Anytime Fitness Wants 2,500 More Gyms—Will Lifters Actually Benefit?
UPLIFT IRON CLUBThe 2,500-Gym Bet Is Bigger Than One Fitness Chain
Anytime Fitness and its sister brands have a bold target: move from roughly 7,500 clubs and six million members toward 10,000 clubs and ten million members by 2030. That means approximately 2,500 additional locations and four million more memberships in about four years. The plan is not merely to hang more purple signs over familiar treadmills. The parent group wants an international footprint, more training services and a new kind of mid-priced gym experience.
The scale matters because these are systemwide ambitions across a portfolio that also includes Orangetheory Fitness. They are not a promise that 2,500 new Anytime Fitness locations alone will open. Conflating the group total with the single brand makes the expansion sound simpler than it is. The group has to recruit franchise operators, finance premises, staff clubs and persuade real people to keep paying every month.
The financial arithmetic is striking. A franchise license can cost around $42,000, while a club buildout may run roughly $500,000 to $900,000 before operating realities complicate the picture. That is a substantial bet on members showing up long after the ribbon is cut. For lifters, the important question is not whether a company can open thousands of clubs. It is whether the extra competition improves access to decent racks, usable machines and competent coaching.
The global push already has momentum. More than 365 Anytime Fitness clubs opened during 2025, and growth has been particularly strong outside the United States. The brand is active across dozens of countries, while the parent group has explored further opportunities in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Europe. Expansion can create convenience for travelers, but the same logo does not guarantee the same floor plan or equipment.
A new gym may look incredible on opening day and become frustrating once peak-hour queues appear. Likewise, a small older location with enough squat racks, clean equipment and a friendly atmosphere may be better for actual training than a beautiful new facility designed mainly for promotional photographs. The gym boom is useful only when the extra square footage turns into better workouts.
Consider this story through the eyes of the person trying to train at 6 p.m. after work. A new club within walking distance is meaningful. An app promising a personalized journey is less meaningful if the only barbell is permanently occupied. That distinction between growth as a business headline and growth as a training improvement runs through every part of the expansion plan.
Why the New Gym Floor Is Making Room for More Heavy Weights
The most revealing part of the new Anytime Fitness prototype is not the purple lighting. It is the greater emphasis on strength stations. The industry has learned that members increasingly want more than a long wall of treadmills and a couple of token dumbbells. Free weights, plate-loaded machines, cable stations and usable open floor space have become central to how people judge a gym.
That change fits the wider participation numbers. In the United States, free-weight use has grown faster than other equipment categories since 2021. A modern member may combine barbell work with machines, a short conditioning block and mobility instead of separating every activity into a different facility. A club that can handle several kinds of training has an advantage over one built around a single fitness fashion.
For hypertrophy, equipment variety is valuable when it provides different resistance profiles and practical ways to accumulate hard sets. A squat rack supports squats, overhead presses and pull-ups; a cable station can make lateral raises, rows and triceps work easy to adjust; a leg press allows hard lower-body work without every set becoming a balance test. None of these machines is automatically superior, but they remove bottlenecks from a serious program.
The practical standard is simple: can you train the squat, hinge, horizontal push, vertical push, horizontal pull and vertical pull patterns without waiting half your session? A good commercial gym should also have enough small dumbbell jumps, adjustable benches and sensible machine settings for beginners and advanced members. Two identical racks can be more useful than one photogenic specialty station.
Do not confuse a crowded machine catalogue with an effective training environment. If every piece of equipment is packed too tightly, movement becomes awkward. If the heaviest dumbbells stop far below what strong members need, the free-weight area is decorative. If the only cable machine is constantly being used for everything from chest flyes to rehabilitation, the programming options exist on paper but not in practice.
A smart floor plan has room to load plates, safely walk around a rack and move between exercises without invading someone else's set. That is where the renewed emphasis on lifting can make a real difference. The best upgrade is often boring: another bench, another pair of adjustable pulleys, a properly maintained rack and enough space to use them.
Recovery Rooms Are the New Upsell—But What Actually Helps?
Recovery rooms are moving from luxury clubs into more ordinary membership pitches. The updated Anytime Fitness concept includes amenities such as infrared saunas and pneumatic compression equipment, while some locations already have branded recovery zones. It makes sense commercially: the room feels premium, looks great in a tour and offers something a budget gym may not have.
There is a useful distinction between a relaxing service and a service that measurably improves training adaptation. A sauna can be enjoyable and may encourage someone to unwind after a difficult day. Compression boots can create a pleasant sensation and sometimes help with short-term perceptions of soreness. Neither should be marketed as a substitute for sleep, adequate food, sensible training loads or time between hard sessions.
Red-light and infrared claims require similar restraint. Different devices use different wavelengths, intensities and exposure schedules, and a result from one protocol cannot simply be transferred to every glowing panel in a commercial gym. If a club advertises broad recovery or performance promises, ask what those claims mean, what the evidence covers and whether the service is included in the membership price.
For the average lifter, the recovery hierarchy remains stubbornly unglamorous. Sleep enough to function well, eat sufficient protein and calories, keep a sustainable weekly workload, and use easier sessions when fatigue accumulates. A compression chair can make the process more pleasant, but it cannot erase the consequences of adding heavy squats, sprints and deadlifts on consecutive days without a plan.
Recovery amenities can still be a legitimate differentiator. A member who values a quiet sauna and uses it consistently may prefer a club that offers one. Someone who just wants a rack, a bench and a shower should not be pressured into paying a premium for services they will never touch. The value of an amenity is personal; the evidence behind a medical-sounding promise is not.
Before treating a recovery room as a reason to sign, check access rules, booking limits, cleaning standards and extra fees. A sauna that is always reserved or compression equipment that requires an expensive add-on is not much of a membership benefit. Judge the recovery area with the same skepticism you apply to a flashy supplement advertisement: comfort is real, but extraordinary performance claims need extraordinary proof.
24/7 Lifting Versus Coach-Led Classes: Two Different Gym Businesses
The parent group's two biggest gym concepts solve different problems. Anytime Fitness is built around convenient access and self-directed training, often with optional coaching. Orangetheory is built around scheduled, instructor-led group sessions with a more structured blend of cardiovascular and resistance exercise. One is not the advanced version of the other. They suit different people and different routines.
A self-directed lifter who follows a progressive program may love the ability to train before dawn, after a late shift or while traveling. The freedom to choose exercise order, rest times and loading matters when your goals include stronger squats or bigger shoulders. The trade-off is that you have to know what you are doing or be willing to learn. Unlimited access does not write a useful program for you.
A coached class removes much of that decision fatigue. Someone can turn up, follow instructions, enjoy group energy and leave feeling that the hour was productive. That can be a powerful adherence tool, particularly for people who find open gyms intimidating. But fixed class formats may not provide the progressive loading, rest periods or individualized exercise selection that a dedicated strength block requires.
It is possible to combine both approaches intelligently. A person might lift twice per week in an open gym and take one or two coached conditioning classes for variety. Another may use group sessions as the foundation and add a short strength workout for muscles that need more targeted work. The important thing is managing total fatigue instead of stacking every available class on top of a full lifting split.
When evaluating coaching, ask how progress is measured. Does the coach adjust exercises around injury history and skill? Is there a method for increasing resistance over months? Can a beginner learn the difference between normal effort and a technique breakdown? A charismatic instructor is nice; a coherent progression is better. Training should become more productive as your skills improve, not merely more exhausting.
The biggest advantage of a 24-hour club is flexibility. The biggest advantage of a well-run class is structure. Choose based on which missing ingredient is currently stopping you from training consistently. Paying for access you never use and paying for classes you regularly miss are different routes to the same result: an expensive fitness habit that exists mostly on your bank statement.
The Membership Boom Is Real, but Attendance Still Wins
The gym industry's participation numbers help explain why operators are investing so aggressively. Around 81 million Americans held fitness-facility memberships in 2025, a record level and roughly 5.2% higher than the previous year. Including people using guest access and day passes, more than 100 million visited a facility. Total visits approached seven billion. These are not signs of a hobby quietly disappearing.
There is an especially interesting change beneath the headline totals. The share of members who never visited their facility fell to about 4.6%, suggesting better engagement than the old stereotype of paying every January and forgetting the gym by February. That does not prove every club is thriving or that every member trains effectively, but it does suggest the market includes a growing number of genuinely active people.
Demographics also matter. Young adults remain enthusiastic about gym memberships, while participation among older adults has been growing quickly. The same floor now needs to work for people chasing their first pull-up, serious lifters training heavy, parents fitting in 40 minutes and retirees working on strength and mobility. A one-size-fits-all equipment plan will disappoint at least some of them.
Membership alone is a poor fitness metric. A person can own the fanciest access card in the world and still make no progress. Training quality depends on repeated exposure to an appropriate challenge, adequate recovery and enough consistency for adaptation. Even a modest two-day full-body routine can build strength when it is progressively and sensibly structured. More facilities can remove friction, but they cannot perform the repetitions.
That is why the growth of free-weight participation is particularly encouraging. People are not only joining for treadmills or social media photographs. More are exploring dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells. The potential benefit is a larger pool of members who can learn foundational lifting skills and stay active through different life stages. The challenge is keeping those spaces welcoming rather than turning them into a contest over who looks most experienced.
If you want a practical scorecard, track weekly attendance, completed working sets, performance on a few anchor exercises and how well your schedule survives busy periods. Those measures say more about the value of your membership than the number of clubs on a global map. The best gym is the one that repeatedly makes a good session possible.
International Expansion Has a Hidden Cost
International expansion is the most ambitious part of the plan. Anytime Fitness already has a substantial presence in Japan, Australia and the United States, and the wider group is looking toward additional markets in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. More clubs can make training easier for frequent travelers, but building a network across borders is not the same as copying and pasting one successful room.
Each location faces local rent, construction costs, labor rules, equipment logistics and customer expectations. A club in a dense Japanese neighborhood may prioritize a compact layout and reliable 24-hour access. A suburban American club might have room for larger lifting zones and recovery suites. A new market may need more education and coaching before members feel comfortable using free weights. Good operators adapt without sacrificing the basics. For someone who rarely travels, a modest home gym may actually provide more reliable training access than a giant multinational network; the point is to choose the environment that makes repeated sessions possible.
The franchise model adds another layer of uncertainty. Individual owners carry significant upfront costs and must earn enough from memberships to cover rent, staff, financing, utilities, maintenance and equipment replacement. A headline about 2,500 future locations is a corporate target, not a guaranteed opening schedule. High borrowing costs or weak local demand can slow a rollout even when consumer interest in fitness is strong.
There is also a risk in using a single membership number to imply a uniform experience. A network with thousands of locations can be convenient, but equipment selection, crowding, coaching quality and recovery access vary from site to site. Travelers should check the actual branch they plan to use, including staffed hours, access rules and whether specialty equipment is available. Global access is valuable only when the local door opens and the workout can happen.
Competition may help members. A new entrant can push established clubs to maintain equipment, clean changing rooms, improve coaching and rethink pricing. But rapid expansion can also create short-lived enthusiasm followed by underfunded facilities if too many clubs compete for the same neighborhood. The consumer benefit is not automatic; it depends on operators delivering a useful service year after year.
For lifters, the business lesson is straightforward. Treat expansion announcements as a reason to explore new options, not as proof that the nearest new club is better. Check the details that affect your training, compare total membership costs and remember that a good location with competent staff is worth more than an impressive international club count.
How to Choose a Gym That Actually Makes You Stronger
New gyms are easy to admire. Picking one that still works after the opening-week excitement requires a more demanding tour. Visit at the time you would normally train, not during a quiet weekday morning chosen by the sales team. Count the racks and benches that are actually free. Notice how long members wait for cables and leg machines. Ask whether the equipment you need is likely to be occupied every evening.
Start with your training priorities. For muscle gain, look for adjustable benches, dumbbells with manageable weight jumps, a variety of pulling and pressing options, and enough equipment to progress over months. For powerlifting, check rack quality, barbell condition, platform availability and rules on chalk or heavy lifting. For hybrid training, you may care more about rowing machines, bikes, sled space and whether you can move between stations without disrupting everyone else.
Then test the practical details: cleanliness, ventilation, music volume, shower availability, parking, secure entry and how staff respond when something breaks. A twenty-four-hour access promise does not mean personal training is available at midnight. Likewise, a recovery room may have restricted hours or separate charges. Ask for the complete contract, cancellation terms, initiation fees, annual charges and any coaching add-ons before signing.
Try one normal workout if a trial is offered. Warm up, perform a compound movement, do two accessory exercises and finish with whatever cardio you normally use. Did you spend the hour training or waiting? Was the atmosphere comfortable for someone at your level? Could you imagine repeating that session every week for a year? A single honest trial often tells you more than a polished website.
There is no shame in choosing a simple gym over a premium one. A home gym can be even better for someone with the space, budget and motivation to use it. Conversely, a nearby commercial club with reliable equipment and supportive people can be worth every cent. The ideal setup reduces excuses while preserving enough challenge to keep you progressing.
The final rule is to buy access to a training environment, not a lifestyle promise. Recovery gadgets, purple lights and smart apps are optional bonuses. Functional equipment, reasonable crowding, fair terms and a location you will actually visit are the essentials. If the coming gym boom delivers more of those, lifters win. If it delivers only more logos, the barbell will remain unimpressed.
Funny gym shirts, tanks, hoodies and workout gear for lifters who like training hard and not taking gym culture too seriously.
EXPLORE COLLECTION
