Ironstone New Member Onboarding Guide

Below is a collection of things you should know as a new member of Ironstone. Thanks for joining – we can’t wait to welcome you into our community.

Contents

1. Membership Information
2. Class Sign-Up, Late Cancellations & No Shows
3. Arrival & Facilities
4. Open Gym
5. Health Clinic
6. Must Have Apps

Membership Information

You should have already read the terms and conditions of your membership when you signed up but there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1. Your membership plan is AUTOMATICALLY RECURRING. It will renew each month until cancelled.

2. A key feature of your Ironstone membership and how to use it: MEMBERSHIP HOLDS

Members at Ironstone can put their memberships on hold for a maximum of 3 months in a calendar year when they need to travel for work or would like to take a vacation. In order to request a hold you need to complete the web request form located here. Please submit hold requests at least 2 business days in advance. They cannot be requested retroactively.

3. Be familiar with our MEMBERSHIP CANCELLATION POLICY

Members of Ironstone are free to cancel at any time with two-weeks notice. Cancellation requests are processed through our web request form. You can learn more about the holds or cancellation policy on our membership change request page of our website.

Class Sign-Up, Late Cancellations & No Shows

Refer back to the terms and conditions of your membership

1. Booking window. Class sign-up is available on a 2-week (Standard membership) or 3-week (Premium) rolling booking basis. This means that you can register for a future class once that booking window opens (to the hour).

2. Waitlists. The waitlist will auto-fill you into any spot in class as it becomes available up to 4 hours before class. Our waitlists move pretty fast and if you are on it a few days out there is a good chance you will get in! At the 4 hour mark, the staff will take over and manually try and fill spots by reaching out to people on the waitlist to see if they can still attend. The system automatically holds unfilled spots until we release them so during this time the class will appear full to anyone trying to reserve. We will primarily reach out by text message but we’ve been known to use emails & instagram DMs. If we do not receive responses from the waitlist in at the 2 hour mark we will release any unfilled spots as first-come first serve (aka scramble) in an attempt to allow those spaces to be filled before class.

3. Reservation Management. You are expected to actively manage your reservations at Ironstone. If you are no longer able to attend class you should remove yourself from class (through the app) or late cancel if you are inside the 2-hour late cancel window. You are also expected to manage your waitlist bookings the same way as your class bookings. If you can no longer attend or won’t be able to check back before class to see if you made it in off the waitlist you should remove yourself from the waitlist. For example, if you are on the waitlist for 6 AM and don’t want to wake up at 5 to see if you got into class, you should remove yourself from the waitlist before bed.

4. No Shows & Late Cancellations. A no show is when you have a class or open gym reservation but do not attend class. The penalty fee for a no show is $15 on a membership and for punch pass users it is the loss of a credit. A late cancellation is a reservation cancellation made by the user within 2 hours of class time. The penalty fee for a late cancel is $8 on a membership and for punch pass users it is the loss of a credit. This isn’t a robotic process and we understand that sometimes life throws a few curveballs. If something comes up unexpectedly send us an email or call and let us know. If no showing isn’t a habit for you we will give you the benefit of the doubt. Penalty fees are processed 24 hours after the scheduled reservation.

5. Guest Bookings. One of the perks of your membership is guest passes. Strength & Conditioning members get 1 x guest pass per month while Premium members hold 3! Book a class spot the exact same as you would for yourself and then toggle the guest pass selector in order to book an extra space.

Arrival & Facilities

1. Parking. Parking in our lot is limited to those spaces with Ironstone signage. Please be respectful to other businesses in our building and the surrounding area and do not park in a spot designated for another tenant. Please also be respectful of the designated parking for residents along King St – these are our neighbors and fellow community members. It is often easiest to park across North in the streets around Clifton and make the 2 minute walk over to the gym.

2. Shoes, Bags & Weather. We kindly request you wear proper training shoes on the gym floor and for health and safety reasons ask you do not go barefoot. In the summer months, your indoor/outdoor trainers are fine as we will often be running or outdoors. In the winter months, please change shoes upon arrival to avoid bringing in salt, snow, and mud from outdoors. Bags and jackets should be placed by the benches or hung from hooks and only the equipment essential for the workout of the day should be brought into the gym area. Please use travel mugs with a sealed lid or appropriate bottles on the gym surface to avoid spills.

3. Change Rooms & Showers. All washrooms, changerooms and shower rooms are single-occupancy and gender neutral at Ironstone. If showering please bring your own towel and please limit shower length to ensure other clients can also quickly prepare themselves for work or their next activity.

4. Equipment. You are expected to return all of your own equipment back to its proper place after class unless the coach asks you to leave it for the next group. Some equipment will require after class care such as spraying and wiping or other tasks (e.g., barbells to have chalk brushed out). Please refer to the coach for proper care instructions before return.

5. Emergencies, First Aid & the AED. In the event of an emergency the default person-in-charge will be the class coach on the floor. They may relinquish scene management responsibility to a more experienced colleague or health care professional in the facility but that is their decision to make. All significant emergencies should be addressed by informing a staff member and calling 911 as appropriate. Two large First Aid Kits are located in the main gym and behind the front desk respectively. The AED is located in a white cabinet immediately inside the main gym.

Open Gym

Open Gym is space to workout unsupervised. Members often find this useful to do extra skill work, try other workouts, or if scheduling works out better between class hours. Others use this time to work on goal oriented programming if they are working with a coach 1 on 1 through individual program design. If you have a Strength & Conditioning or Premium membership, Open Gym access is included as one of the benefits. If you have a Ironstone Fitness membership Open Gym is not included as one of your service options. For punch passes, Strength & Conditioning passes can be used for open gym reservations but Fitness passes cannot.

Who should do Open Gym? The answer is anyone can, but with some common sense constraints. If you are brand new to CrossFit or Olympic lifting then doing complex or highly technical workouts unsupervised might not be a great idea just yet. Perhaps take some time to work on your technique under the watchful eye of a coach before you max out load or intensity on your own. That said, even a novice can benefit from extra skill work or accessory pieces and it is easy to program a lower-skill burner if you just want to get in and sweat – just ask a staff member!  Whatever your reasons, there are a few things you should know.

Types of Open Gym & Reservation Spaces: We offer 3 different “types” of Open Gym booking based on location and you should choose based on what type of workout you want to do:

1. Open Gym – Main takes place in our main gym class space. This is a multi-purpose space that can accommodate pretty much anything. You may not have access to a squat rack if its busy and the rig is in high demand though!
2. Open Gym – Turfside is exactly where it sounds! Next to the turf we have another multi-purpose space with a pull-up rig, sleds, and a yoke as well as many pieces of cardio equipment.
3. Strength Platform Reservations are reservations in our strength pit at the back of the gym. Every space has a squat rack and access to bars and plates as well as tons of strength accessory equipment. This is the ideal reservation if you are in for weightlifting or strength work but is not meant to be used for WODs/METCONs or multi-modal conditioning.

Open Gym Requirements & Etiquette: A few general rules

1. Make a reservation for one of the Open Gym spaces through your account.
2. When you arrive for your booking, head to your space. Don’t be afraid to ask a staff member if you have questions or need something.
3. Please respect the space and equipment limitations. Spaces where classes are in progress (Strength Platforms, Main gym, or Turf area) are off-limits during those classes. Your booking is for the section of the gym in which it was made.
4. Equipment required for classes is also prioritized to the class. For instance if there is a class of 18 and rowing programmed, no rowers will be available for use during open gym bookings
5. Please share space with your fellow gym-goers. If it feels like there isn’t enough room in the allocated space, talk to people and see if things can be rearranged or if you can work in.
6. Please be respectful of boundary times and ensure that if you start a workout in a space that you are all wrapped up with your equipment away before your reservation ends and class starts.

Health Clinic & Injury Management

We are proudly partnered with Young Kempt Physiotherapy, a locally owned and operated health clinic. We are also fortunate to have a satellite location right inside Ironstone. Check out our health services page for more information about how YKP & Ironstone can work together to drive your health and fitness forward. New members of Ironstone should know about a few key services that they have access to through this partnership:

1. Direct Referral. Ironstone has a direct referral and booking program with YKP through our front desk – simply email info@ironstonestrength.com or call in to the front desk and we can get you booked in for a consultation, injury follow-up, treatment, or preventative maintenance.

2. Information Sharing Agreement. With your permission given, YKP practitioners can share information directly with our coaching staff about your mobility restrictions, injuries, limitations, or required modifications.  By working together, we can keep you engaged and training hard despite any restrictions you might have – we help you work towards your goals as one team!

3. New Member Assessment. As an added perk of joining, all new members of Ironstone can get booked in for a free 30-minute check-in to assess where you are at, any obvious restrictions you may have, and develop a quick modification strategy to get the most out of your first few months as a member. Use the referral program described above to get booked in.

Must Have Apps & What they Do

Class Registration & Account Management – Ironstone Strength App

Sign up for class times, see the live schedule, purchase plans and passes, manage your payment methods and even book a guest – the Ironstone strength app is available in your app store and will help you manage your account and bookings in a seamless experience. It will also show you a live count of your attendance milestones and support any challenges run by the gym.

The schedule on our app and our website are live schedules – any changes to class times, instructors, or holiday hours will be reflected there.

Workout Programming & Tracking – Beyond the Whiteboard

We post all of our daily class programming on Beyond the Whiteboard (BTWB) on programming tracks that align to each class program. Once installed you will be able to see the programming for the day, log your workout with just a few clicks, and review your personal workout data with advanced analytics, daily leaderboards, and workout history. This app is also available in your app store. Although this app costs money, your subscription is included in your membership. Talk to a staff member or review your new member onboarding email series to get our gym access code and be added to our gym.

We think tracking your progress is a critical step towards steady improvement and we’ve written all about it here.

Social, Information & Events – Train With Us

Train With Us is an app that was built locally here in Halifax, NS to help fitness enthusiasts connect with their fitness communities locally and while traveling. Download the Train With Us App and join the Ironstone Community to get real-time update on gym operational issues such as outages or storm delays, to engage in online discussion a round your fitness program of choice, to see upcoming gym events, and to find other fitness events in your area that may interest you.