It’s no secret that strength training is booming, but the numbers behind its rise might surprise you.
Total strength training equipment sales jumped 181% between 2012 and 2022, according to data from the Fitness Industry Supplier Association cited by investment banking firm Harrison Co. in a recent report. Over that same period, sales of ellipticals/cross trainers and group exercise bikes dropped 43% and 58%, respectively.
Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2022, the time consumers spent using free weights increased by 366% and the time they spent using resistance equipment increased by 57%, according to data from Track My Gy,m also cited by Harrison Co. Conversely, time spent using cardio equipment dropped by 51%.
As more and more research points to the long-term health benefits of strength training for men and women, it’s unlikely that the strength craze will slow down any time soon.
ATN breaks down how top fitness brands are adapting to the strength trend, including gym, club and studio operators as well as fitness equipment and tech companies.
Big-Box Gyms Invest in Strength
Big box gyms have long been the land of cardio machines, but that dynamic is quickly changing. Top brands are increasingly investing in strength training equipment and new strength-focused class offerings, and they’re telling their members about it.
Under new CEO Colleen Keating, Planet Fitness is looking to reposition itself as a gym for serious gym-goers, a move that necessarily includes strength training. The high-value, low-price (HVLP) gym giant is adding new plate-loaded strength equipment to nearly all of its U.S. locations in 2025, including bench press, hack squat and seated calf raise machines.
Planet Fitness is intent on getting the word out about its strength training shift. The brand’s recent TV and social media ads show its members working out on strength training equipment, including a New Year’s 2025 spot entitled “We’re All Strong on This Planet.”
“We’re beginning the shift to communicating the high value of a Planet Fitness membership versus primarily focusing on our low price and using our marketing to demonstrate the breadth of high-quality top-tier equipment in our club,” Keating said during a Q3 earnings call late last year.
Planet Fitness isn’t the only HVLP gym brand to embrace strength. In some ways, it’s playing catch-up as brands like Crunch Fitness, Chuze Fitness, Vasa Fitness and others have become meccas for serious weightlifting.
credit: VASA Fitness
Many Crunch gyms now feature Olympic lifting platforms stocked with bumper plates and, along with free weights, selectorized machines and bodyweight stations. As part of Crunch 3.0, the brand’s newly unveiled gym design template, all newly built Crunch locations will feature even more strength training equipment.
Chuze, an HVLP operator with 50 locations stretching from California to Florida, added the Lift Lab, a room stocked with squat racks, Olympic lifting platforms, benches, plyo boxes, kettlebells and more, effectively recreating a Division One college weight room inside of a big-box gym.
credit: Chuze Fitness
Not to be outdone, Vasa Fitness recently added Studio LFT, a strength-focused fitness class performed inside a group exercise room stocked with power racks, benches and plyometric boxes. Vasa gyms also typically feature around 8-10 Olympic lifting platforms per location, along with ample free weights and lower-body strength machines.
“For HVLPs to be successful, it’s critical to find ways to listen to members and deliver on-trend fitness programs,” Vasa CEO Rich Nelsen has told ATN. “Our research shows that the number one motivation for new members joining Vasa is strength training.”
And it’s not just HVLPs that are embracing strength. Midtown Athletic Clubs, an upscale chain with locations across America and in Montreal, Canada, recently ran an experiment at its Chicago-area gyms, tracking member habits for 30 days.
“We really did see that need for more strength equipment,” said Loryn Huff, who serves as Midtown’s national program director. “Interestingly for us, our cable pulley systems were used the most in our strength spaces, so we increased our cable pulley access for members. We (also) increased, by a small quantity, our squat racks.”
Boutique Brands Flex Their Muscles
Many boutique fitness brands incorporate strength training as a core element of their workout concept. The ones that don’t are quickly adding strength as they race to appeal to modern-day fitness consumers.
Orangtheory Fitness added Strength 50, a 50-minute class featuring exercises with dumbbells like rows and squats, TRX suspension trainers and bodyweight routines. The move marked a departure from the brand’s normally cardio-focused, heart-rate-based training, signifying a major evolution for the group fitness giant
“The importance of strength training cannot be overstated in the pursuit of a balanced fitness routine, and at Orangetheory, we believe in its power to transform not just bodies but lives,” Orangetheory vice president of fitness Scott Brown told ATN.
Xponential Fitness-owned brands Pure Barre, CycleBar and YogaSix have all made recent moves to incorporate strength training. CycleBar added a class that incorporates eight and ten-pound bars; YogaSix offers Y6 Sculpt & Flow, which combines yoga, weights and cardio into one, and Y6 TRX, which uses TRX suspension trainers.
Strength training is only going to increase in popularity. In recent years, more and more women have stopped buying into the false notion that if they lift weights they will somehow get ‘bulky.’ Not true. Building muscle mass is a way to help the whole body and mind stay healthy, while also increasing metabolism and cardiovascular strength.- Lindsay Junk, president, YogaSix
credit: Xponential Fitness
Equipment Innovations Power the Strength Era
Noticing the need for strength, fitness equipment and tech brands have stepped up to offer innovations.
Technogym’s Biostrength system automatically adjusts load, range of motion, correct posture and speed of execution while also indicating the sets, repetitions and optimal recovery times, tracking all improvements for users. According to the Italian fitness equipment and tech giant, working out with Biostrength offers up to 30% better results in the same amount of time compared to traditional strength training.
Not to be outdone, EGYM has launched strength training machines, including Hip Thrust, which the German fit tech giant says is the world’s first fully electronic hip thrust device, using smart weight rather than physical weight or resistance bands. Perhaps even more notable, the brand also released EGYM Genius, an AI-powered software that links together different exercise machines, including free weights, to create fully personalized training plans for users.
credit: Aktiv Solutions
Old-school strength training equipment is also getting a modernized look and feel, thanks to forward-thinking brands like Aktiv Solutions, a gym design and supply company. Aktiv released the Gym Rax 3D Trainer, offering a new take on the classic Smith machine. The 3D Trainer features a free bar path, mimicking the freedom of barbell training while offering the benefits of a traditional Smith machine, including the lack of a need for supervision
“The S3D presents an opportunity for operators to appeal to their broader constituencies without alienating more advanced lifters,” Aktiv Solutions founder and CEO Bryan Green has told ATN.
This article originally appeared in ATN’s Member Success Blueprint Report 2025, which highlights essential steps brands will want to take to ensure success in the current calendar year and beyond. Download the free report.