It likely comes as no surprise that the COVID-19 pandemic continued to impact the fitness industry in 2021, making it one of the biggest stories of the year.
In August, IHRSA’s National Health & Fitness Alliance (NHFA) shared that 22 percent of U.S. health clubs and studios had closed permanently since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and about 1.5 million people had lost their jobs in the industry — equating to about 47 percent of industry jobs. U.S. health clubs suffered a loss of $29.2 billion in revenue from March 2020 through June 2021, according to the NHFA
These numbers were based on data from 11 membership billing companies and input from industry consultant Rick Caro.
Even though gyms were reopened by 2021 in most states, some were still under capacity limits for at least part of the year. Despite health clubs in New York reopening in September 2020, indoor fitness classes were only allowed to resume (at 33 percent capacity initially) in New York City on March 22, 2021.
As vaccinations became more widely adopted and as the Delta variant of COVID-19 led to a higher number of COVID cases in the fall, a number of cities—including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans — required vaccinations for entry to certain businesses, including gyms. Even prior to these mandates, some health clubs, including Equinox and VIDA Fitness, were requiring all members and staff to be vaccinated.
Several health clubs, including LA Fitness and Xponential Fitness, sued their insurance companies for denying business interruption insurance for the forced COVID-19-related closures of their clubs and studios. To date, none of the lawsuits has been successful.
The pandemic also impacted organizations outside of health clubs. IHRSA, which is the trade association and lobbying group for commercial health clubs in the United States, had to cancel its 2020 trade show, causing financial issues that led to the departure of CEO Joe Moore and staff layoffs in summer 2020. Those financial issues were still present in 2021, causing the departure of four long-time top executives in 2021. Industry consultant and former club owner Brent Darden served as interim CEO of the organization from August 2020 until August 2021 when IHRSA hired Liz Clark, formerly head of government relations and advocacy at the National Confectioners Association, as the new IHRSA CEO, just the third CEO of IHRSA and the first woman in the role.
