The topline takeaway is\u00a0difficult\u00a0to miss: Gyms recorded 7.2 million new joins in 2025, with Gen Z accounting for 47% of that total.<\/p>\n
As ABC Fitness chief customer officer Mike Escobedo tells Athletech News, the company is hearing from operators that they are increasingly navigating a member base that is younger, more digitally fluent and less tolerant of friction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want fast onboarding, flexible payment options and experiences that feel personal from day one,\u201d Escobedo said. <\/p>\n
That race for Gen Z members is already playing out among high-value, low-price (HVLP) gym operators<\/a>, many of which have made younger consumers a core target \u2014 Planet Fitness has repeatedly pointed to Gen Z as its fastest-growing membership cohort<\/a>.<\/p>\n PureGym is making a similar Gen Z-focused play in the Northeast. Following its acquisition of Blink Fitness, the HVLP operator, a hit in the U.K.,\u00a0has made a significant investment in upgrading more than 50 sites across New York and New Jersey with expanded fitness offerings and 24\/7 access.<\/a>\u00a0The gyms now operate under the PureGym banner.<\/p>\n Gyms Grapple With Easier Cancellations <\/p>\n Although gym check-ins inched up 1% year-over-year and are up 11% since 2021, cancellations climbed 8%, suggesting that while some members are deeply engaged, others are bailing just as quickly.<\/p>\n Notably, the rise in gym cancellations also coincided with the fitness industry\u2019s reckoning with \u201cclick-to-cancel\u201d this year, following a new Federal Trade Commission rule requiring businesses, including gyms, to make cancellation processes as easy as signing up.<\/p>\n While the rule has faced court challenges and ongoing uncertainty at the federal level<\/a>, many operators have nonetheless enacted more transparent cancellation policies, often aligning with existing or emerging state-level requirements.<\/a><\/p>\n Boutique fitness studios, however, told a different story. New joins declined 3% and check-ins remained flat, but cancellations fell 6%, demonstrating a stronger commitment among those who did sign up.<\/p>\n Retention Starts With Connection<\/p>\n Community, in particular,\u00a0appears to play\u00a0a\u00a0major\u00a0role in retention.\u00a0According to ABC Fitness, 47% of Gen Z members say it is the primary reason they stick with fitness, and roughly one in three members interacts with fitness communities\u00a0on a\u00a0daily\u00a0basis.<\/p>\n The emphasis on community is not new. In a prior ABC Fitness report released this fall, social connection emerged as a primary driver of both gym joins and long-term engagement<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowth will come from removing barriers to join, strengthening community touchpoints and using technology to keep members engaged between visits,\u201d Escobedo said. <\/p>\n The quality of engagement also can\u2019t be dismissed, ABC Fitness chief strategy officer Mohamed Iqbal pointed out. The data shows check-ins climbed past 600 million in 2025, even as new member acquisition softened, suggesting that fitness operators that invest in coaching, community and smart technology are set to win<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMotivation isn\u2019t the issue \u2014 connection is,\u201d Iqbal told ATN. \u201cStudios that leaned into engagement proved this out, cutting cancellations by 6% year-over-year despite fewer new joins.\u201d<\/p>\n Pilates Proves Loyalty Beats Volume<\/p>\n Pilates, the breakout fitness modality of the post-pandemic era<\/a>, earned a dedicated spotlight in the ABC Fitness report, and the data reinforces why.<\/p>\n While Pilates attracts fewer new members overall, it consistently delivers stronger engagement and retention than other formats. In 2025, Pilates studios saw new joins decline 6.1% year over year, but check-ins rose 4.3% and cancellations fell 8.8%, demonstrating that, at least in Pilates, fewer members doesn\u2019t mean weaker performance. Instead, it often means a more committed, consistent member base.<\/p>\n And while Pilates has long been associated with boutique studios and higher price points, at least one HVLP player is beginning to challenge that assumption. Crunch Fitness is bringing reformer Pilates into its big-box model through its top franchise group, CR Fitness Holdings<\/a>, which plans to open a dedicated reformer Pilates studio inside a new Crunch location in McKinney, Texas.<\/p>\n The Big Takeaway<\/p>\n Altogether, the ABC Fitness\u2019 2025 Year-End Wellness Watch Report<\/a> suggests that the challenge heading into 2026 isn\u2019t attracting members, but designing experiences that make them want to stay, especially as competition intensifies in the low-price gym sector<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cMembers are telling us something very clear in the data: they want fitness that fits their lives and their communities,\u201d ABC Fitness CEO Bill Davis said. \u201cThe brands that will win 2026 are the ones that pair easy, flexible ways to join and pay with experiences that make people feel like they belong the moment they walk through the door.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While more Gen Z-ers are embracing fitness than ever before, a new report from ABC Fitness reveals how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[127328,28407,1336,6647,4998,20339,102,20340,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-323437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-abc-fitness","9":"tag-atn-pro","10":"tag-data","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-gen-z","13":"tag-gyms","14":"tag-health","15":"tag-high-value-low-price-gyms-hvlp","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"PureGym](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1001197-2-1120x747.webp.webp\")
credit: PureGym<\/p>\n![\"rendering](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Image_45-1120x728.webp.webp\")
Rendering of an upcoming Pilates studio at Crunch Fitness in McKinney, Texas (credit: CR Fitness)<\/p>\n