Americans are shrugging off home exercise and racing to the gym as they move on from the pandemic emergency with a heavy focus on basic strength training.
Older adults also are joining the fitness frenzy. In response, gyms are reshaping their programming and helping pickleball blossom from a pandemic obsession to the nation’s fast-growing sport.
COVID-19 cases and deaths are dwindling, and President Biden declared an end to the national public health emergency in May.
That shift has coincided with a boom in the fitness industry, said Walt Thompson, a former president of the American College of Sports Medicine and lead author of its 2023 fitness trends survey.
“People are flocking to gyms,” he said. “Gyms are full every single day. Memberships are up.”
Public health policies forced gyms to close during the COVID-19 crisis in 2020 and 2021, creating pent-up demand.
“The second reason is that gym owners are smart,” Mr. Thompson said. “They have significantly discounted memberships to get members back in, to try to make a profit again.”
The fitness industry started to rebound in 2022 and continued its surge this year, according to Placer.ai, a company that tracks consumer foot traffic.
Visits to gyms and health clubs were up 30.3% in January compared with January 2022, when problems from the omicron variant of the coronavirus lingered.
Foot traffic in gyms was up 7.8% in May compared with the same month in 2022, “indicating that fitness is continuing to build on last year’s strong traffic,” the tracking company said.
Planet Fitness said its revenue grew 19% in the first quarter of this year from the same period last year.
The company is “seeing that our members are more committed to fitness than they were pre-pandemic with higher overall visits per member as all age groups are visiting more frequently than 2019,” CEO Chris Rondeau told investors. “This is a good sign since non-use is the No. 1 reason why members cancel, so more usage should continue to bode well for our cancel rate.”
The boom has not spread across the entire fitness industry.
Gyms that flung open their doors are doing well, Mr. Thompson said, but those that stuck with virtual programs fell short.
“The home exercise market has declined rapidly,” he said. “Everybody thought that that was going to continue into 2023. They failed with that.”
Others aren’t sure about the online decline. Virtual fitness programs tend to cost less than gym memberships, and they have opened new avenues for exercise on the road.
“This allows a cheaper cost and greater access. I do not think the training was quite as good, as we are still learning how this might work,” said Gregory Biren, an associate professor of exercise science at Rowan University in New Jersey.
Peloton, the home workout company that offers instructor-led virtual sessions, soared during pandemic shutdowns. The company responded to a slumping stock price and lagging demand for its bikes by relaunching its brand and revamping its app with a tiered membership structure.
“Historically, we have experienced a seasonal decline in subscriber growth in [the fourth quarter],” Peloton CEO and President Barry McCarthy told shareholders in May. “We’re expecting a decline this year as well. Notwithstanding the relaunch, Q4 will be among our most challenging from a growth perspective.”
The American College of Sports Medicine said online training was No. 26 in its 2020 fitness trends survey but surged to No. 1 in 2021 after the pandemic took hold. Online training dropped to the No. 9 position in 2022 and fell to No. 21 this year.
A Peleton media representative pointed to signs of engagement in a combination of workouts at gyms and at homes and that subscriptions in exercise streaming services remain robust.
Although demand for Peloton bikes crashed, the company’s overall “connected fitness” subscriptions increased 5% from last year, according to the May investors call.
The company also grappled with a 2021 recall of its treadmills and a recall this year of 2 million bikes.
Another trend is “wearables” as devices that track fitness metrics proliferate and become more accurate. Strength training with free weights and bodyweight training is popular partly because the process is easy and shows quick results.
“I do not think that COVID necessarily increased strength training, but I believe that more information is out there about the benefits,” Mr. Biren said.
Pickleball “really took off” when people were told to avoid indoor groups and engage in social distancing, said Melissa Zhang, a spokeswoman for USA Pickleball, the national governing body. In pickleball, two or four players hit a hollow plastic ball using solid paddles.
“People began playing pickleball because it was a great way to still get outside and stay active while remaining at least 6 feet apart from one another,” she said. “We haven’t seen it taper since, and it’s continued to grow significantly over the last few years.”
The Sports and Fitness Industry Association says pickleball has been the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. for three consecutive years, reaching about 9 million players.
Pickleball is not as strenuous as tennis or other racket sports, so grandparents can play alongside younger generations.
Mr. Thompson said baby boomer gym membership is also surging. Some clubs cater to the older crowd by offering a more serene midday atmosphere.
“The really smart clubs are turning their clubs around at 9 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “They’re turning down the music and putting on Bach and Beethoven rather than Dre and Drake.”
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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