CrossFit 1864 · Poplar · Near Canary Wharf
THE PLACE TO
START, WHEN
YOU HAVE NEVER
STARTED.
The CrossFit 1864 Beginners Programme is a 3-week structured entry into the gym, built for people with no CrossFit experience, no gym background, or who have not trained in years. Personal coaching from day one. No experience required.
Poplar, East London · 15 min from Canary Wharf · £160 one-off · No contract
- I want to get fit but I do not know where to begin. The gym feels like somewhere other people go.
- I have bought memberships before. I have never really used them. I do not want to do that again.
- I am worried I will be too old, too unfit, or too behind everyone else in the class.
- I want someone to tell me what to do. I do not want to figure it out alone.
The Beginners Programme exists for exactly this. It is not a taster session. It is a structured 3-week entry that gives you coaching, a plan, and a community, before you ever need to figure it out yourself.
Three weeks.
A coach. A plan.
Most gyms throw you into a group class on day one. We do not. The Beginners Programme gives you three weeks of personal coaching before you join the main group, so by the time you are in a class, you know the movements, you know the people, and you know you belong.
Each week has a specific purpose. Each session is 1 to 1 or small group. Each workout is built entirely around where you are right now.
Book Your Intro ChatYour goal-setting session and your first personal training sessions. You will learn the foundational movements, squat, hinge, press, pull, with a coach whose only job is you. No pressure, no clock, no audience.
Your final personal training session and your first group classes, but with your coach already knowing your scaling, your movement, and your goals. You are not a stranger walking in; you are a familiar face.
Three more group classes and your first real sense of what consistent training feels like. By the end of week three, you have met the community, you have built a habit, and you know what comes next.
Everything in the £160.
One payment. No hidden fees. No ongoing contract attached to the programme itself. Here is exactly what you get.
A dedicated 1 to 1 conversation with a coach before you train. We talk about where you are, where you want to be, and what getting there actually looks like. This shapes everything that follows.
Three sessions with a qualified coach who teaches you the foundational movements from scratch, squat, deadlift, press, pull. Technique first, always. The coach watches every rep and corrects in real time.
Six group classes with the full CrossFit 1864 community, capped at 10 people, fully coached, scaled to your level. You arrive knowing the movements. The group already knows you are coming.
You do not need to be
fit to start.
-
✓Complete beginners, never touched a barbell, never been to a CrossFit gym, starting from zero. You are exactly who this is for.
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✓People returning after a long break, you trained once, years ago, and the thought of starting again is daunting. The programme meets you where you are now, not where you were.
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✓Professionals who have failed to make gym habits stick, you have had memberships. You have not used them. This is structured, coached, and scheduled in a way that removes every excuse.
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✓People in their 40s and 50s, the programme is built around longevity and technique. Many of our members started here in their 40s and 50s with no prior strength training background.
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✓Anyone who finds regular gyms intimidating, the culture here has been deliberately built over 10 years to be the opposite of intimidating. The coaches know this. So do the members.
"I had not exercised properly in 6 years. I signed up thinking I would last a week before finding a reason to quit. Three weeks later I was showing up before I had even decided to. The personal training sessions at the start made all the difference, by the time I joined the group, I was not scared."
The things people say
before they start.
These are the real concerns people bring to their intro chat. Here is the honest answer to each one.
The Beginners Programme has been completed by members in their 50s and 60s with no prior fitness background. CrossFit 1864 also runs a dedicated programme, LIFE (Live Independently, Feel Energised), for members aged 50+, built around the kind of strength that makes everyday life better. Age is not a disqualifier here. If anything, it is a reason to start sooner.
The first three weeks are personal coaching, not group classes. By the time you join the group, you will know the movements, you will know the coaches, and you will know a few faces. You are not walking into a room of strangers mid-workout. The community here has been built deliberately to be welcoming. The most experienced members are the ones who encourage beginners most.
Most people who have failed at fitness programmes did not fail because of a lack of willpower, they failed because the environment was not structured to support them. The Beginners Programme gives you a coach, a community that notices when you are absent, and a plan you did not have to write yourself. The structure is the thing that makes the difference. Not motivation.
What you have seen online is elite competition. It is not a CrossFit class. Intensity is self-selected, you work at a level that is appropriately challenging for you. The coaches scale every movement. The first three weeks of the Beginners Programme are deliberately low-intensity: the goal is to build technique and familiarity, not to see how far you can push. Most first-timers are surprised by how manageable it actually is.
CrossFit 1864 has been running in Poplar for 10 years. The community includes professionals, parents, people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, people who came in with the same thought you have right now and are now among the most committed members in the gym. You do not need to be a certain type of person to train here. You just need to show up.
Classes run at 6am, 12:30pm, and 5:30pm Monday to Friday, before work, at lunch, and after work. The gym is 15 minutes from Canary Wharf, 5 minutes from Blackwall DLR. Each class is 60 minutes. The personal training sessions in the Beginners Programme are scheduled around your availability. If you can make a 60-minute window three times a week, you can do this.
Investment
Start for
£160.
One payment. No hidden fees. No contract. The £160 covers everything in the programme, three personal training sessions, six group classes, and your goal-setting session. It is the lowest-risk, highest-support way to start strength training in East London.
After the three weeks, your coach will walk you through the membership options that make sense for your goals and schedule. There is no obligation and no pressure to join, but most people do, because by then they want to.
- 1 Goal-setting session with a coach
- 3 Personal training sessions (1 to 1)
- 6 Group classes (capped at 10)
- Technique coaching every session
- Scaled to your current fitness level
- Full community access from day one
- Progress review at end of week three
Start with a free 15 min intro chat. No commitment, no payment until you are ready to begin.
What comes after the three weeks.
The Beginners Programme is the beginning of something, not an end in itself. Here is what the journey looks like from your first message to consistent membership.
A 15-minute call with a coach. You talk about where you are and what you want. There is no sales pitch and no obligation. We will tell you honestly whether the Beginners Programme is right for you.
You meet your coach in person, set your goals, and do your first personal training session. No fitness required. You will be surprised by how quickly the movements start to make sense.
The foundations are built here. Squat, hinge, press, pull, taught properly, with time, with a coach whose whole attention is on you. You will also attend your first group classes in week two.
By week three you know the coaches, you know the movements, and you have met the other members. The habit has started. Most people at this stage are not wondering if they will continue, they are wondering how many days a week they can come.
Your coach walks you through the membership options: 9 sessions per month (£149), 13 sessions per month (£169), or unlimited (£199), all no contract. You choose what fits your schedule and your goals. No pressure, no deadline.
What another year
of waiting costs.
There is no pressure here, and we mean that. But if you have been thinking about starting for a while, it is worth a moment of honesty about what staying where you are actually costs, not in money, but in what does not change.
Another year of £40 to £60 per month at a gym you do not use consistently. That is £480 to £720 for a key fob and good intentions. The Beginners Programme is £160 with a coach, a plan, and a community holding you to it.
Muscle mass and strength decline from your mid-30s if you are not training consistently. The gap between where you are now and where you want to be gets harder to close over time, not easier.
The hardest part of fitness is not the training, it is breaking the pattern of starting and stopping. The structure of the Beginners Programme is specifically designed to break that cycle for good.
The intro chat is free and takes 15 minutes. If it is not the right fit, we will tell you honestly and suggest something that is.
Book the Free Intro Chat
"I built the Beginners Programme because I kept watching people try to start on their own and fail, not because they were not capable, but because they had no one in their corner. The programme is what I wish every new member had from day one: a coach, a plan, and a community before the pressure of a group class. I have been doing this for ten years and I still believe the first three weeks are the most important. Get those right and everything else follows."
They had the same doubts.
Here is what they say now.
Every one of these people came in with a version of "I am not sure this is for me." Every one of them is still here.
"Joined as a complete beginner a year ago. Zero fitness background, had not lifted anything heavier than a laptop. Now I am doing pull-ups, lifting heavy, sleeping well, and I have friends here for life. This place changed me."
"I came in thinking I was too old to start properly. I was 44. That thought lasted about ten minutes. They adjust everything to where you actually are. I have made more progress in a year than in the previous decade of inconsistent gym attempts."
"I thought I would be the worst one there. I was not. And even when I was, nobody cared. The coaches push you exactly the right amount and you leave every session feeling like you actually accomplished something. The atmosphere is nothing like I expected."
"I had started going to the gym four times in as many years. What is different here is the people, and the structure. They notice when you are not there. That accountability from both coaches and members is what finally made it stick."
"I was genuinely scared it would be too intense. I had seen CrossFit videos online. It is nothing like that here. The intensity is yours to choose. The coaches get that immediately. I look forward to every session."
"Best gym in East London by a mile. The coaches are world-class, the community is unreal, and I have made more progress in 6 months than I did in 5 years at a regular gym."
The first step is free
Book a free
intro chat.
A 15-minute call with a coach, no sales pitch, no pressure. We will talk about your goals, answer your questions honestly, and tell you whether the Beginners Programme is the right fit. If it is, we will set a start date. If it is not, we will point you somewhere better.