From Routine to Ritual: How JETSET Pilates Is Designing for Consistency

From the first visit forward, small details can have a lasting impact on member behavior.

Fitness operators spend enormous energy getting people in the door. The harder challenge is creating an experience that makes them continually want to come back.

For JETSET Pilates, that question has led to a distinction between building a fitness routine and creating something members begin to see as a ritual.

“A routine is something you schedule. A ritual is something you protect,” said Natalie Straub, chief strategy officer at JETSET Pilates. “You can follow a routine because you know you should work out, but a ritual becomes part of how you want to feel and how you move through your life.”

JETSET has been examining how operators can help create the conditions for that shift, from the first few visits to the workout itself, the studio environment and the ways members see their progress over time.

“We want the 50 minutes someone spends with us to be something they look forward to, not another obligation on their calendar,” Straub said. “The goal is to create an experience that feels challenging and effective but also leaves you wanting to come back.”

From Routine to Ritual

The shift from routine to ritual begins in a member’s earliest visits, when the experience is still unfamiliar and each interaction helps shape whether they want to return.

Straub says that starts almost immediately.

“From the moment someone walks into a JETSET studio, dozens of small interactions shape whether they want to return: how they’re welcomed, whether they feel comfortable on the reformer, the instructor remembering their name, the energy in the room, the music, and ultimately how they feel when they leave.”

Those details may seem small individually, but Straub believes their cumulative effect helps determine whether a new member ever becomes a regular one.

“The fiftieth class starts with getting the first few right,” she said. “People remember whether they felt intimidated or supported, anonymous or recognized, depleted or energized, and those seemingly small moments compound over time.”

That thinking also expands the definition of what a fitness brand is actually delivering. The workout has to be effective, while the experience surrounding it can help build the familiarity and connection that bring members back.

“The instructor, music, environment, community and familiarity all contribute to how someone experiences those 50 minutes,” Straub said. “At JETSET, we consider all those elements part of the product, not things surrounding it.”

As those elements become familiar, members spend less time navigating the experience and can settle into a rhythm that supports consistency.

“There’s comfort in that familiarity, while the workout itself continues to challenge them,” Straub said. “That combination of familiarity and progression is incredibly powerful for consistency.”

Designing the Experience

Creating familiarity presents another challenge for fitness operators. Repetition can help an activity become part of someone’s life, but the experience still needs enough variation to keep members engaged.

JETSET approaches that balance by maintaining a recognizable class framework while allowing instructors to create variation through sequencing, resistance, tempo and progression.

“There’s a rhythm to the JETSET experience,” Straub said. “Members know they’re getting 50 minutes of intentional, full-body movement on the reformer, but they’re not walking into the exact same class every time. There’s enough familiarity to build confidence and enough variation to stay engaged.”

That variation can also come from how a member’s own experience with the workout evolves over time. 

“Novelty doesn’t always require reinventing the workout,” Straub said. “Sometimes progression itself creates novelty because your relationship to the movement changes as you get stronger.”

JETSET applies that same intentionality to the member experience outside the workout, looking for ways to reinforce consistency and make the studio easier to integrate into everyday life.

“We’ve also been thinking much more deliberately about the member journey outside the class itself,” Straub said. “Our milestone program recognizes members as they build consistency, and our membership experience is designed to make JETSET easier to integrate into real life.”

Those touchpoints give members ways to recognize the progress they are making while reinforcing the relationship they are building with the studio.

“The goal is simple,” Straub said. “Make the decision to come back easier than the decision not to.”

Making Consistency Easier

Even a well-designed experience has to account for the fact that members won’t always arrive with the same level of motivation. 

“You can’t manufacture someone’s motivation, but you can remove a lot of the friction that makes consistency difficult,” she said.

Some of that happens naturally as members become familiar with the experience. They learn which class times work with their schedules, which instructors they connect with and what to expect when they arrive. Each visit requires fewer decisions, helping build momentum toward ritual.

Consistency, however, does not require perfect attendance. Work, travel, family obligations and other disruptions can break momentum. Straub believes the opportunity for fitness brands is to make it easy for members to reconnect when that happens.

“Progress doesn’t disappear because you missed a week,” she said. “People are much more likely to protect something when they can see what they’ve built. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s creating enough connection to the experience that coming back always feels natural.”

That longer view also changes how Straub defines a successful workout. Intensity can provide an immediate sense of accomplishment, but the larger measure is whether the experience supports progress someone can sustain.

“A successful workout shouldn’t only be measured by how exhausted someone is when they leave,” she said. “Did they move with intention? Did they challenge themselves? Are they getting stronger? And do they want to come back?”

Over time, the value comes from building a relationship with movement that can continue for years.

“The most valuable workout isn’t necessarily the hardest one,” Straub said. “It’s the one you keep coming back to.”