DETROIT, MI — EST. 2016 — CONCRETE & IRON
1,150 square meters of concrete, 41 squat racks, four tonnes of plates and exactly zero mirrors. Come lift something heavy. Leave the selfies at the door.
01 / MANIFESTO
SLAB opened in 2016 in a former stamping plant on Foundry Ave. We kept the concrete, kept the roller doors, kept the cold — and filled the place with barbells. No cardio cinema. No juice bar. No machine that does the work for you.
You will not find a leg press here. You will find a bar, a rack, a platform and a coach who knows your name and your current squat to the kilo. Progress is written on a whiteboard in front of everyone, because pressure is a tool.
We believe strength is built with heavy things, honest counting and showing up when it's raining. Everything else is decoration — and we don't do decoration.
02 / PROGRAMS
Squat, bench, deadlift, press. Coached club sessions built on boring, brutal, proven progression. You add weight to the bar every week until physics objects.
Sleds, ropes, carries and intervals on the concrete strip out back. No treadmill screens, no virtual hills — just you, a timer and a coach counting louder than your excuses.
Know what you're doing? The floor is yours. Forty-one racks, calibrated plates, comp benches, chalk buckets everywhere. Doors open 05:30 sharp — earlier with an Iron Card.
03 / SCHEDULE
Club sessions are coached and capped at 14 lifters. Everything else is open floor. Doors: Mon–Fri 05:30–23:00, Sat–Sun 07:00–21:00.
| TIME | MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:00 | BARBELL BASICS | ENGINE WORK | BARBELL BASICS | ENGINE WORK | BARBELL BASICS | No class | No class |
| 12:15 | LUNCH LIFT | LUNCH LIFT | LUNCH LIFT | LUNCH LIFT | LUNCH LIFT | OPEN FLOOR | No class |
| 17:30 | MAX EFFORT LOWER | CONDITIONING | MAX EFFORT UPPER | CONDITIONING | FULL BODY FRIDAY | SLAB SATURDAY | No class |
| 19:00 | SQUAT CLUB | OPEN FLOOR | DEADLIFT CLUB | OPEN FLOOR | PRESS CLUB | No class | STRETCH & SORE |
04 / COACHES
Four coaches. Roughly 60 combined years under the bar. Zero interest in selling you supplements.
CONDITIONING LEAD — EX-800M, ALL ENGINE
HEAD OF STRENGTH — 240 KG DEADLIFT
POWERLIFTING — STATE-LEVEL MEET REF
OPEN GYM CAPTAIN — 05:30 DOOR OPENER
05 / PRICING
Month to month. No contracts, no joining fee, no “premium towel tier”. Cancel with one email.
$15/DAY
$59/MO
$89/MO
06 / MEMBERS
“I came in on a day pass in 2019 and never left. My deadlift went from 90 kg to 200 kg and my list of excuses went to zero.”
“No mirrors sounded like a gimmick. Then I stopped watching myself and started watching the bar. Everything got better.”
“It's loud, it's chalky, and someone is always yelling a number at you. It is the best hour of my day, every day.”
“I quit three ‘wellness clubs’ before this place. SLAB is the first gym that never once tried to sell me a smoothie.”
07 / FAQ
Really. Racks, barbells, calibrated plates, dumbbells to 60 kg, sleds, ropes, benches and 40 meters of concrete. If it needs a pin-loaded stack and a wipe-down towel, we sold it in 2016 and bought bumper plates with the money.
Yes — arguably more than anyone. Barbell Basics runs three mornings a week and starts with an empty bar. Loud does not mean unfriendly: the loudest cheer on the floor is always for somebody's first proper squat.
No. There are two roller doors, six industrial fans and a Michigan winter. You will be fine. Cold building, warm bar — that's the deal.
One email to front@slabstrength.club before the 25th and you're done at the end of the month. No exit interview, no retention call, no guilt. We'd rather earn you back with iron.
Two showers (hot works, cold works faster) and 60 lockers — bring your own padlock. Chalk stays in the buckets, lifting shoes stay off the street, and rule 01 still applies in the changing room.
08 / JOIN
Fill this in and Andre will call you back within one working day — usually while walking between racks, so expect background clanging.
Application logged. Andre calls back within one working day — if you hear plates dropping, that's normal. Want a head start? Doors open 05:30 tomorrow. Bring flat shoes.