Starting Strength Cincinnati: No Pressure, No Hidden Fees or Long-Term Commitments, Big Results
By Matt Beardmore
Sometimes walking into a gym can make you feel self-conscious or out of place or pressured to buy a pricey, long-term membership from a pushy salesperson.
Starting Strength Cincinnati is nothing like that. In fact, when you step into this 1,750-square-foot gym (which looks and feels more like a studio), what you will notice – aside from the elite coaching and members not having to wait for workout equipment as there are enough platforms and racks for everyone – is a supportive environment where members of all ages come together to achieve their goals.
“Many people have a preconception of what a barbell gym would look like – we counter that,” said Lucas Schroeder, who experienced his own weight loss journey before learning about former powerlifter Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength Method and opening Starting Strength Cincinnati in early 2021. “When people come in to see what we’re about, they are going to walk in and see someone just like them.”
The 110 or so members have signed up for a variety of different reasons – such as building muscle mass and bulking up, preventing injuries, getting energized, aging better, or just wanting to look better – and they range in age from 10 to a 97-year-old woman who has been training at Starting Strength Cincinnati for two years. A majority of the members train three times per week in group sessions (which are limited to eight members), but there is also a 2-day-a-week plan and an option for those who live far enough way – including a current member who drives up from Lexington, KY, each Saturday – to enroll in once-a-week sessions.
“We have no joining fee, no contracts, no cancellation fees,” Schroeder said. “Nobody is walking in here because they’re financially obligated to be here.”
While the camaraderie and no pressure environment are appealing, one of the major reasons why people keep walking into Starting Strength Cincinnati – one of 27 Starting Strength Gyms nationwide – is the quality of the coaching. To become a Starting Strength Coach (SSC), you must complete a 23-module training that includes written assignments, discussion sessions, submitting coaching videos of yourself, and proving you can coach all the necessary lifts during a 3-day seminar in Texas at Wichita Falls Athletic Club, which is owned by Rippetoe, Starting Strength Gym’s co-founder and author of the widely-read 2005 book, Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training.
“The pass rate for the seminar is only 15-20%,” Schroeder said. “If you do pass, you have to take a 2-hour oral board exam with a panel of three other coaches who will test your knowledge of all this material. It’s a rigorous process, and that’s why these coaches are in such high demand.”
Starting Strength Gyms is also selective in who it will grant a franchise to. “They tell most people that apply that it’s not a good fit,” Schroeder said. “You of course need to be in the financial position to open a gym, but they really want to know that people opening Starting Strength Gyms are training this method, can speak about it authoritatively, and are doing this for the right reasons.”
Schroeder’s next goal is to continue spreading the Starting Strength message as he is in the process of opening a second Cincinnati location that could open in early 2025.
For more information on Starting Strength Cincinnati, please visit https://www.startingstrengthgyms.com/cincinnati/.