BARCH Richmond

Kiss my BARCH 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Very proud of our partnership with London Welsh Rugby Club London Welsh RFC this season, and pretty cool to see BARCH Richmond on the kit.

A club that means a lot to us, right on our doorstep, so it’s a genuine honour to have our name on the shorts this year.

The boys kicked off their season today with a BIG win away at Jersey, and we can’t wait to welcome them back to Richmond for their first home game at Old Deer Park Sports Ground ❤️🏉

And a special thank you to Hywel Rhys Williams for doing absolutely everything in his power to maximise sponsor exposure.😍

Enjoy the plane ride home boys!!!!! 🍺 Up the Welsh ❤️🏉

One of the biggest advantages we have at BARCH is space. Not just more of it. Different types of it.

We have our Strength Studio, our Conditioning Studio and The Shed, all set up to do different things. That gives us more scope with programming.

We can have people just lifting in one room while another group is conditioning and lifting. We can use sleds, ergs, racks, dumbbells, barbells and plenty more without trying to make every type of training fit into the same space.

And for our members, it means your training doesn’t have to feel like a variation of the same class every day.

Different environments. Different equipment. Different sessions. All coached. All under one roof. That’s a pretty big part of what makes BARCH, BARCH.

First one of September! First one officially finishing in the dark after summer. First bit of rain in a while. First high tide in a while.And still… what a turnout. What a vibe!!

New faces every single week. People running, chatting, meeting people and becoming part of something.

Our Run Club is every Wednesday. It’s open to everyone and anyone in Richmond. You don’t need to be a BARCH member. You don’t need to be a serious runner. Just turn up.

If you’ve moved to the area, want to meet some new people, or just fancy getting out for a run with a good group, come down.

They say nothing in life is free. This is. Every Wednesday. All year round. 🤝

Being independent has its advantages.

There’s no head office telling us what our timetable has to look like, what classes we have to run or what changes we’re allowed to make.

If enough members ask us for something and we think it’ll genuinely make BARCH better, we can do something about it. And a LOT of what BARCH is today has come from exactly that.

Classes have been added. Timetables have changed. Kit has been bought. Workshops and socials have started. Ideas have been tried. Some have worked brilliantly. Some definitely haven’t 😂

And obviously we can’t say yes to everything. We still have to make decisions that work for the whole gym and the business. But we can listen. That’s probably one of our favourite things about being an independent gym. BARCH isn’t a finished product handed to us by a head office. It’s something we’re constantly building with the people who actually train here.And we think that’s pretty cool.

Yesterday, Marcus hit 1,800 BARCH sessions 🤯 Yes. ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED.

Which means the countdown to 2,000 is officially on…

So we need ideas. What do we do for Marcus’ 2,000th BARCH session? Let us know in the comments 👇

And before anyone says it… we are genuinely looking into getting a statue made 😂 200 sessions to sort this. GO.

You really don’t need to lock in. If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from years of watching people train, it’s that the all-or-nothing approach rarely lasts.

Train 2–3 times a week. Eat well most of the time. Miss a week? All good. Come back the next week. Go on holiday? Enjoy it. Have a busy month and train less? That’s life.

You don’t need to train every day. You don’t need a massive September reset. You definitely don’t need to be perfect. Find something sustainable and keep coming back to it.

That’s it.

August ❤️🖤

One month. A thousand more little moments.

BARCH Games.
Our biggest birthday yet.
An ice cream van at the gym because… why not.
New BARCH tees everywhere.
Old faces. New faces. First timers.
Anndroniki Raciti beating the world record time for getting to barch after work.
People coming back from injuries.
People cheering them on when they did.
Loads of first timers at Run Club.
Summer stand up paddle club.
Another tennis social with member Jo.
More sunset selfies.
Rachel & Sarah talking all things perimenopause and menopause.
Members getting stronger.
BARCH members training on holiday and sending us photos from around the world.
Because apparently going away doesn’t mean you stop moving 😂
Barbell SWEAT people reminding everyone that Barbell SWEAT is obviously the best class.
Friends training together.
Friends made because of training together.
Anniversaries being celebrated.
Random selfies with BARCH members.
And a LOT of people just turning up, training and having a good time.

They say August is one of the quietest months for gyms. We wanted to make it our busiest. And we absolutely loved it.

The best bit is that none of this needs reinventing.
We don’t need to suddenly become something different.
We don’t need the latest fitness fad.
We don’t need to change what BARCH is.

We just keep building. Better sessions. More opportunities to get involved. More reasons to walk through the door. More friendships. More community. More of the same.

Eight years in and that’s still the plan.

Thanks to everyone who shared a little piece of August with us. Whether you were training at BARCH, joining us for a social, or sending us a sweaty photo from your holiday, we love seeing where this community takes you.

Bring on September. ❤️

Ever walked into a gym and thought… what am I actually doing today? 😂

That’s exactly why we’re class based. You turn up. The session is planned. A coach takes you through it, helps with technique, helps you find the right intensity and makes sure the session works for YOU.

No wandering around. No making it up as you go. Just good coaching, good training and a bit of direction. That’s what you’re paying us for!