

Start with the bar.