Fitness Consumers Want Choices, Just Not Pelotons.

 conventional wisdom told us that gyms were dying because people would rather stay home and work out than risk exposure in a fitness facility. Now, the reverse seems true, with membership sales and attendance rising again at many in-person businesses, and those shiny workout-at-home companies struggling to provide more than expensive clothes hangers in spare bedrooms.

There’s no doubt the pandemic disrupted the fitness industry permanently. A third of brick-and-mortar fitness locations went out of business permanently. Consumers stayed home, some with online training and others with shiny new brands that became household names.

But the pandemic isn’t what it once was, and it looks like some of that disruption might result in some lasting changes, but not the way it seemed at first.

Fitness consumers are winning. They’re gaining more options, more flexibility, a return to pre-pandemic pricing, and – observers hope – greater awareness that lifestyle habits directly impact our ability to stay strong against health challenges, including strange, new diseases.