Strength Gym

[lancehyatt1]

Mark, is there any market for a gym that has the same equipment set up as a SS gym and provides 24/7 key card access? There are no trainers and no classes. It is just a private gym, about 1700SF for people who want to train seriously with barbells and not in a typical commercial gym environment. I don’t think there is a market for this, but I could be wrong. I thibk it’s hard to make money only charging $99/mo and going after a small segment of the population. I was approached by three people to invest and I think it’s doomed to failure. They have done zero demographic studies and there is a CrossFit gym a few blocks away from their proposed location. They are under the mistaken idea of build it and they’ll come. Thoughts?

[Mark Rippetoe]

There is certainly a market of some size for a gym like this in a bigger municipal area, larger than a middle market of 100,000. It will never make money, but it can get the bills paid -- depending on the overhead and the market. Such a place probably wouldn't work in Lagos, but it would in Las Vegas. Places like this are usually put together by a group of buddies who just want a place to train, and it grows into a functioning gym from there. But strictly from the investment standpoint, these people are crazy. First, they will be paying quite a bit for key-club insurance, and equipment tends to walk out the door in places like this. Second, since there is nobody there to show new people what to do, it will appeal only to people who are already training, probably incorrectly. so on the whole, this is a stupid idea.

[thras]

I once lived 2 blocks from a gym like this, $25/month back in the early 2000s. I found it by chance, just walking by. I went in to get a membership, and was surprised to be handed a key as I headed out. Easily my favorite gym experience, and ruined me for every one that I've been at since. It was better than a university gym for powerlifting. Lots of big guys there. During the day there were some old people on machines with their personal trainers, and I assume that they were what paid the bills. I loved it. While I was there I did some sort of stupid "Max OT" program that I had read about on the internet.

I just looked up the gym on Yelp: it seems to have closed for good now. So there's your investment advice.

[David Lee]

I’ll join.

[Eric Schexnayder]

Frankly I think we will see the strength training market move more and more into the direction of nearly every other market: online. SSOC is a good example. I think anything that is going to succeed will have to follow a similar approach. The market is too niche to merit the investment requirements.

It's too difficult to compete with places like 24 Hour Fitness and Planet Fitness, however wrong they may be. They have the distinct advantage of not requiring trained staff members. There's no need to convince anyone who walks in that there is a difference between exercise and training, that a maximum of 5 - 6 exercises are all that is really needed for the average person, and that the best way to look and feel better is to actually eat more.

The only way for such a gym to succeed would be to incorporate other popular equipment that is found elsewhere, and hope that the patrons would eventually gravitate towards the genuine stuff. But that is a much bigger investment than the Average Joe is likely willing or capable of investing.

By far the biggest turn off for me from gyms that even include power racks is the other patrons. I can't even get on the damn rack because everyone has to do curls and chins there. And you have to be careful because there's usually a living stick figure trying to snatch 135 right behind you. Sometimes I think that just some minor enforcement from gym staff would rectify this, but again, no one is qualified.

Don't get me wrong: these places are nice. But people who are serious about training will likely decide to just invest in a garage gym, provided they have the real estate. In big cities like Houston, where many people live in town houses and apartments, this would be the limiting factor. Then again, there are also many, many places around the Houston suburbs where installing a home gym is barely noticeable in the overall real estate.

[Scaldrew]

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The opening, expansion, and continued success of numerous Starting Strength gyms seems to contradict the idea that no gym can be profitable unless it sells memberships way in excess of the equipment available. Unless Rip is about to tell us that every SS gym is operating at a loss, I refuse to believe it.

[Eric Schexnayder]

The opening, expansion, and continued success of numerous Starting Strength gyms seems to contradict the idea that no gym can be profitable unless it sells memberships way in excess of the equipment available. Unless Rip is about to tell us that every SS gym is operating at a loss, I refuse to believe it.

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I agree with you, by you're making an assumption that these theoretical gyms we are discussing are all Starting Strength gyms. Since the SSC credential is apparently exceedingly difficult to attain, I would not assume this to be the case.

And I don’t think Rip would tarnish the Starting Strength name just to accumulate a number of “Starting Strength” gyms. So it goes back to one of the original points: there’s no one qualified to teach the lifts correctly, and so only those who are already training will be attracted to such a gym. This limits the market considerably.

[coleossus]

By far the biggest turn off for me from gyms that even include power racks is the other patrons. I can't even get on the damn rack because everyone has to do curls and chins there. And you have to be careful because there's usually a living stick figure trying to snatch 135 right behind you. Sometimes I think that just some minor enforcement from gym staff would rectify this, but again, no one is qualified.

Power Clean
...
145x3x5

Hmmmm...

So it goes back to one of the original points: there’s no one qualified to teach the lifts correctly, and so only those who are already training will be attracted to such a gym. This limits the market considerably.

I don't think this is the point of the gym they're assembling. It doesn't sound like a broad-population gym, but one that's focused on serious, established lifters.

Regardless, if OP joins as an investor with the intent to make money, based on the very valid concerns already raised, it's a dumb choice.

If he's throwing cash because he wants a fun place to work out with the hope he might make some friends, then it's up to him if his liquidity can weather that investment.

[mr55]

The opening, expansion, and continued success of numerous Starting Strength gyms seems to contradict the idea that no gym can be profitable unless it sells memberships way in excess of the equipment available. Unless Rip is about to tell us that every SS gym is operating at a loss, I refuse to believe it.

The key difference is that SSCs are probably making most of their income through training clients, while OP specified that the gym would have no trainers or classes.

[Eric Schexnayder]

Hmmmm...

Oh, how I loathe thee.