City Centre gym offers first unlimited personal training service in the country

A new city gym is offering unlimited personal training and says it’s the first of its kind in the country.

Unlike other fitness centres which provide a fixed number of sessions per week, Limitless Lifestyle Community in Dale Street offers its members the chance to go one day or every day for the same set fee.

Offering a holistic approach to fitness, with health and wellbeing as important as exercise, there’s even a community that sets up social events and monthly challenges, and a group chat so members can support and befriend each other while they achieve their goals.

It’s the brainchild of Alex Sloan and Levi Osborne who are committed to changing the ‘quick fix’ fitness mentality that can ‘do more harm than good’, and helping people to create a healthy lifestyle that they can sustain.

Limitless Lifestyle Community — Alex, right, with a client

“Our ethos is to reward positive behavioural change,” says Alex, 29, from Childwall. “We offer training and community.

“The Limitless concept allows us to offer seven-day face-to-face support for each of our members, and our community events help bring our members together, providing a massive support network, but more importantly creating new friendships.

“To see the development in people, both physical and mental, is the most rewarding part of the job.’’

Alex and Levi, 25, from Lancaster, launched Limitless in June after becoming disillusioned with other fitness regimes and centres which promise speedy results which pile on the pressure and ultimately offer unrealistic targets.

Instead of helping people to get fit and change their lifestyles, says Alex, they can leave them feeling frustrated and a failure.

“Limitless is the first of its kind in the country and there is nothing quite like it,” says Alex. “We both have experience of other personal training services and companies that charge £250 or £450 per month for a set amount of sessions per week, so it usually works out at about £40 per session, so the more help people need the more it’s going to cost.

“And that doesn’t sit well with us when it comes to health and wellbeing. At the end of the day your health is your wealth.

“Plus, when we worked previously in quick-fix pattern transformation centres which follow a strict protocol with diet plans and smashing people into the ground, we found that we were actually doing more harm than good, creating body dysmorphia, self-esteem issues, and eating disorders.

“The pressure to get transformation in a set amount of time is almost impossible for about 90% of people, and when they don’t hit it they feel like absolute garbage.

“They’ve not been able to do what they’ve been promised so they think it’s their fault, they’re starving, so they spiral back out. They eat what they want, and they don’t go to the gym to end up feeling like rubbish.

“Our ethos is to reward positive behavioural change – however long it takes.”

Limitless Lifestyle Community has two membership schemes, gold and platinum, which each offer seven day a week one-to-two, or one-to-one personal training respectively, state-of-the-art body scanning, along with nutritional education and planning, access to massage and stretching, mobility and circuit classes, and monthly events organised as a community, from walks to an annual retreat, and there’s a 24-7 support group.

The average personal training charge in Liverpool, says Alex, is around £250 for two sessions a week, or £450 for three sessions. At Limitless, gold membership costs £250 a month which allows people to have seven sessions a week. “Normally if you need more help you go to a gym more and it costs you more, here you can come every day and so each session works out cheaper and you get rewarded for wanting to make that change in your life. We give members the choice: they can choose what service they want, when they want it, and how often they have it.

“And there’s no time limit. If you have a goal we will say we can get you there in ‘X’ amount of time, but if we see you are really inflexible in your hamstrings or you have back pain, we will spend three or four sessions fixing that before we go on to the heavy training. Without the pressure people train better; you fix the problems so people feel good, so they train better and that gives the results.”

Creating a community and a wellness centre inside the gym takes Limitless to another level.

“It’s funny because we do have people who come in and say they want to train and not be part of the community, but every single one of them does.

“It starts at the top. I care, Levi cares, it’s leading by example. When people see that, it’s infectious.”

Every month they organise social events for members from hikes to water sports, bowling, indoor skiing, go karting, theatre trips, and more.

There’s a WhatsApp group chat so people can chat and support each other, and there are community challenges: “Someone wanted to do the Liverpool Half Marathon, and then a goal for one person becomes a goal for another. About 30 people are walking up Snowdon in preparation for the Three Peaks in Yorkshire.”

Incentives mean the more people go they get XP points which they can use for discounted or free massages, merchandise, drinks, and more.

“Limitless is about bringing people together through health and fitness, and it’s as much about the social side as the training which in these days of people working from home is more important than ever.”