Bromhof, Randburg · Since 2012
Small group functional training that treats you like an athlete from day one, whether you are in your twenties or your sixties. Kettlebells, ropes, tyres and a coach who knows your name. Your first week costs nothing.
Loved by the Randburg crowd for over a decade
About FTSA
FTSA opened in 2012, and since then we have had the pleasure of helping hundreds of people around Randburg get fitter, get stronger, and get somewhere they did not think they could.
We built a training facility where you are treated like an athlete and coached towards whatever goal you walked in with. Some people arrive wanting to lose weight. Some want to lift heavier than they ever have. Some are coming back from an injury and want someone watching while they do. Some just want an hour where nobody needs anything from them. All of it works here.
The training is outdoors and under cover, which in Joburg means you get proper air and morning sun instead of recycled air and a queue for the leg press. It is not a polished place. It is a working one.
What holds it together is the group. Friendly, encouraging, slightly competitive people who genuinely want to watch each other improve. That part you cannot fake, and it is the reason most members stay far longer than they planned to.
“Suffer the pain of discipline or the pain of regret”
Who trains here
FTSA is a family. Not in the way gyms put that word on a wall, but in the way that one of our members wrote it in a review without being asked. People look out for each other here, and they also make each other work.
20s
Our youngest
65
Our oldest
Youngest to oldest, in the same session, on the same morning
The board is identical for everyone who walks in. What goes on the bar is not. A 24 year old and a 65 year old work through the same thirty minutes and both of them leave having genuinely worked, because the weight is set against the person rather than the room.
You will be looked after on your first morning. You will also be pushed, because that is what you came for. Nobody here gets quietly written off as the one who cannot, and nobody gets to hide at the back either.
Not the oldest, not the newest, not the least fit. Whatever you are walking in worried about, somebody in that session has already stood exactly where you are standing, and most of them will tell you about it while you catch your breath.
Plenty of people end up dragging someone in with them. A husband, a wife, a grown up kid, a mate from work who said no four times. They usually stay, which tells you more about the place than anything we could write here.
“Nothing like any gym I came across, and I have tried the most. The place where friends become family.”
What you can expect
Sessions are built as a full body workout with certain areas targeted, and that target changes from day to day. Nothing here is a separate class you have to book. Over a week you cover the lot, whether you came for one of these or all six.
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Why functional training
Functional training means the movements you do here are the ones your body already does outside. Lifting something awkward off the floor. Carrying it further than you meant to. Pushing, dragging, climbing, getting back up. Train those patterns under load and the results do not stay in the gym.
Groceries, a toddler, a full gas bottle, a suitcase into an overhead locker. None of that happens on a machine with a fixed path. Training the way your body actually moves means the strength shows up where you need it, which is almost never on a bench.
Most of what goes wrong with people is not the big muscles failing. It is a stabiliser that was never asked to work, a joint with no strength at the end of its range, or balance that quietly disappeared. Functional work hits all three, which is why the people who stick with it stop having the same recurring back and shoulder problems.
Compound movements recruit a lot of muscle at once, and the sessions are built to keep you working rather than queueing. If your week only has three or four hours in it, this is the highest return you will get from them.
Moving big loads burns through the session and keeps burning afterwards, while the strength work protects the muscle you already have. That combination is why people here lose size and gain capability at the same time, instead of just getting smaller and weaker.
Strength, bone density and balance are the three things that decide whether your sixties look anything like your forties. All three respond to loading and all three fade without it. Starting now is cheaper than starting later, and a lot cheaper than not starting.
An hour where the phone is in a bag and nobody needs anything from you does something that is hard to put a number on. Sleep improves, stress drops, and having somewhere to be at 5am gives the rest of the day a shape it did not have before.
The sessions
Every session is a full body workout with a different area getting the extra attention, so across a week you cover the lot. You never quite know what is waiting for you on the board, which is the whole reason people keep turning up instead of quietly drifting off in March.
The coaching
This is more than a place to sweat for an hour. Whatever you walked in wanting, you get coached towards it, and someone notices the moment your form starts sliding. That matters more than any programme, because the reps you do badly are the ones that eventually cost you.
The people
FTSA is a friendly, loud, slightly competitive bunch who genuinely want to see each other get better. Turn up twice and someone knows your name. Miss a week and someone asks where you were. That accountability is the thing no home gym and no app has ever managed to replace, and it is why people who hated gyms their whole life end up here on a Saturday at 7am.
Nick Gindre
Head Coach
Buenos Aires to Joburg
Nick grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina and now calls Johannesburg, Gauteng home. The accent stays. So does the standard he holds everyone to.
Who is coaching you
Nick has played professional football and lifted for Argentina internationally. He knows what it takes to hold a body together at that level, and more usefully, he knows how to scale that down to whoever is standing in front of him on a Tuesday morning.
He has run FTSA since 2012 and still coaches the floor himself. The person correcting your setup on a kettlebell swing is the same person who remembers what your knee was doing three weeks ago. No rotating cast of trainers, no printed programme handed over at the door.
Professional footballer
Played the game for a living before he ever coached it
International weightlifter
Competed for Argentina on the international stage
Coaching since 2012
Running the FTSA floor himself, session after session
Training hours
Pick whichever slot fits your day. Your membership covers all of them, so you are never tied to one time.
Mornings
Afternoons
Mornings
Afternoons
Mornings
Afternoons
No afternoon session
Saturdays and public holidays run a single 7am session. Public holiday sessions are worth confirming with Nick the day before.
Membership
R900 a month buys every session on the timetable. There is no joining fee, no contract to sign for a year, and nothing that quietly escalates in month four.
A full week of unlimited training before you decide anything. No card, no sales pitch afterwards.
Unlimited group sessions. Train once a week or every single day, the price does not move.
No joining fee, no annual contract, no year-long lock in.
Reviews
68 five star Google reviews
All of these are real reviews on our Google profile, written by people who train here. We never asked for a single one, and we have not touched a word.
Read all 68 on GoogleShawn van Jaarsveld
I would ABSOLUTELY recommend Functional Training SA Boskruin to anyone wanting to get back into shape. It's more than just a gym, it's a community of like minded people that become friends after a while. The owner and personal trainer Nick is a super star at what he does.
Cuan Stafford
Such an awesome place to train, so glad I found FTSA. Great facility with an amazing community. Thanks Nick and all the other members!
Brad Games
This gym helped me start my fitness journey! If you are looking for an atmosphere where the whole team makes you feel like family then this is the place for you! Great outdoor training facilities and a coach with a wealth of knowledge! Highly recommended and affordable!
Matthew Bowyer
Great private gym for the gym goers who want to branch into niche trainings. Runners, Olympic weightlifters, cross fitters ect. Top facility and equipment for us all.
Liesbet Voigt
Awesome coach, gym and community. I am grateful to be a part of the FTSA family. Highly recommended!
Katya Lok
Best workouts in the BEST environment ever! Nick is an amazing coach, person and friend!
Desiré Mathey
Great to get back into fitness. Many class times morning and evening. Classes have variety of exercises each day. For all fitness levels. H.W.P.O
Ashleigh Willson
I love this gym. Nick our coach is always supportive & motivating, offering the best training sessions.
Candice Antonie
Best functional training (I say this based on a lifetime of experience with many different training studios), best trainer (Nick), the best people…. And the BEST COFFEE on town (thanks Nick, I'm now an addict).
Bradley Rowles
Amazing place to workout, Nick really helps you out with what you would like to achieve and technique. Safe, fun and family friendly place to workout. I would recommend to everyone
Quintin van Deventer
Best decision I made last year was to join. Affordable rates, an outdoor environment, a great coach and a wonderful community.
Cameron Fraser
Great gym. The functional training aspect helps with strength and fitness. Nick is brilliant and puts a lot of effort into the gym and the sessions.
Tammy Twidale
Hands down one of the best training facilities around. Fantastic coach/ owner and you become part of an incredibly supportive community. Highly Recomment FTSA.
Nicole de Villiers
BEST GYM EVER!! Great Coach; awesome friendly environment, new workouts everyday, wouldn't train anywhere else!!
Jonathan Borthwick
Great place to train. Interesting & different routines to keep you engaged. Focusing on function and form. Highly recommended.
Stoyan Stoychev
Best functional work out in Jhb with lots of fun! New exercises every session keep it interesting and challenging
Melanie Peters
Awesome place! Awesome people! Supportive environment! Excellent coaching!
Inside a session
No stock footage and no rented studio. Nick films these on the floor, on ordinary mornings, with the people who actually train there.
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Seven days of unlimited training, then decide. A week is long enough to stop feeling like the new one and start feeling the difference. Most people who try it are still here a year later, which tells you more than anything we could write on this page.
Questions
Still unsure about something? Phone Nick on 074 105 4689. He would rather answer a question than have you talk yourself out of coming.
Get in touch
The fastest way in is a WhatsApp. Nick reads them himself and will usually have your week set up within the hour. Prefer a form? That works too.
WhatsApp +27 74 105 4689