How Physical Formula collects, uses, and protects the information you share with us.
Effective 19 May 2026 · Version 2.0
Plain English summary. We collect the personal information you give us when you enquire about training, sign up for a membership, train with us, or use this website. We use it to coach you safely, run the gym, and reply to you. We do not sell it, and we share it only with the tools that help us operate (booking, payments, email, the AI chat assistant on this site). You can ask to see, correct or delete your data at any time by emailing us at info@physicalformula.com.
1. Who we are
This privacy policy is published by Physical Formula Ltd, a private limited company registered in England and Wales, trading as Physical Formula. Our registered gym address is Unit 7E Rigby Close, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV34 6TH.
For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, Physical Formula Ltd is the data controller of any personal information we collect about you. That means we decide what personal data we collect, what we use it for, and how it is protected.
The categories of personal information we collect fall into the following groups.
Contact and identity information
Your name and the name you prefer to be called by your coach.
Your email address and phone number.
Postal address, where relevant for invoicing or correspondence.
Emergency contact details, where you have chosen to provide them during onboarding.
Enquiry and conversation data
Information you submit through the enquiry form or contact form, including your training history, goals, your preferred training times, how you heard about us, and any free-text message you send.
Records of email and text correspondence between you and the coaching team.
Transcripts of conversations you have with the AI chat assistant on this website. See section 12 for detail on the chat assistant.
Health and training information
Information you share during onboarding so that we can coach you safely, including medical history, injury history, surgeries, medications relevant to exercise, pregnancy or post-natal status where relevant, and any condition you would like your coach to know about.
Training notes captured by your coach during your sessions, including lift weights, performance metrics, and progress notes.
Periodic assessments or measurements where you have agreed to take part in them.
Billing and membership information
Membership type, start date, and payment schedule.
Records of payments and refunds. Full card details are not stored by us. Card details are processed by our payment provider (see section 7).
Website and technical data
IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URL, and timestamps when you visit this website.
Pages viewed, time spent on the page, and aggregate usage analytics. We use this only to understand how the site is used in aggregate. We do not build advertising profiles.
A cookie or local storage value used by the AI chat assistant on this site to remember whether you have opened the assistant in your current browser session.
3. How we collect it
We collect personal data in the following ways.
Directly from you when you enquire through the website, speak to a coach, sign up for a membership, complete onboarding paperwork, train with us, or contact us in person, by email, by phone, or through the AI chat assistant.
Automatically when you visit this website, through cookies, analytics tools, and your browser sending standard request information.
From third parties in limited cases, for example where a friend or family member has referred you and shared your name with us before we made first contact, or where a payment processor confirms a transaction.
4. Why we use it
We use your personal information for the following purposes.
To reply to your enquiry and arrange a first session or studio visit.
To deliver coaching to you safely and to programme your training appropriately to your history, goals, and any health considerations you have shared.
To run your membership, including taking payment, booking sessions, sending reminders, and managing pauses, freezes and cancellations.
To communicate with you about studio matters such as opening hours, session changes, holiday closures, fire safety, and other operational updates.
To send you membership notices that are required by your contract with us, such as upcoming payment dates or price changes.
To send you optional marketing communications about the gym, only where you have agreed to receive them.
To improve this website and our service in aggregate.
To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including tax, accounting, and any duty owed to a regulator.
To protect the gym, our coaches, and our members, including dealing with complaints, incidents, or disputes.
5. Lawful basis for processing
Under the UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for each thing we do with your personal data. The lawful bases we rely on are set out below.
Performance of a contract. Where we are delivering coaching, running your membership, taking payment, and providing the services you have signed up for, we process your data on this basis.
Legitimate interests. Where we are running our business, responding to enquiries, programming your training, keeping training notes, securing our website, dealing with complaints, and operating in an ordinary commercial way, we rely on our legitimate interests, balanced against your rights and freedoms.
Consent. Where we are sending you optional marketing, taking photography or video that features you, or processing health or sensitive information, we rely on your consent. You can withdraw consent at any time by contacting us.
Legal obligation. Where we are required to retain records for tax, accounting, or regulatory reasons, we rely on the relevant legal obligation.
Vital interests. In the rare event we need to share your information to protect your life or someone else’s, for example by passing emergency contact details to medical responders, we rely on vital interests.
6. Health and special category data
Health information is treated by the law as a special category of personal data and is given extra protection. We collect health information from you only where it is needed to coach you safely. When we ask for it we do so on the basis of your explicit consent.
Health information is held by your coach and the gym operations team and is not shared with any third party unless one of the following applies:
You have asked us to share it, for example with a physiotherapist or sports doctor.
Sharing it is necessary to protect your life or someone else’s in a medical emergency.
We are required by law to share it.
If you would prefer not to share certain health information with us, please tell your coach. We may still be able to coach you, but the coach will need to know what limitations to apply.
7. Who we share data with
We share personal information only with the third party tools that help us run the business, and only to the extent each tool needs to do its job. These third parties act as our data processors and are contractually required to handle your data securely. The categories of processor we currently use are:
Booking and membership platform used to schedule sessions and manage membership records.
Payment provider used to take card payments and run recurring subscriptions. Full card details are handled by the payment provider, not by us.
Email service provider used to send transactional emails such as enquiry replies, booking confirmations, and renewal notices.
Email marketing platform used to send the optional studio newsletter, where you have opted in.
Website hosting and analytics used to serve this website and understand aggregate usage.
AI chat assistant infrastructure covered in section 12. The chat assistant on this website is powered by Anthropic, the maker of the underlying Claude language model, with messages routed through our hosting provider.
Accounting and tax advisers used to meet our statutory accounting and tax obligations.
Legal advisers and insurers where we need professional advice or to manage a claim.
We do not sell your personal information to anyone. We do not share it with advertisers. We do not pass it to companies that have no role in delivering the service to you.
8. International transfers
Some of the tools we use are based outside the UK or process data on servers outside the UK. Where that is the case, we put in place the safeguards required by UK data protection law to make sure your information is protected to the same standard as it would be in the UK. These safeguards typically include the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or transfers to a country recognised by the UK government as offering adequate protection.
The AI chat assistant on this site uses Anthropic, a United States provider. Messages sent to the assistant are transferred to the United States for processing under appropriate safeguards. You can choose not to use the assistant. If you would prefer to ask us a question without using it, email info@physicalformula.com directly.
9. How long we keep your data
We hold your personal information only for as long as we need it. Our standard retention periods are set out below. Where a longer period is required by law, the longer period applies.
Enquiry data, where you did not become a member. Up to 24 months from the date of your last contact with us, in case you come back to us. Earlier on request.
Member records, while you are a member. For the duration of your membership and for a sensible follow-up period afterwards.
Member records, after your membership ends. Up to six years after the end of the membership, for tax, accounting, and insurance reasons.
Health and training notes. Up to six years after the end of the membership, to protect both you and us in the event of a later question or claim.
Marketing list entries. Until you unsubscribe, then we keep a suppression record to make sure we do not contact you again.
Chat assistant transcripts. Up to 90 days for operational and abuse-prevention purposes, then deleted, except where you have asked us to keep a transcript or where we need it for an active enquiry.
Website analytics. Aggregate analytics data is retained for no more than 26 months.
10. Cookies and analytics
This website uses a minimal set of cookies and similar technologies. The categories used are described below.
Strictly necessary. Used to make the site work, including the AI chat assistant remembering whether you have opened it in your current session. These are always on and cannot be disabled.
Analytics. Used to understand aggregate usage of the site so that we can improve it. Analytics is configured to anonymise IP addresses and not to build advertising profiles. You can opt out by disabling cookies in your browser.
We do not use advertising cookies. We do not run remarketing. We do not share your behaviour on this site with social media platforms for advertising purposes.
11. Marketing
If you have opted in to receive marketing from us, we may email you about studio updates, new programmes, journal posts, member events, and offers. Every marketing email contains a one-click unsubscribe link. You can unsubscribe at any time and we will stop sending marketing emails to you within a short period of receiving the request.
We never share your details with third parties for their own marketing.
12. The chat assistant on this site
This website hosts an AI chat assistant called The Formula. The assistant is provided to help visitors understand our coaching, point to the right service, and pass enquiries to a coach. Important things to know.
The assistant uses the Claude family of language models provided by Anthropic. Your messages are sent to Anthropic for processing under our agreement with them.
The assistant does not need an account, and you do not have to use it.
You should not share sensitive personal information through the assistant. If you want to share medical history, do that with your coach in person or by email instead.
Conversations are retained for up to 90 days for operational and abuse-prevention purposes, then deleted, unless you have explicitly asked us to keep a transcript.
The assistant is a tool. It is not a coach, not a medical professional, and not a replacement for speaking with the gym. If anything is unclear from a conversation with the assistant, ask us directly.
13. Children’s data
Our coaching services are designed for adults aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you are under 18 and would like to train with us, please ask a parent or guardian to contact us first and we will explain how we work with younger trainees.
If you believe we have collected information about a child under 16 without parental consent, please contact us and we will delete it.
14. Security
We take the security of your information seriously. We have appropriate organisational and technical measures in place, including access controls on the systems that hold your data, encryption in transit for our website and forms, restricted access to coaching notes, regular review of the third party tools we use, and a process for handling any incident that does occur.
No system is perfectly secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us as soon as possible.
15. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information. You can ask us to do any of the following.
Access. Confirm whether we hold personal data about you, and give you a copy of it.
Rectification. Correct anything that is inaccurate or out of date.
Erasure. Delete data we no longer need to hold, subject to our legal obligations.
Restriction. Stop using your data in certain ways while we look into a question you have raised.
Portability. Transfer the data you have given us to another provider in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
Objection. Object to processing we do on the basis of legitimate interests, including a complete opt-out from marketing.
Withdraw consent. Where we are relying on your consent, withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of anything we did with that consent before it was withdrawn.
Not be subject to automated decision making. We do not make decisions about you using automated processes alone.
To exercise any of these rights, email info@physicalformula.com. We will reply within one calendar month. There is no charge for a request in normal circumstances. We may need to ask for identity verification before releasing personal data, to make sure we are sending it to the right person.
16. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please tell us first so that we can put it right. Email info@physicalformula.com with a short description of the issue and we will get back to you within five working days.
You also have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection. You can find their contact details and complaint process at ico.org.uk.
17. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be announced on the gym noticeboard, by email to active members, and on this page. The effective date at the top of this page tells you when the current version came into force. Previous versions are available on request.
18. Contact us
If you have any question about this policy, about your data, or about how we work, we would much rather you contact us than wonder.
Data Protection Contact
Physical Formula Ltd Unit 7E Rigby Close Royal Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV34 6TH