Fitness Industry Trends

Before I move into the technical systems, I'd like to first offer my insight into the fitness industry in general. I have been in the industry for nearly 15 years, and in an industry as young as this one, that is actually considered to be quite a long time. I started out repairing fitness equipment for some of the biggest manufacturers around - including Life Fitness, Precor, Star Trac, and many more. I was so interested in the equipment and technology required to run a health club that I opened one of my own about 8 years ago. In fact, over my career in this industry, I have visited literally hundreds of fitness centers, and I have several friends that own clubs.

Now that I've explained what it is that I feel qualifies me to have an opinion as to what I believe is the future of fitness centers, I would say that this is just that - my opinion. I can say that I have quite a few trends in the fitness industry that proved to be accurate. One is that I saw first hand the excitement surrounding Precor's introduction of the industry's very first elliptical (called the 544 Transport) . I encouraged every club owner I knew that they needed to start adding ellipticals to their cardio mix as soon as possible. At that time, ellipticals were cheaper than treadmills and they took up less floor space, so I was constantly encouraging club owners to add ellipticals instead of treadmills when their budget allows. Now most clubs have an equal number of ellipticals and treadmills - proving out that the trend was here to stay.

I saw the same type of excitement around cardio entertainment systems such as Cardio Theater. Again I encouraged club owners to add televisions and Cardio Theater to their clubs, knowing that keeping members interested in fitness would be the name of the game when it comes to retention. Now you wouldn't even think about opening a new club without installing a cardio entertainment system.

Now on to my trends for today's fitness center owners. If I were someone considering opening a fitness center today, I would only open one if it were one of the following formats:

1. A 24 hour access facility in a small town or neighborhood area.
2. A nationally recognized franchise (examples include Planet Fitness, Powerhouse Gym, or Gold's Gym).
3. A combination of the two (examples include Anytime Fitness, Snap Fitness, and World Gym 1440 All Axcess - with more on the way).

It is widely thought that as in every other industry, as the fitness industry matures, the smaller independently owned (mom and pops) operators are going to be disappearing. Squeezed out by pressure from larger operators, some independently owned clubs are selling out, being forced out of business, or simply retiring. It is true that the buying power, business model, and deep pockets of the larger club chains (including franchises) are extremely difficult to compete against. I would contend that if you plan to own a club in a metropolitan area, you should seriously consider being part of a franchised operation (if you can't beat them, join them). If you plan to open a club in a small community, open as a 24 hour access club (the large chains cannot justify putting their business models in small towns). And if you plan to open in a small to medium sized town that already has other fitness clubs nearby, you should open as a franchised 24/7 operation (brand name recognition and 24 hour access could be unbeatable!).

I hope that I've provided at least some food for thought for those of you considering opening a new fitness club. If you already own a club, my suggestion would be to simply convert to one of the above business models. If you want to convert to 24/7 but remain independent, you've come to the right place. This blog will detail out exactly how to do it.