Get instant access to the report
Enter your email below to download The Fitness Membership Divide — Q1 2026.

The Fitness Membership Divide — Q1 2026

Presented by FITC & Datagonist

The U.S. fitness and wellness market is not one market — it's three. Current gym members, former members, and people who have never joined a facility behave differently, spend differently, and respond to different motivations and barriers. Understanding these distinctions is essential for any operator, brand, or investor trying to grow participation, reduce churn, or unlock new revenue.

The Fitness Membership Divide is a national consumer research report that examines how 2,500 U.S. adults ages 18–79 engage with the fitness and wellness ecosystem, segmented by their facility membership status. Based on a survey fielded in late 2025 and weighted to represent the national population, the report provides a detailed, data-driven picture of the behavioral, financial, and attitudinal differences that define each group — and the strategic opportunities those differences create.

What the Report Covers

The analysis spans six chapters exploring physical activity patterns, wellness and recovery engagement, digital fitness technology adoption, consumer mindset and barriers, access channels and spending behavior, and market opportunities with strategic implications for operators.

**Physical Activity & Behavior** — How exercise frequency, activity preferences, and venue choices differ across the three segments. Current members exercise more often, across more environments, and in more diverse modalities. Former members remain active but shift toward home and outdoor settings. A significant share of never members rarely exercise at all.

**Wellness & Recovery Engagement** — The growing role of wellness services like massage, nutrition coaching, and chiropractic care, alongside recovery amenities such as saunas, cold plunges, and compression therapy. Current members lead adoption across every category, while never members show minimal engagement — signaling both a gap and an opportunity.

**Digital Fitness Technology & Hybrid Behavior** — How wearables, video workouts, connected equipment, AI-generated plans, and VR fitness are being used across segments. The report examines hybrid participation patterns — who is combining in-person and digital fitness, and where the digital experience is pulling consumers away from facilities.

**Mindset: Motivations, Barriers & Intentions** — What drives people to exercise, what stops them, and what they plan to do next. The data reveals that nearly half of former members intend to rejoin a facility, while 86% of never members do not — a critical distinction for how operators allocate acquisition and reactivation resources.

**Access Channels & Spending Signals** — Where consumers are spending across fitness, wellness, recovery, and digital categories, and how they're paying for it. The report sizes the direct spend market at $128.4 billion, with current members accounting for the vast majority.

**Market Opportunities & Strategic Implications** — Actionable takeaways for each segment, including retention strategies for current members, reactivation pathways for the 26.5 million former members likely to rejoin, and long-term approaches for reaching the 5.7 million never members who express interest in joining.

Why This Report Matters

Most industry research treats fitness consumers as a single audience. This report challenges that assumption by revealing how fundamentally different these three populations are — in their demographics, habits, technology use, spending, and openness to engagement. The data offers a framework for more targeted product development, marketing, pricing, and partnership strategies.

Whether you're an operator looking to reduce attrition and deepen member value, a technology provider trying to understand where digital fitness fits in the consumer journey, or an investor sizing market opportunity, The Fitness Membership Divide provides the segmented consumer intelligence the industry has been missing.

Methodology

The report is based on a nationally representative survey of 2,500 U.S. adults ages 18–79, fielded from October 23 to November 6, 2025. Respondents were segmented into current members (n=944), former members (n=768), and never members (n=788). The research was prepared by Datagonist and presented by the Fitness Industry Technology Council (FITC).