Strength Training, VR & Wellness To Shape the Future of Gyms, Execs Predict
This article is part of ATN’s DISRUPT 2024 video series, featuring can’t-miss conversations with the biggest executives in fitness and wellness. To watch DISRUPT content, click here
In-person fitness is back and better than ever following the pandemic, and gyms at all price points are reaping the benefits, from increased foot traffic to strong membership numbers.
As gym brands look to maintain this momentum, they confront changing consumer preferences, the rise of new modalities and technological advancements.
During ATN’s DISRUPT 2024 video series, four top executives – Aktiv Solutions’ Bryan Green, EGYM’s Dana Milkie, Midtown Athletic Club’s Loryn Huff and Workout Anytime’s Greg Maurer – sat down to discuss the future of brick-and-mortar fitness.
In the panel, “Build a Better Gym: Blueprints for the Future of Fitness,” Green, Milkie, Huff and Maurer shared their views on topics including the rise of strength training, creating winning wellness and recovery rooms, and integrating tech inside the four walls.
Embracing the Rise of Strength Training
The rise of strength training is real, and there’s data to back it up.
A couple of years ago, Midtown Athletic Club ran an experiment, placing sensors on the equipment at its Chicago-area gyms in order to track members’ workout habits for 30 days.
“We really did see that need for more strength equipment,” said Huff, who serves as Midtown’s national program director. “Interestingly for us, our cable pulley systems were used the most in our strength spaces, so we increased our cable pulley access for members. We (also) increased, by a small quantity, our squat racks.”
Huff added that Midtown Athletic Club also decided to increase the amount of plate-loaded equipment at its gyms. By contrast, Midtown removed some of its cardio equipment, with one notable exception.
“We did, however, increase our stair climbers,” Huff said. “Those are popular, especially for females.”
But females are also embracing strength training in greater numbers than ever before. In response, Midtown Athletic Club has added female-only strength training spaces in its gyms to remove some of the intimidation factor when it comes to lifting weights.
“(It’s) a more moderate and less-intimidating free-weight space for our female members so they can feel more welcomed in that space, Huff explained.
Green, the founder and CEO of Aktiv Solutions, noted that strength training is a big opportunity for gyms, but it also presents challenges. As strength training rises in popularity, Green believes gyms have to work harder to make members feel comfortable – and safe – while lifting weights.
“Those are exciting problems to solve for, but those are the problems at hand right now,” Green said.
Aktiv has been “active” on that front, recently releasing the Smith 3D Trainer, a new take on the traditional smith machine that mimics the natural bar path of free weights while providing the safety and guidance of a smith machine.
“We’re having great success in introducing the (Smith 3D Trainer) machine into the marketplace because it solves so many of the problems that people have always been concerned about – safety, self-spotting – but without the limitations of movement,” Green said.
Wellness & Recovery Spaces Take Shape
Gyms are also becoming more than just places where people work out; they’re turning into hubs of self-improvement. With that, many brands are looking to add wellness and recovery modalities within the four walls.
Workout Anytime, a nationwide chain of high-value, low-price (HVLP) gym franchises, is leading the charge on this front.
Maurer, who serves as Workout Anytime’s vice president of education, shares that all of Workout Anytime’s newly built locations come equipped with premium wellness suites, offering modalities like red light therapy, infrared sauna, massage chairs and more.
According to Maurer, gyms should place their wellness and recovery offerings in a closed-off room to create an atmosphere that’s conducive to relaxation.
“That starts with walking through a door, because you can’t create that same experience out on the floor with people dropping weights,” he says.
Workout Anytime has been building its premium wellness suites for around a year and a half now, and is already seeing strong results.
“Our average dollar per member has (increased) $8 in the last four years,” Maurer said, noting that Workout Anytime’s wellness offerings are available as part of a premium membership plan.
“When (members) look at the add-on to get access to that space, it’s pretty much a no-brainer when you put the right mix of premium wellness amenities in there,” he added.
VR Fitness Coming Soon?
Any discussion on the future of fitness would be remiss without mentioning technology. Tech is slowly but surely making its way inside the four walls of gyms and clubs; industry leaders are excited but they’re also calling for a measured and strategic approach.
Milkie, general manager for EGYM North America, believes tools like gamification and virtual reality will make their way inside gyms and clubs in the coming years, even if VR isn’t quite ready for showtime yet.
“Gen Z is changing clubs, and we need to recognize that,” Milkie said, noting the young generation’s embrace of virtual reality.
“If we recognize that the Gen Z population will drive what fitness looks like in the next five to ten years, and they’re very comfortable with VR technology, I think clubs are going to have to look at how they apply that,” Mikie added.
Milkie believes VR is a “bit further behind AI” right now when it comes to adoption, but “within the next three to five years, I think you’ll see more (VR) as an application in fitness.”
Maurer believes treadmills can be the modality that brings VR fitness inside gyms. The Workout Anytime executive pointed to Xpriential, a brand that makes immersive VR treadmills. Maurer tried Xpriential at IHRSA 2024 earlier this year, and he became hooked.
“I was walking in Central Park; it was amazing,” Maurer said, noting that he usually can’t stay on a treadmill for longer than three minutes due to boredom. “I was on this thing for 40 minutes. I was so blown away.”