FutureFitness As the fitness market flexes new muscle, gyms are adapting to offer not just a workout, but a full-body wellness experience.
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n a trendy Houston neighborhood, people in workout wear hurry past a restaurant serving locally sourced food, up the stairs of a boutique shopping center and into one of the city’s many high-end fitness studios. They are carrying babies. Breezing past the front desk of DEFINE Body & Mind, they enter a group workout room that feels more like a sanctum than a gym. Other parents with babies strapped to their chests are already there, hoisting weights and flexing resistance bands. “DEFINEbaby” is a class for moms and dads who want to break a sweat with their newborns. It’s also a testament to how deeply fitness has become ingrained into our lives. Workout classes have become so ubiquitous that children are now attending before they can even walk. In 2019, the fitness industry is projected to hit a new high of roughly $36.5 billion in revenue, according to the market research group IBISWorld. This peak represents more than a decade of solid growth in fitness club memberships, which have risen by more than 33 percent since 2008. Some analysts have speculated that the sustained expansion is due to rising health consciousness among younger
By Hannah Sawyer
40 RICE BUSINESS