I’m no psychic but I’m willing to make a prediction.
Over the next 10-20 years one-on-one personal training studios will (once again) be the biggest trend in fitness. Personal training has existed since Ancient Greece and there’s certainly nothing new about personal training studios. They began to pop up in mass quantities starting in the late 70’s when Nautilus introduced variable resistance strength training equipment which made it easy to perform fast and extremely effective workouts under the guidance of a personal trainer who was educated in their high-intensity training protocol.
Jazzeridiots Make Their Debut…The Weight Lifters Laugh At Them
As new fitness trends emerged personal training studios dwindled as people made their way to Jazzercise classes and opted for outdoor running over indoor strength training (big mistake). When doctors finally started to see the light—the same light bodybuilders and strength athletes saw decades earlier—they began encouraging people to lift weights because it provided greater health and fitness benefits over any other form of exercise.
Certified Baboons & Weight Training
Gyms and health clubs start to emerge out of thin air and they filled up with people looking to lift weights. But the majority of these people have as much understanding about what to do as a baboon would. This spawned the growth of the personal training industry and now you get a major influx of baboons that are “certified” to teach other people how to waste their time with wasteful exercise. Add to this the uprising of affordable gyms and Crossfit and now you have an overcrowded mess of unsafe unknowledgeable lifters.
Personal Training Studio Doors Are Opening
This scenario has created a special space in the market for personal training studios. Big gyms can survive with bad trainers but small personal training studio cannot. Consumers recognize this. More than ever they are taking their business to personal training studios that can offer a private or semi-private setting that is devoid of distractions, allows people to “get in and get out” and achieve results safely under the tutelage of a competent and professional trainer. This market is certain to grow in the next 10-20 years as our lives become more complex, our personal time dwindles, and our need to circumvent the guesswork and “get it right the first time” increases.