Our Story

Our founder, Alex Bull, spent over ten years in London. She worked her way through gyms across the city before landing a role as head coach at a luxury boutique studio, and she genuinely thought she was living the dream. Then Covid hit, everything stopped, and she realised she was completely burnt out.

So she convinced her husband - also called Alex, which is a whole other story - to move back to Wales with her.

And then she couldn't find anywhere to train. In London you trip over a boutique studio on every corner. In Cardiff, there was nothing. Wales had been completely neglected by the luxury fitness market, and Alex wasn't willing to let her home nation get left behind.

What followed was three years of graft. She worked the room, she worked the city. Every networking event you can imagine, meeting anyone who knew anything about business, about Cardiff, about the fitness industry. Three years of saying I'm going to do this to anyone who'd listen.

In August 2023 she finally found the right space - three weeks before she was due to give birth to her first child.

Five days after having her daughter, Alex was back on the computer. As she puts it: she'd never had a baby before and she'd never opened a business from scratch before, so she wouldn't know how hard it was meant to be.

Every accountancy meeting, every investor pitch, every conversation with tradespeople, on-site and off-site - all of it with an infant on her hip. No childcare. Her daughter came everywhere with her.

Two years on, we're fully booked most nights of the week.

Ten years in London's fitness industry taught Alex what world-class actually looks like. Working at every level, from the gym floor to head coach at a luxury boutique studio, taught her the difference between a class that fills a slot and a class that changes how someone feels about themselves.

But this started long before London. As a teenager she'd ask her friends to come for a run and get an emphatic no. She ran her first marathon at 21 with her cousin, who was 45, because nobody her own age would do it with her - driving from Swansea to Merthyr just to have someone to run alongside.

That's the thread running through everything she's built since: fitness is better with other people. Finding like-minded people and bringing them together has been the most rewarding part of her career.

Today she's a founder, a coach, a wife and a mum of two - and it still only takes one class with Alex to understand the hype.

Because Cardiff deserved it.

We were tired of the assumption that if you want a premium fitness experience - proper coaching, a beautiful space, a room full of people who want to be there - you have to be in London. Barry's Bootcamp, SoulCycle, Third Space: those were the benchmarks, and there was no reason on earth Wales couldn't have its own answer to them.

We also built Tarw for the girl who couldn't find a running partner. The studio is full of people who came on their own because their mates weren't interested in fitness, and left with a group of friends. We celebrate every achievement, we know your name, and yes, there's prosecco on a Friday night.

That community is the thing we're proudest of. Not the fit-out, not the kit. The people.