Super gym is right on trek changing ordinary people into extraordinary athletes

There are no scales, and no mirrors at Joe’s Basecamp gym at Brookvale but founder Joe Bonington is achieving fantastic results for clients.

Nikki Gordon in training. First person story on Joe's Basement, an adventure gym that specifically helps people train for outdoor adventure activities such as Coastrek, Tough Mudder and even trekking Kokoda and climbing Mt Everest

The first clue is in the name: Joe’s Basecamp. But at my first session, there are plenty of other giveaways that this is not your average gym. There are no mirrors, there is a great big lounge area at the centre of the room. And, most telling of all, they don’t ask me to weigh in. In fact they don’t care how much I weigh, or even if I want to lose weight.

Opened before Christmas in an industrial part of Brookvale, on the northern beaches, Joe’s Basecamp is like no gym you will have been to. While most clients do join to lose weight, most quickly forget that goal, inspired instead by fellow members to participate in outdoor adventures such as fun runs, Coastrek, the North Face 100 or even a trek of Kokoda or Mount Everest Base Camp.

“It’s not about weight at all,” says founder Joe Bonington. “It’s about getting people to move better so they can go and trek to Everest Base Camp or swim the English Channel.

Reporter Mercedes Maguire tries out the climbing wall. Picture: Martin Lange

“My motto here is ‘maps not mirrors’ and the thinking behind that is that weight is not important. What’s important is expanding horizons and making people more adventurous than they think they are.”

You’ll find all sorts at Joe’s Basecamp: over-worked businessmen, skilled doctors, busy mums, real estate agents, interior designers and tradies. While most may be training for a fun run or local endurance walk or run, some have the big events on the adventurers’ calendar in their sights — and Joe trains them all to be simply the best version of themselves they can be.

Nikki Gordon is typical of the members. The 41-year-old originally came to Joe to lose her post-pregnancy excess weight. Four years later, the Freshwater mother of two has a long list of adventures to her name, including mountain treks in New Zealand and many endurance trail runs.

Northern Beaches mum Nikki Gordon works the weights under the watchful eye of Joe Bonington. Picture: Martin Lange

Nikki Gordon is training for a 100km ultra-marathon next weekend. Picture: Martin Lange

She is training for the North Face 100 next weekend, a 100km ultra-marathon trail-running event through the Blue Mountains.

“I am just your average mum who used to think going for a run along Manly Beach was enough,” Gordon says.

“But you don’t know what you have in you until you give it a go, and that’s what is different about Joe’s.

“At other gyms, you just get left to do your own thing most of the time, but Joe really believes in you, often more than you do yourself, and he supports you all the way.”

No stranger to the regular gym model, Joe was once celebrated as Fitness First’s longest-serving personal trainer. But a passion for mountains — not surprising for the son of acclaimed British mountaineer, Sir Chris Bonington — led to Joe’s Basecamp, where he combines his love of personal fitness with his love of the outdoors.

At the centre of the gym, on an elevated platform, is the Adventurers Club, a space modelled on the prestigious English Cordon Rouge, which claims Bear Grylls and his own father as a member. The walls of Joe’s Basecamp are adorned with a huge National Geographic map of the world, Nepalese religious paintings, ice tools donated by his dad and a mounted rock brought home by his father from Mt Everest.

Joe Bonnington shows Mercedes Maguire through the inspirational maps in the Adventurers Club. Picture: Martin Lange

Of course, there are the usual weights machines and exercise bikes common to any gym, but it’s the differences that make this place. On my first visit, after a physical assessment to see if I have any pre-existing injuries, I have a go at the bouldering wall, clinging precariously to the vertical drop as I hunt for my next grip. Then it’s the altitude chamber, where oxygen levels are lowered to simulate an altitude of roughly 3000m above sea level. Training in the altitude chamber improves your oxygen efficiency and helps you perform better.

And the most valuable lesson I learn from a single visit? I should have come to Joe’s Basecamp before I attempted the 50km Coastrek event last year — without training for it.

Perhaps then I wouldn’t have lost a toenail and ended up with a wonky ankle.

● Joe’s Basecamp, 7/16-22 Cross St, Brookvale; 10-pack of sessions $297, joesbasecamp.com.au