I did both personal training with Christian (owner/head trainer of Forge) and his regular classes.
Disclaimer: I don't live too far from Forge, so that went into deciding to train there (that, and Christian looks like a statue, which inspires confidence).
He took me on for personal training for the better part of a year and was extremely accommodating of my schedule. I had only ever goofed around in gyms to that point and would just chase a pump with no real plan or results. Christian helped me change all that. In retrospect I would not trust anyone else to teach me how to lift safely - everything from the compound lifts to accessory movements - Christian is HUGE on proper form, preventing injury, and working on mobility, and he'll drill that into ya until you internalize it.
He's also very good at programming, and making sure you track your lift progress, all the while throwing in new things to challenge you in various ways. He doesn't skimp on cardio and is good about balancing strength work with endurance work.
I gained about 15lbs of lean mass in a year training at Forge, which is awesome.
It was not all personal training though - I did the regular hour-long classes at Forge as well. I'm not gonna lie, they're pretty tough. Prepare to be pushed. The classes are a 50/50 mix of compound lifts, usually lifting 70%+ of your one-rep max, and then endurance/cardio work at the end to completely wipe you out. Christian is great, he has this ability to kinda be everywhere at once at give people individual attention as needed, while still being attentive and motivating with the whole group. Speaking of, classes were never too packed and it was easy to build camaraderie with other members (including pups, which are welcome). Music is great as well, good mix of electronic and hip hop (obviously energetic tunes).
The space is cool, it's in a warehouse so it has a raw, gritty feel. It's kinda somewhere between an old school weightlifting gym and a Crossfit box. Equipment is nice, Rogue/ONNIT and such.
I think maybe the ONE thing I would say before you try out a class here is make sure you're somewhat familiar with squats, deadlifts, and bench, as it'll make your experience smoother. If you're not, there's really no better person to learn those from (keyword: safely) than Christian so maybe set up a one-on-one session with him to go through the movements.
Forge is a great addition to the South Lamar fitness contingent, I would highly recommend it if you're looking for a killer workout that incorporates the big lifts (i.e. the only ones you truly need to build lean muscle), and also smokes you with some conditioning recipes. It's maybe a little like Crossfit, but less clique-ish and with MUCH more focus on injury prevention. read more