'Meet me by The Bar': Gym builds community, not just fitness

WHEN someone says “I’m going to the bar,” they normally mean to take a drink or go to a lime, but for a few that means going to a place that focuses on healthy lifestyles and promoting body positivity through exercise.

At the centre of that group of people is a gym at Grand Bazaar – The Bar by the Beast.

This gym, says director and co-founder Kahlil Ramsubhag, is not like others whose main selling points are their trainers, healthy food and equipment. Ramsubhag said The Bar is more of a social club.

But more than just a gym or a place to socialise, with the use of analytics and its social media, The Bar is growing into a new-age social club focused on fitness.

The social club

“Fitness has always been a passion of mine,” Ramsubhag told Business Day. “I was just starting training, with Lawrence 'The Beast' Marshall and personally trying to build my body. We used to find ourselves every Friday night, when all my friends were at a bar drinking and liming, I was in the gym. We always made that little joke that they had their bar and we had ours, and we always promised ourselves that if we were to open a gym it would be called 'The Bar.'"

He explained that while the business has all the trappings of a luxury gym, including certified floor trainers, sauna access, a coffee shop and bistro that serves healthy and delicious meals and drinks, a supplement store and a wealth of body-building machines, the gym’s main "product" is its service and family environment.

“There are a lot of gyms and a lot more coming. We do not fight on the basis of equipment and training," he said. “We are designed to be a family facility. Our aim is that when you come here you are comfortable and you feel like you are part of something. We like to say that this facility is a new-age social group that you come to, and get the added benefit of bettering yourself, bettering your body.”

Established in 2018 by Ramsubhag and Marshall, who died in 2021, the social club is now 1,100 strong and includes people of different backgrounds and ages who come to The Bar for different reasons.

“Different people have different priorities,” he said. “A lot of people, we would like to hope, come here to train and last to socialise, but it varies for different days for different people.

“We’d like to think that we help with mental health and physical health first, because everyone who comes in, picks up weights, sweats and suffers a little bit, that is, for them, a mental relief.

"But sometimes I would come in and pretend to pick up weights and go through the motions, but I would be talking with friends or socialising. I get whatever problems I had for the day off my chest, and and it's a good day. Tomorrow I can be a bit more serious.”

Along with the equipment the gym also has a juice bar, where people gather to enjoy smoothies, coffee, and gourmet meals from health food distributor The Board House TT. The area, in a small corner of the gym, is the perfect place for taking a breather and interacting with people either before or after their workout. The bar space has couches and small tables to sit at and socialise; there are even board games such as chess and checkers.

“When people first start, they would say all that space we could use for more equipment, but we tell them to give it a month. Before long, those same people are the ones liming by the juice bar,” Ramsubhag said. “They will play a little checkers, drink a shake, talk, sometimes just relax before they go home. Sometimes they just came from work and they need a breather before they get into it.”

Ramsubhag said the bistro services are for the convenience of the customer who wishes to eat healthily but does not have the time to prepare meals.

“I like to tell people that nothing that we sell is something that you can’t do for yourself. You can buy the ingredients for the protein shakes and make it.

"It is also difficult in this time to go home and cook, especially when you are struggling to find that extra hour to go and exercise.

“Anyone who has ever tried will tell you that eating healthy is expensive. Fruits and veggies aren’t cheap. Meat isn’t cheap. Processed food is usually the cheaper option.

"That is what we try to stay away from. What we do is kind of take the legwork out of it for our clients."

Body positive

Ramsubhag said people join gyms for different reasons – some, when faced with an illness, are advised by a doctor, and others also have a keen interest in personal health and fitness, but he believes one of the major reasons is to feel comfortable in their own skin.

He said The Bar promotes body positivity in its marketing strategies, but it encourages health and fitness as a means to be body positive.

“Body positivity is a great message. The concept is good. There is nothing wrong with accepting that people come in different forms, shapes and sizes. There is something very empowering about being able to say, 'I am not the typical size, shape or look, but I am beautiful the way I am.'

"However, there is still the concept of bettering yourself and working toward something more. In anything, not just in the gym, that is what separates us from other species – our will and desire to strive for better and develop. Body positivity, to me, and the desire to become better, have to come hand in hand."

He added that people come to the gym in particular because they want to feel better about their bodies, which is becoming more demanding in a social-media-driven society.

“People want to look good. They want to feel confident in their bodies. There are very few things that compare to having a body that you are comfortable with, especially in today’s society of comparisons. Being able to look into the mirror and being comfortable with what you see in itself is very powerful. We want to help people achieve that.”

Still, the marketing The Bar uses focuses on regular people developing themselves. He told Business Day that its social-media marketing aims to help people meet achievable standards.

“We promote the regular people who have jobs for eight-ten hours a day but would still find the time to spend an hour in the gym, or still make the effort to watch what they are eating and don’t overindulge, and through that work-life balance manage to get a body that they are comfortable with, and is healthy. That tends to be more what people gravitate toward.”

Membership growing since covid19

Ramsubhag said while the number of people who visit the gym after covid19 has not reached pre-covid levels, there has been a growing interest in fitness and health as well as visits to the gym.

“What happened is, covid19 caused a change in people’s mental approach to gyms. Coming out of covid19, it felt like we were building our membership from scratch. For the first two months of covid19, we started with about 20 per cent of our full membership.”

He said through The Bar’s analytic membership software he could see how many people visit for the day, the general areas of his customer base and other metrics. Through those metrics Ramsubhag said there has been an increase in demand for gym services, even though the numbers are not the same.

“We see an increase in activity, which means that if we had 20 members who came three times a week, we now have 15, but they are coming more days during the week.

“We are seeing an evolution in our clients. We haven’t see the return of some of our old clients, but what we are paying attention to is the growth in the mindsets of our clients.

"For the industry, that is the kind of projections that we would like to see. When it becomes a lifestyle a gym becomes home. As a business we will prosper, and as an industry we will grow."

Fitness trainer Latoya Hamilton told Business Day the culture at the gym is cohesive.

"It is very warm and friendly here. A lot of people here tried other gyms before and they said they noticed when it comes to trainers helping them, they don't feel that level of support. But here, a lot of times you would see that people feel that level of encouragement. It is a familiar environment where everyone is like-minded.

"It is also a form of therapy for people to get through their day."

Amanda Ali, who is five months into her second pregnancy, said she usually cannot wait to hit the gym.

"It helps me stay active, and my doctor advised me that I should stay as active as possible. "It's also a form of therapy, I just don't feel as good as when I go to the gym."

"I love it here," she added. "It's open 24/7, there isn't any long wait times. I like the fact that they have drinks, food, muffins. Every time I come here I buy something."