The At-Home Fitness Industry: Where Did the Gym Rats Go?

By Sarah Lao

It’s 7 a.m. on a Saturday, and you can either wake up and cycle six miles on your trusty indoor bike or roll over into your blankets until it is a less ungodly hour. What would you do?

This was a question that plagued Americans throughout the pandemic. With gyms closed out of health concerns, over 10% of the American population set up home gyms, and Fortune Business Insights predicts the home fitness equipment market will continue to grow $4 billion in the next seven years. Like other durable goods, demand for gym equipment increased this past year as Americans spent their extra dollars on something that would last. As demand rose, however, the supply of gym equipment could not keep up, leading to shortages and a price hike. Because people who have developed healthy habits cannot simply stop exercising during lockdown, we can understand that the demand for gym equipment is inelastic.

To many, at-home fitness is an alternative that offers convenience and flexibility for their time.

The Benefits of At-Home Fitness

To many, at-home fitness is an alternative that offers convenience and flexibility for their time. It’s easy now to fit a thirty minute workout into a busy schedule when commute time has been taken out of the equation. Additionally, many of the new products answer the call for more personalization. A good example of this is the Kalaari Capital-backed Portl, which offers smart sensors that are capable of correcting a users’ form in real-time as they exercise in front of a mirror.

The scope of the industry, too, is ever-growing as more and more startups offer other health-related services — from workout and diet trackers to education on nutrition.

Across the country, “speakeasy gyms” emerged to provide the in-person gym experience that nothing else can perfectly replicate.

Once a Gym Rat, Always a Gym Rat

Beyond at-home gyms, the mandated closing of gyms also created an underground black market. Across the country, “speakeasy gyms” emerged to provide the in-person gym experience that nothing else can perfectly replicate. Again, demand drove the price of a membership to more than double its pre-pandemic cost, and the reduced competition and higher risk of black markets also contributed to the ability of suppliers to charge higher.

Do home gyms actually work?

Still, are people using their brand new home gyms? Is this shift towards home gyms a rational decision for consumers? The data is unclear, though the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association did publish a recent report where 53% said they were less consistent with their new workout routine. With just a sample size of 1,171, though it’s hard to tell whether this conclusion is significant.

As brick and mortar gyms are reopening, it’s unlikely that we’ll see their complete disappearance. What’s more likely to happen is the adoption of a hybrid model. While it’s hard to beat the convenience offered by home gyms, people do miss the social aspect of exercise found in group classes and meetups at the yoga studio.

5 Startups that Rose to the Top:

• Zwift: a provider of fun-based video games that transform the experience of indoor cycling training
• Peloton: an app-based platform for streaming fitness classes in indoor cycling equipment
• Asana Rebel: a freemium app providing yoga, workout, and meditation videos
• MyFitnessPal: a free app and website that tracks diet and exercise to determine the optimal nutrients and caloric intake for the user
• Tempo: a platform that provides training guidance and combines fitness equipment with 3D sensors and artificial intelligence