When Alex Bull moved back to Wales after living in London, she realised Wales had been neglected by the luxury gym market. In London, she was used to finding countless boutique gyms but couldn’t find anything of the sort in Cardiff. She made it her mission to bring the same to Wales, not wanting her home nation to be left behind.
Inspired by the likes of Barry’s Bootcamp, SoulCycle and Third Space, Studio Tarw is Wales’ first boutique fitness studio and offers a range of classes from hot yoga and Pilates to bootcamp and ride sessions and much more.
Alex, 36, had been living in London for over ten years working at a variety of gyms before landing a role as a head coach at a luxury boutique fitness studio. She thought she was living the dream but when Covid hit she realised she was completely burnt-out.
READ MORE: ‘We lost everything and ended up in a caravan after mum was wrongly accused of stealing’
READ MORE: Shark! star Helen George’s split from Call the Midwife co-star after ‘awful divorce’
After convincing her now-husband, also called Alex, to move to Wales, she spent three years working tirelessly to gain investment and find the perfect building for her studio.
She recalled: “I just worked the room, I worked the city, I was in any networking event you can imagine. I was meeting anyone who knew anything about business, about Cardiff, about the fitness industry. It was years of being like, I’m gonna do it.”
Alex is particularly proud of the community which has come out of the gym -Credit:Tyler Lloyd Photography @tlp_photos_
Three years after moving out of London, in August 2023, Alex finally found the right space just three weeks before she was due to give birth to her first child.
“Five days after I gave birth I was back on the computer. I just thought to myself, I’ve never had a baby before, I’ve never opened a business from scratch before, so I won’t know how hard it is,” she said.
Once she’d secured the space Alex had to face setting up a business from scratch with a newborn baby in tow. She had no childcare and admitted her baby had to come everywhere with her. She said: “I literally did every accountancy meeting, investor pitch, meeting with tradespeople, on-site, off-site, all with a brand new baby.
“I just wanted to prove that women can do anything and I think it was a blessing I had a daughter because I want her one day to know you don’t have to choose between a career and motherhood, you can actually have it all.”
As Alex reflects on the first birthday of her company, she said the reaction to the gym has been amazing. Studio Tarw is regularly fully-booked every night of the week and has been extremely popular with students and professionals.
Alex is particularly proud of the community which has come out of the gym. She explained it’s a great place for people to meet other people who are interested in fitness if their friends might not be and said they make sure to celebrate everyone’s achievements. They even have prosecco after glasses on a Friday night.
The gym holds lots of different events with Cardiff brands -Credit:Tyler Lloyd Photography @tlp_photos_
She said: “When I was younger I was like who wants to go for a run with me and my friends would say absolutely not, so I ran my first marathon at 21 with my cousin who was 45 because I didn’t have any friends who wanted to. I would drive from Swansea to Merthyr just so I could run with him.”
“Finding people who are like-minded, and bringing them together, that has been the most amazing thing,” she said.
Now six and a half months pregnant with her second child, Alex has plans to expand her business and open a brand new site in her hometown of Swansea.
“I always knew that I was going to open my second site in Swansea. That was always the vision, I’m from Swansea and it’s my way of getting back. But my vision for Studio Tarw is to keep opening in cities that are west of the M4 from London, because we are completely overlooked.
“A lot of the bigger brands are going up to Manchester, so there’s a Barry’s Bootcamp in Manchester and Liverpool, but then Bristol down into Wales, we’re just here in the corner being left in the past. It’s really exciting – now Snoop Dogg’s even coming to Swansea!”
Studio Tarw host a range of classes including bootcamp sessions -Credit:Tyler Lloyd Photography @tlp_photos_
Alex explained that in order to open this second site they needed fresh investment. She said: “We’re looking for serious investors who get it and who want to be a part of it and are excited by it and can see the potential of where this is going.”
“I want two sites in Wales. It’s a Welsh brand. It’s Tarw. My surname is Bull which is the translation of Tarw and I speak Welsh. I’m very proud to be Welsh as everyone who’s Welsh is.”
Studio Tarw is located on 39 Windsor Place. They run a variety of classes from 6.30am to 7.30pm.