A neighborhood gym with a big heart

1. Oslo · San Francisco

   From code to people

   Before Trainability, I wrote code for a living. I was a lead developer at a tech company in Oslo, and I loved it. I still do. But the long hours and late nights started to take their toll. I missed people.

   The gym became my therapy. It was the one place that was just for me, where the stress of deadlines fell away and I was surrounded by people working on themselves too. Along the way I fell for the science of the body.

   I moved to San Francisco in 2013, and in 2015 I took the leap: I became a certified personal trainer, so I could work with something I loved, and with people.

2. 2015

   Personal training is personal

   I could have joined one of the big chains. Instead I started out on my own, as an independent trainer, so the work stayed personal and was never about hitting a company's numbers.

   For years I trained my clients inside another gym. That's where I saw what was missing. Independent trainers were made to feel unwelcome: no camaraderie, pointless competition with the staff trainers, and rents that kept rising with little warning. My clients were treated as revenue first.

   I believe a client becomes a friend. I knew there was a better way to treat trainers and clients: a space that was inclusive, supportive and built around people.

3. 2020 · The Mission

   A room of your own

   I'd been quietly looking at spaces for a while, moving slowly because it was a big risk. Then the pandemic hit. Nobody knew whether gyms would even be allowed to open. But the idea I had for the Mission could work even then, so I took the leap.

   The idea was the microgym: a private space for one trainer and one client, so every session is focused and truly personal. Without a crowded floor or anyone watching, people who had never felt comfortable in a gym started to try. It became the inclusive gym I had always wanted.

   Many of the people who found us were people the world doesn't always make room for. Some of our first clients were trans, and hearing what they face every day outside our doors broke my heart. Seeing them feel at home with us made every drop of sweat worth it. Trainability is a safe space, and we will always stand up for the people in it.

4. Our trainers

   A home for orphan trainers

   I've always called Trainability a place for orphan trainers: people from different backgrounds, with different styles, who come together as a work family. We support each other, and in all the years since we opened, I haven't felt competition between our trainers once.

   I look after our trainers the way I look after our clients. When our trainers are happy and doing well, everyone does well.

5. 2024 · Potrero Hill

   For Jon

   Potrero Hill came next, for two reasons.

   The first was our clients. They wanted a place to train on their own, to do their homework between sessions or just come in for a little therapy, the way I once did, and feel just as safe as they do with their trainer. So Potrero Hill added an open gym.

   The second was my husband, Jon. Jon was the one who pushed me to open a gym, and he believed I could make it a success before I did. He's no longer with us, and Potrero Hill is my way of carrying on what he always wanted for me.

   Jon wanted a gym where everyone knows your name. Like Cheers, he'd say: you walk in, and someone greets you by name. The way we take care of people here is his legacy, and you'll find it at both of our gyms.

6. Behind the scenes

   More time for you

   Running microgyms our way meant the usual gym software kept getting in the way, so I went back to my first love and wrote our own. What it has really changed is how much of our time goes to our clients.

   For our clients, that means a trainer whose attention is on them, not on a calendar. It means being matched with someone who has time for them, sessions that build on each other instead of starting over, and a hello by name the moment they walk in.

   I left coding to work with people. Now the code works for them.

7. Beyond 2026

   What never changes

   I hope Trainability reaches more neighborhoods and communities that need a place like ours. We are not a sterile big-box gym. We're a neighborhood gym with a big heart, and however we grow, our mission stays the same: everyone who walks through our doors feels safe and well looked after.

   If you're nervous about starting, I won't give you a speech. You'll get a smile, someone who listens, and the reassurance that you can start as small or as big as you like. You showed up, and that already deserves praise. I'll introduce myself, and the team, so you always have someone to turn to.

   That's all you need to start.

— Glenn Pineda, founder and owner