The atmosphere. I think a great strength training gym’s atmosphere has to be both encouraging and competitive. If it’s just encouraging, no one gets better. If it’s just competitive, people get worn down. We make as big a deal when a girl bench presses 100 pounds for the first time, as when some guy deadlifts 700 pounds. It’s a constant search for PRs, and celebrating them.

Our gym is always full of coaches, so if someone is struggling with squats, their knees are caving in or moving forward or whatever, the coaches will be there to correct them. But it’s not just our coaches—so many of our members are high-quality lifters, and nobody wears earphones, so other members are often coaching other members. We tell people when they join, if they want a general membership, “Look, you have to be ready to be coached by members. If somebody sees you squatting wrong—you’re not going deep enough or you’re going forward on your toes—someone is going to jump in, and you have to be okay with that.” Our success has snowballed without us in some ways because of that atmosphere.