The Sheffield gym that racked up debts of a quarter of a million

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to Thursday’s Tribune.

No pain, no gain, that’s what they say. But for the members of one Sheffield gym, the pain they got from joining up wasn’t the type they bargained for. One Body Athletic promised to transform clients’ bodies from “lazy, weak and soft” couch potatoes into physiques that could grace the covers of fitness magazines. They paid top dollar for the service, up to £2,400 for a year’s membership. But the gym they joined wasn’t quite what it seemed. That’s today’s story.

Editor’s note: As with many of our best stories, this piece came from a tip off from one of our readers. Because we don’t churn out hundreds of articles a week like most other local papers, we can devote the time and attention to stories that proper investigative journalism takes. But we can only do that because of our paying members, which passed the 2,300 mark last week. If you think Sheffield deserves this kind of journalism, please join them today.

Exciting announcement from Mill Media! The Tribune’s brand new sister publication, the Glasgow Bell, will start publishing stories next week, with former freelance journalist Robbie Armstrong and former Novara Media contributing editor Moya Lothian-McLean at the helm. Read more about The Bell here and be sure to sign up and follow along. Our latest launch means Mill Media now has five titles — in Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow.

Your Tribune briefing

🏫 Sheffield Hallam University has announced it will not give staff a pay rise this year due to its ongoing financial difficulties. Employees will get the basic 2.5% public sector pay rise, but not until next July. However, when it is implemented, it will not be backdated, so the financial loss will be permanent. Hallam UCU said they were “deeply frustrated and disappointed” by the decision which they said they regarded as “nothing short of theft” from staff pay packets.

🏬 Sheffield’s former Cole Brothers/John Lewis department store is to open its doors again next week for the first time in three years. On 1 and 2 October, the building will host a display of plans drawn up by owners Urban Splash, which people will be encouraged to comment on. And from October 1 to October 12, the building will also host The Light Organ presented by Sensoria, a “playful, interactive artwork” that turns sounds into an array of sculptural light.

🧑‍⚖️ The former Debenhams building on the Moor has failed to sell at auction. The building was offered with a guide price of £850,000 in an online auction by Allsop, but was listed as “unsold” on the firm’s website following the event. London-based owner MHA bought the building for £1.5 million when the department store went bust in 2021, but have struggled to find a new purpose for it. For our piece on possible future uses for Debenhams, click here.

Things to do

🐮 On Saturday, the Heeley City Farm free family autumn celebration is back for another year, seeing in the darker nights with local beer and competitions for the best veg, flowers, cakes, chutneys and much more. There will also be free family entertainment, music, food and craft stalls. Also on Saturday is the Trafalgar Studios open day, when members of the public get the chance to look around the art and jewellery studios and bag themselves a bargain!

🎸 Returning for its third year on Saturday is the Float Along festival, bringing a mix of post-punk and psychedelic rock, as well as the best in indie and alternative music to four venues in Sheffield city centre (The Leadmill, Corporation, Sidney and Matilda and Triple Point Brewery). Dubbed an “unreal day of alternative music bliss”, headliners this year include Shame and Antony Szmierek. A final few tickets are still available and cost £35.

🍿 Also on Saturday at the Showroom, much-loved Sheffield artist Pete McKee will be live on stage to talk about the films he loves and the role they have played in both his life and his work. Following the 45-minute Q&A session, Pete will introduce a double header of classic cinema that defined the British mod and two-tone movements: Quadrophenia from 1979 and Dance Craze from 1981. Tickets are priced £20 and the evening runs from 6pm to 10.45pm.

The Sheffield gym that racked up debts of a quarter of a million

If you were to scroll through the Instagram feed belonging to Josh Coburn — a fitness guru, life coach and influencer who until recently was based in South Yorkshire — you’ll see a happy young family under azure blue skies, playing on impossibly fine white sand beaches. You’ll also find countless videos of Coburn, whose muscle-bound physique is so sculpted it looks like its been rendered using CGI, talking about how to become a “high value male” and “the 2.0 version of you”. Photos show him and his wife, Alice, a teacher and the co-director of their gym, One Body Athletic in Sheffield, on the front of fitness magazines and posing on superyachts. The message conveyed is simple: We’re successful, and if you follow our example, you could be too.

But we’ve been told that the image the Coburns project onto the world is a long way from the reality. It’s been alleged that over the last year, One Body Athletic took tens of thousands of pounds in up front fees from members in the full knowledge that the gym was going to close —  and that faced with mounting debts, the couple cut and ran, leaving their home in Wickersley, Rotherham for Dubai with their two young children, leaving dozens of members of their gym out of pocket. “The whole world needs to know they are robbing bastards,” says one fuming former member.

When I contact Josh Coburn over Instagram, he responds almost instantly. He says he finds it “disheartening that amidst the success and profound impact of One Body Athletic over its 8-year operation, the focus has shifted to allegations rather than the positive influence we’ve had on the community”. He then sends me an old Instagram video in which he films himself with tears rolling down his cheeks and tells me the collapse of his business almost cost him his life and his children their father. I’m a sucker for a sob story and immediately start to feel sorry for him in spite of myself. But then, in the very next sentence, he threatens to sue The Tribune for slander.