Inside Persevere: Summer 2026

From full classes to our summer community day, it's been busy at Persevere Fitness Edinburgh. I wanted to highlight the following:

• New kit, space upgrades & Merch store

• New members & Full classes

• Community day

• Key dates & other bits to note

The Space

We must continue to invest in the kit and space to provide for the members we have and allow classes & 1-2-1 sessions to be the best they can be. So you'll notice some key new pieces of kit below; it is a non-exhaustive list of additions to the class and wider gym spaces that have been purchased over the last few weeks.

• Kettlebells (4kg, 6kg) x2

• Dumbbells (4 kg, 6 kg) x 2

• Hip thrust pad

• An additional 7kg training bar & several sets of training plates (2.5kg & 5kg) are fantastic for Olympic lifting for beginners.

• Skipping ropes

• Exercise mats

• lifting belts and accessories like lifting straps, grips and a plethora of other small items.

New kit!

In total, there has been an investment of about £700 in the space over the last few weeks. Not including some extra cool toys, the ESC owners have invested in the wider space.

All of these products have been sourced from excellent companies such as Velites, Mira-fit and Factory weights. As an aside, we actually have a business partnership with Velites that gets our members amazing discounts and deals. So if you ever think the gym needs anything or you are looking for something to level up your training, let me know.

P.S. I've built a merch store (still needs some fine-tuning to ensure you don't get milked by import taxes as I did - that's why we test these things!), but you may have seen me kicking around in a hoodie and some tees. These are all purchasable through this very website. The actual products are very reasonably priced, I just need to get the supply chain to be uk based (promise it's coming).

Members

June was our BUSIEST month to date as we enter 7 months at St. Margaret's House, and I couldn't be happier. We've had 67 Class attendances over June and had 5 new people come to classes and we have even gained some new members (more on that below).

I'm also incredibly proud to say that we have a 97% return rate on people who come to a class and their likelihood of returning for a 2nd (and beyond) class. Some of that is down to the content of classes, but it's also down to you as members; your energy, enthusiasm and how you make people feel welcome play a massive role in what keeps people coming back. When you take the time to make newbies feel welcome, or share your story of how it was hard for you, too, you build bonds and friendships that make people want to return, so from me to you, thank you for being the most incredible people. I think our vibes are IMMACULATE.

Speaking of new faces over the summer months, we've had the following people pop into classes:

• Hayley, Tia, Joey, Erin, Will, Zahra, Euan and Mairi

With Mairi joining us with a full membership (welcome to the team).

Community day

On Sunday, the 28th of June, we hosted our first community event, Pizza's at Porty. The weather was great, and it was lovely to see a mix of old and new faces. Much pizza was consumed, and lots of laughter and getting to know each other were accomplished. I want to continue building community events, and the next one is looking to be Halloween, so get your diaries booked! Fancy dress highly encouraged.

Dates to Note

Just a gentle reminder, I'll be away from the 19th of August until the 26th for a week in the sun. There will be no classes that week, but I will look to leave one or two workouts in WodUp. My intention as we grow is to eventually build a cover system & have more breadth and depth by having additional coaches, meaning there would be no breaks in the timetable. Until then, you'll have to bear with me to take some much-needed downtime so I can continue to be my absolute most enthusiastic self in classes.

Feedback & Development

I want to continue developing Persevere; the programming represents an effort to build 'Broad general preparedness for fitness'. I will be sharing a little survey in the near future with members, looking for your feedback on what's working. What do you like? (in and out of classes), What's missing (on or off the timetable), and what focuses would you like to see me program and coach going forward? YOU are the members coming to class, paying and showing up. I want to build programs that help you reach your fitness goals. Every block (around 12 -14 weeks) is written with the intention to grow members' bubble of fitness. From developing your skills to improving your cardio and strength capacity. That doesn't mean

Test Weeks

We've still got a few weeks of this block that will take us up to the end of July, but it's worth noting our test weeks for our strength classes will run from Friday 24th & Friday 31st of July. Even if you haven't got 1 rep max established, these sessions allow us to draw a line under where your current technical and physical strength is across a range of classic compound and Olympic lifts. Additionally, I always tend to throw in a test, benchmark or revisit something for classes so we can see how members stack up and hopefully retest where their fitness is at.

As always, I'm excited to see you all in classes

Conor

Head Coach

Persevere Fitness Edinburgh