Enticing marketing techniques abound in the fitness industry, one of which is the free trial. In our opinion, if a gym offers a free week for a boot camp, high-intensity or CrossFit-style program, they are being irresponsible.

The free week allows you to jump right in for zero financial commitment, but it can come at a cost. It doesn’t take into consideration your movement patterns, your past injuries or your knowledge of training (or lack thereof). It could be disastrous.

We’ve heard stories of people doing a 1-rep max deadlift during the trial week. Guess what? They got hurt and never returned. We’ve heard of someone with a past knee injury doing box jumps in their first session. What happened? She tweaked her knee and didn’t come back. We have lots of stories of broken individuals who came to us, leery because of their past experiences, then relieved once they learned our process.

Regardless of whether or not you ever step foot into Vero Strength, be very wary of the free trial. A responsible gym will perform a movement screen, they will discuss your training background and they will ask you about your past injuries. Then, before releasing you to classes, they will train you in the movements you will perform and give you strategies for modifications that YOU need. Not only will that keep you safe, but it will keep you from feeling defeated, as you will have a plan if certain movements are outside of what you should/could perform.

This may not be the popular way to gain members and it has certainly kept people who want the freebie from coming in. However, we can sleep at night knowing we’ve set a high standard.

No strings attached? Think again.