The Future of Personal Training Takes Shape

The future of personal training will be a lot more personal.

Pumped up. As more health seekers take up weightlifting, the US personal training market rebounded from pandemic lows, topping $14B last year.

Catering to growing demand, gyms, tech companies, and wearable makers are bulking up.

Strength services. Leaning into what they do best, brick-and-mortar operators are doubling down on individual and small-group training to help members make gains.

• Equinox is hiring 5K performance coaches over the next two years and partnered with Lionel University on an accelerated credentialing program.
• After retooling its strategy and adding new Eleiko equipment, Life Time expects to break all-time personal training sales records this year.
• Anytime Fitness recorded a 79% increase in personal training services for 2022 and notched a 13-month high in Q1 of this year.

Connected coaching. Instead of trying to replace human trainers, tech-enabled strength brands are innovating to empower them.

• Last year, digital personal training service Future raised $75M to scale 1:1 human coaching.
• Arena, OxeFit, and Vitruvian are expanding commercial sales of their smart strength training machines, targeting coaches and physical therapists.
• Eleiko debuted a connected powerlifting bar, and Perch recently partnered with equipment makers Life Fitness and PLAE, bringing velocity-based training to more athletes and coaches.

Tracking gains. Using wearables to optimize strength workouts, WHOOP now measures muscular load, while Nextiles, STRIVE, and Catapult Sports capture real-time stats.

Looking ahead: While in-person workouts remain the gold standard for personal training, pretty soon, those that don’t offer personalized data and digital touchpoints will soon find their programming outdated.