{"id":13182,"date":"2025-07-16T03:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/13182\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T03:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:07:06","slug":"gyms-are-betting-big-on-tech-wellness-strength-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/13182\/","title":{"rendered":"Gyms Are Betting Big on Tech, Wellness & Strength Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Executives from top gym brands don\u2019t see strength training\u2019s newfound popularity going away anytime soon. They\u2019re also getting creative about using technology and AI inside the four walls<\/p>\n

High-value, low-price (HVLP) gyms are on top of the fitness world right now, winning new members, expanding across the country at a rapid clip and reportedly scoring billion-dollar valuations<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the industry\u2019s leading HVLP gym brands aren\u2019t resting on their laurels \u2013 they\u2019re looking for new ways to innovate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During an ATN Innovation Summit 2025<\/a> conversation moderated by ALTA Technology Group\u2019s Tara Levitt, Eos Fitness chief operating officer Richard Idgar, Chuze Fitness co-founder and chief operating officer Nicholas Barshick, and CR Fitness CEO Tony Scrimale shared their predictions for the future of the red-hot HVLP gym industry<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ATN breaks down some key takeaways from their discussion:<\/p>\n

Members Love Coming to the Gym, Especially for Strength Training<\/p>\n

The days of low-price gyms being \u201cmembership mills\u201d \u2013 where people signed up but rarely actually showed up \u2013 are over.<\/p>\n

Fueled by Gen Z\u2019s appetite for fitness<\/a>, HVLP operators are now facing the opposite challenge: gyms are becoming too crowded.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members share most that overcrowding is actually the largest concern,\u201d said Idgar, whose EoS Fitness<\/a> has grown from less than 20 locations to over 125 in the past decade. \u201cOur boxes have grown. \u2026 we\u2019ve increased by almost 10,000 square feet from the time that we started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RichardRichard Idgar (credit: ATN Innovation Summit)<\/p>\n

Barshick echoed that concern, noting that Chuze Fitness<\/a> has taken deliberate steps to ease crowding.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur number one source of detractor sentiment is crowds,\u201d Barshick said.<\/p>\n

To help address overcrowding, Chuze created the \u201cLift Lab<\/a>,\u201d a premium, access-controlled space outfitted with Olympic lifting platforms, kettlebells, plyo boxes and other top-tier strength equipment.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne way that we can help offset (overcrowding) is create \u2026 a pay-gated, specialty workout area that our members can trade up to have access to,\u201d Barshick said.<\/p>\n

The move also underscores the growing popularity of strength training among gyms in general, with operators at all price points adding weightlifting equipment en masse. Among HVLPs, Planet Fitness has made a notable push to market its new strength training equipment<\/a>. Meanwhile, Chuze is now \u201cmore loud and proud about the fact that we offer a comprehensive strength offering,\u201d Barshick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Influencers Are Welcome Inside Gyms, But Not in Every Area<\/p>\n

HVLPs are also taking steps to welcome fitness influencers<\/a> inside their gyms while still protecting member privacy.<\/p>\n

CR Fitness, which operates over 80 Crunch Fitness<\/a> locations, is embracing influencer culture as a brand amplifier within its gyms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social media influencers \u201cwant to be front and center,\u201d Scrimale<\/a> said. \u201cAs my daughter says, they want to be under the lighting where it\u2019s aesthetically pleasing. They want to take their pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing things to make sure that no matter where the lights are, or backlit mirrors, that there\u2019s a Crunch logo for branding purposes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"TonyTony Scrimale (credit: Flickman Media)<\/p>\n

Still, operators must ensure they accommodate all members. Scrimale emphasized the importance of maintaining safe spaces for those who prefer not to be filmed.<\/p>\n

Along those lines, EoS Fitness has created \u201cThe Set,\u201d a private space within its clubs that\u2019s dedicated specifically to filming content.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just an example of innovation and really carving out the space in a different way and thinking about it differently, where we still want that marketing opportunity,\u201d Idgar said. \u201cWe want influencers in the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Set has the double benefit of accommodating content creators while minimizing awkward run-ins between staffers and members who prefer not to be caught on camera.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversation about policing (filming) behavior is way different, on both sides,\u201d Idgar noted.<\/p>\n

See Also<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a><\/p>\n

Tech Will Change the In-Gym Experience<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, HVLP operators are exploring ways to make tech a bigger part of the in-gym experience for members, along with adding more wellness and recovery options<\/a>. Barshick said Chuze is exploring implementing a system that would allow members to do things like pre-order a smoothie on their app to pick up after class, as one example.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably losing a lot of sales because we don\u2019t yet have that technology,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019m really excited to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Chuze\u2019s tech ambitions go well beyond drink orders. Barshick said the California-based gym operator, which has over 50 locations across the U.S., is hoping to add GPT-style AI tools to give members personalized workout advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be amazing if we could get a GPT integrated into our app that is trained on our club layout and knows exactly what equipment we offer,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then you\u2019ve got a new member that\u2019s joining in the app, and they\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, I love 5ks and I want to put on five pounds of muscle: give me a workout program and a nutrition plan.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NicholasNicholas Barshick (credit: Flickman Media)<\/p>\n

Crunch\u2019s biggest franchise operator is also looking to add more tech to its clubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to see more gamification,\u201d CR Fitness\u2019 Scrimale said. \u201cWhen you have big member bases like we have, the ability to compete against other members \u2026 I really hope that someone out there comes out with a platform or something so whenever they walk in, there\u2019s a whole \u2018workout of the day\u2019 \u2026 or the \u2018highest benchpress of the day.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Such a platform might already exist, courtesy of fit tech giant EGYM.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Idgar noted that EoS uses EGYM\u2019s line of strength training equipment inside its clubs, which offers gamification features<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is very appealing to a lot of demographics in our gyms, where there is a leaderboard, and they\u2019re competing, not only monthly, but daily, against themselves and then other members, even other gyms,\u201d Idgar said of how EoS is leveraging EGYM.<\/p>\n

This article is based on a live discussion held during the\u00a0ATN Innovation Summit 2025<\/a>, a two-day event dedicated to the future of fitness and wellness. See\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for More Innovation Summit coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Executives from top gym brands don\u2019t see strength training\u2019s newfound popularity going away anytime soon. They\u2019re also getting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[12820,12821,12822,12823,337,9664,97,12824,12825],"class_list":["post-13182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-chuze-fitness","tag-cr-fitness-holdings","tag-crunch-fitness","tag-eos-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-gyms","tag-health","tag-high-value-low-price-gyms-hvlp","tag-zzz-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}