A gym with ten people in it, on purpose.
On Point Strength opened on University Ave in 2019 with one rule that still runs everything: no class gets bigger than a coach can actually coach.
Set 01/04The story
We started with the people big gyms lose.
Ana coached at a big box gym in San Jose for six years. She watched the same thing happen every January. Sixty new members, one trainer on the floor, and by March most of them were gone. The ones who stayed were the ones somebody had taken the time to coach.
So she rented a 3,200 square foot room on University Ave, bought six racks and a pile of kettlebells, and capped every class at ten. The first year had 38 members. Most of them still train here.
We are not the biggest gym in Los Gatos and we do not want to be. We want to be the one where your coach knows your name, your numbers and why your left hip gets tight.
Set 02/04Why ten
Ten max
Ten is the number where one coach can watch every working set. We tried twelve in 2020. Form cues dropped, two people tweaked their backs in one month, and we went back to ten.
It costs more to run a gym this way. It also means nobody hides in the back row.
- Coach to lifter
- 1:10
- Racks
- 6
- Square feet
- 3,200
- Classes a week
- 38
Set 03/04The space
One room. Everything you need.
Six lifting platforms with competition bars and calibrated plates. A 20 meter turf lane for sleds and carries. Kettlebells from 8 to 48 kg. A rig for pull ups and rings. Two changing rooms with showers.
The street lot behind the building has free parking after 6pm, and the Lot 4 garage is two minutes away on foot during the day.
Set 04/04How we coach
What we believe, in plain words.
Strength is the base
Getting stronger makes everything else easier, from hiking St. Joseph's Hill to carrying a sleeping kid up the stairs.
Show up beats go hard
Three good sessions a week for a year will beat any six week blitz. We plan for the long run.
Sharp pain changes the lift
If something hurts, we change the lift. Nobody here trains through a sharp pain just to finish the workout.
We track the numbers
We log your lifts so you can see your progress, and so we can tell when the plan needs to change.