The fitness sector is enjoying a steady post-COVID recovery, with recent data from Placer.ai suggesting that Americans are not, in fact, permanently ditching the gym.
Nationally, visits to fitness centers as compared to 2019 were down just -3.2% and -3.3% in June and July, respectively. The visit gap increased slightly to -4.8% in August, likely due to a rise in Delta variant cases.
“Month-over-month visit comparisons indicate that the brands with the largest visit gaps are also the brands that are experiencing the greatest month-over-month growth,” Placer.ai’s Shira Petrack writes in a new analysis of the sector. “Between May and July, visits to Orangetheory, LA Fitness, Gold’s Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness increased every month when compared to visits the previous month, indicating that these chains have yet to reach their visit peak. And while August visits dropped across the board, foot traffic is likely to climb back up as the current COVID wave subsides.”
Placer.ai data indicates that July visits to Crunch Fitness, Planet Fitness, Workout Anytime, and Anytime Fitness grew by 33.3%, 7.1%, 12.3%, and 6.6%, respectively, as compared to 2019 figures. And while visits to Orangetheory Fitness, LA Fitness, Gold’s Gym, and 24 Hour Fitness fell by -5.2%, -20.8%, -22.1%, and -40.6%, respectively, “these numbers do not mean that these brands should be written off,” Petrack says. “First, class oriented brands like Orangetheory have been hit harder than most by rising COVID cases. Second, many of these brands have a large proportion of locations in major cities which have recovered at a slower pace.”
Some of the sector’s brightest spots are speciality, boutique gyms that focus on a specific activity. Pure Barre, Club Pilates, and CycleBar all posted visit increases of 6.8%, 28.8%, and 6.2%, respectively in August when compared to 2019.
Another positive sign/? Visits to gyms have gotten longer, in contrast to trends that appeared underway back in the spring of 2021. The average visit length over the last three months show that people are spending more time in the gym now than they were pre-pandemic.
“Since the start of the pandemic, many Americans have been increasingly prioritizing wellness,” Petrack says. “The fitness industry’s impressive overall visit recovery along with the rise in visit duration signal that despite the difficult year and a half, the sector is making a comeback. It looks like the 2020 predictions about ‘the end of gyms’ will not be coming true any time soon.”