Building Stronger Communities Through Beginner Weightlifting (January 2025 – June 2026)
Overview
Eighteen months ago, Get Active Coaching CIC took a significant step forward by moving into our own dedicated training space.
What started as a small coaching business has grown into a thriving community organisation with one clear mission:
To make resistance training accessible to everyone, helping people build strength, confidence and healthier lives through community.
Since moving into our facility, our flagship Beginner Weightlifting Club has become the heart of everything we do. It has created an inclusive environment where complete beginners, older adults and people living with long-term health conditions can experience the life-changing benefits of strength training without the intimidation often associated with traditional gyms.
Our own space has also allowed us to expand our social impact, creating new employment opportunities, delivering funded community programmes and building partnerships that continue to improve health and wellbeing across Renfrewshire.
Our Approach
Rather than focusing on performance or competition, our Beginner Weightlifting Club is designed around participation, progression and belonging.
Every session is coach-led, welcoming and suitable for people with little or no previous experience of resistance training.
Over the last 18 months we have expanded from delivering just two weekly classes to 17 coach-led sessions every week, providing opportunities for more people than ever before to improve their physical health while becoming part of a supportive community.
Alongside our flagship programme, our dedicated training facility has enabled us to:
- Launch funded community health and wellbeing programmes.
- Deliver youth sport across Renfrewshire.
- Create employment opportunities for local coaches.
- Build partnerships with schools, charities and community organisations.
- Develop sustainable income that allows us to continually reinvest into our social mission.
The Difference We’ve Made
The impact of Beginner Weightlifting Club extends far beyond improving physical strength.
Members regularly tell us they have gained confidence, built lasting friendships and discovered a community where they genuinely feel they belong.
Over the last 18 months we have supported people to:
- Build strength and independence.
- Improve confidence around exercise.
- Recover from illness and injury.
- Prepare for life-changing surgery.
- Improve mobility and reduce everyday pain.
- Develop healthier lifestyles that can be sustained long-term.
Several members have achieved life-changing milestones, including:
- Successfully building the strength and losing the weight required to become eligible for hip replacement surgery.
- Completing a first marathon after overcoming significant anxiety and low confidence.
- Supporting a cancer survivor to rebuild strength and remain active with their great-grandchildren.
These stories demonstrate that resistance training is about far more than lifting weights—it is about improving quality of life.
Growing a Community
Since moving into our own facility, the Beginner Weightlifting Club has grown into one of the largest beginner-focused resistance training communities in the area.
Today we have:
- More than 70 active members attending every week.
- Expanded from 2 to 17 weekly coach-led classes.
- A waiting list of around 20 people, demonstrating continued demand.
- A welcoming community where members support and encourage one another both inside and outside the gym.
For many members, the social connections built through the club are just as valuable as the physical improvements they experience.
Beyond the Gym
Having our own training facility has provided a platform to create even greater community impact.
During the last 18 months we have:
- Created new employment opportunities for local coaches.
- Supported more than 100 young people through our National Lottery Young Start funded Community Sport Programme.
- Launched our Dance for Wellbeing: Ballet for Beginners programme through the Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund.
- Strengthened partnerships with local schools, community organisations and funding partners.
- Continued to reinvest every trading surplus back into expanding our social impact.
By combining sustainable trading with funded community programmes, we are building an organisation that can continue serving local people for years to come.
Looking Ahead
This is only the beginning.
Demand for our Beginner Weightlifting Club continues to grow, and our ambition is to expand our reach so that even more people can benefit from accessible, coach-led resistance training.
Alongside growing our flagship programme, we will continue developing community partnerships, creating employment opportunities and delivering targeted health programmes that tackle physical inactivity, social isolation and health inequalities across Renfrewshire.
Every new member who walks through our doors represents another opportunity to improve health, build confidence and strengthen our community.
Impact at a Glance
Reporting Period: January 2025 – June 2026
Flagship Programme: Beginner Weightlifting Club
Weekly Classes: 17
Active Members: 70+
Waiting List: 20+
Community Facility: Established dedicated training space
Employment Created: New coaching opportunities for local people
Youth Engagement: 100+ young people supported through community sport
Additional Programmes: Dance for Wellbeing, Community Sport: Young Ambassador Programme
Mission: Making resistance training accessible for everyone through community-led coaching.