Built for both.
BASALT opened in 2016 with two floors, four coaches and an unfashionable idea: that bodybuilding and CrossFit are two answers to the same question, and both deserve to be coached properly.
Why the building has two floors
The founders spent a decade between them in gyms that were excellent at one thing and indifferent to everything else. Strength halls where nobody could tell you what your aerobic base was. Conditioning boxes where a member who wanted to add fifteen pounds of muscle was quietly treated as having missed the point.
BASALT was designed to hold both without either being a side room. The strength hall occupies the ground floor: fourteen platforms, three competition-height stages, and enough free space that a heavy set never waits on somebody's circuit. The conditioning floor sits above it, with the rig, the ergometers and the open floor for coached sessions.
The two floors are separated for noise and for focus. They are not separated by standard.
What the standard actually means
Every member is assessed on the same protocol, whichever track they train on: body composition, resting heart rate, three strength markers, and aerobic testing on the rower and the bike. The protocol belongs to one coach, Tomás Delgado, and it has not been quietly loosened since he wrote it.
That matters because it makes progress a comparison rather than a feeling. A member who has been here four years can tell you what changed and when. So can their coach, from the same numbers.
Nothing here is graded on enthusiasm. Load moves when the previous target was met for every prescribed repetition at the required quality, and deloads are scheduled rather than earned back after something breaks.
Who trains here
About 1,400 members, and the split is less dramatic than people expect: roughly half on each track, with a steady group who move between them by season. Perhaps one in twenty competes. The rest are here because their training is the part of the week that holds the rest of it together.
The waterfront location means a lot of members arrive before seven or after eight, which is why the coached slots cluster at both ends of the day and why Premium and Ultra include round-the-clock access. The building is quiet at two in the morning, but it is open, and some people prefer it that way.
How coaching works
Ten specialists, each with a stated focus rather than a general certification and a smile. Members on Ultra are assigned one; members on Premium and Basic work with whoever is coaching the slot they attend, and can request a specialist at any point.
Choosing a specialist is optional and stays optional. Nobody at BASALT is required to book a person in order to train, and nobody is required to book a session in order to walk in. Membership is unlimited access — the schedule tells you when a coach is on the floor, not when you are allowed to use the building.
What is actually in the building.
- 26,000 sq ft across two levels
- 14 platforms, 3 competition-height stages
- 40 ft rig, 18 ergometers, 5,000 sq ft open floor
- Sauna, contrast bathing, mobility room
- Two testing rooms, body composition and aerobic
- 5:00–23:00 standard, 24/7 on Premium and Ultra
2016 to now.
- 2016Opened with two floors, four coaches and 210 founding members.
- 2019Platform deck added; the Olympic lifting programme starts under Danielle Okafor.
- 2022Recovery suite opens — sauna, contrast bathing, dedicated mobility room.
- 2024Assessment protocol standardised across both training tracks.
What it is like to train here.
I came for the platforms and stayed because somebody finally wrote the next twelve weeks down. The assessment numbers are the same ones my coach looks at. That is rarer than it sounds.
I had decided pull-ups were for other people. Priya handed me a progression with dates on it. Eight months later the argument is over, and I still train here because the next step is already written.
I train at six in the morning and sometimes at two. The building is open, the protocol does not change with the hour, and nobody has ever asked me to book a slot in order to walk in.
Come and look at it before you decide anything.
Tours run outside coached hours so you see the floors in use. 5:00–23:00, seven days.