Houlihan Lokey’s “Fitness Market Update” for the second quarter 2025 shows M&A activity remained “robust” in the fitness sector with notable transactions in the equipment and high-end gym sectors, including the sale of Reform RX and 425 Fitness, although high value/low price (HVLP) gyms continued to dominate the market.

The report notes that changing fitness routines, including an increased interest in Pilates and a shift from cardio to strength training, are creating future growth opportunities.

“The fitness market is on fire at the moment,” Nate Pund, managing director and global head of Outdoor, Active Lifestyle and Tactical Industries at Houlihan Lokey, said in a conversation with SGB Executive. “The gains from the COVID surge continue to take hold and drive further activity by users in the sector, and investors have noticed, pursuing deals in the space at a frenetic pace.”

Pund said the standout fitness transactions in the second quarter were TSG Consumer’s acquisition of EoS Fitness for $1.5 billion, including debt, and Leonard Green & Partners’ (LGP) majority investment in Crunch Holdings. Houlihan Lokey noted that these deals represent two of the fastest-growing players in the HVLP fitness center space, with 675 locations and 4.5 million members across both brands.

Performance Equity Management, LLC (PEM), a private equity firm, made a new investment in EoS Fitness following the fitness chain’s May acquisition by private equity firm TSG.

Founded in 2014, EoS targets middle-income consumers with membership options starting as low as $9.99 per month. It has over 175 locations nationwide (open or soon to open), with its footprint concentrated in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. The company plans to have over 250 gyms nationwide by 2030.

TSG acquired the business from private-equity firm BRS & Co.

LGP acquired a majority interest in Crunch Fitness from TPG Growth and Crunch’s minority shareholders. Since TPG invested in Crunch in 2019, the company reports that it has seen membership surge by 176 percent and more than double its number of gyms, now boasting over three million members and over 500 locations worldwide.

Other notable M&A deals in the quarter included:

  • 425 Fitness: The Bay Club Company, backed by private equity giant KKR, acquired 425 Fitness, which operates three fitness clubs in the Seattle area, to support its expansion in the Pacific Northwest. Bay Club has 27 clubs on 10 campuses on the West Coast, with a large presence in the California Bay Area and Southern California. By the end of 2025, it expects to have at least 50 clubs and over 200,000 members, up from approximately 135,000 at the end of 2024.
  • Aligned Fitness: Eagle Merchant Partners acquired a majority stake in Aligned Fitness, which, following two add-on acquisitions, now operates 34 Club Pilates locations in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Concurrent with the investment, Eagle purchased the six-unit Club Pilates franchisee Crescent Concepts and the three-unit group Next Twenty to integrate into Aligned Fitness.
  • Pizzazz Fitness: The National Fitness Partners (NFP), a major Planet Fitness franchisee, acquired Pizzazz Fitness, the owner of 21 Planet Fitness locations across Pennsylvania, Maryland and Illinois. The acquisition increased NFP’s total club count to 198 locations across 14 states and its membership base to over 1.5 million.
  • Reform RX: iFIT acquired Reform RX, the manufacturer of connected Pilates reformer machines modeled after a Formula 1 race car. The acquisition extended iFIT, which owns NordicTrack, ProForm, and Freemotion, as well as the iFIT app, into connected Pilates.
  • Workout Anytime: Private equity firms Skyline Global Partners and Peninsula Capital Partners teamed up with Jerry Pugh, the owner of Workout Anytime’s largest franchisee with 19 locations, to acquire Workout Anytime, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week budget fitness chain. Recently appointed as CEO of the franchise, Pugh aims to expand Workout Anytime from 200 to 400 locations over the next five years, targeting small and mid-sized markets that often go underserved by big-box gym chains.

In the current quarter, a notable deal was the sale of CycleBar and Rumble Boxing by Xponential Fitness to Extraordinary Brands, LLC., the parent of fitness boutique franchises Row House and Neighborhood Barre. At the close of 2024, CycleBar had 204 operational studios while Rumble had 103. Xponential’s go-forward franchises include Club Pilates, StretchLab, YogaSix, Pure Barre, BFT, and Lindora.

Houlihan Lokey acted as financial advisor to Xponential Fitness on the sale.

Fitness Equity Valuations Outpace Broader Market
Strong equity valuations are supporting the ongoing surge in fitness-related M&A activity. Houlihan Lokey’s Fitness Index of 16 publicly traded stocks in the fitness space on a global basis was up 33.7 percent in the twelve months through June 2025, more than double the S&P 500’s gain of 13.3 percent.

Among sub-sectors, the largest gains came from the Multi-Unit Fitness chains, which delivered a 40.3 percent gain over those twelve months. Among stocks in that sub-sector, the stand-out was Norway’s Sats ASA, which operates clubs across Scandinavia and was up 125 percent in the twelve months. Shares of Life Time Group Holdings, Planet Fitness, The U.K.’s The Gym Group, and Netherlands-based Basic-Fit N.V. also outperformed to offset declines at Xponential Fitness.

Shares of Connected Equipment stocks, consisting of Peloton and Garmin, were up 31.2 percent in the twelve months, led by a 113 percent jump for Garmin and a 30 percent recovery for Peloton.

Among stocks in the Traditional Equipment sub-sector, shares were up 15.4 percent in the twelve months. The gains were driven by healthy gains by Johnson Health Tech, Impulse Health Tech, and Technogym. The sector also includes Japan’s Dyaco International and The Beachbody Company.

In the second quarter, the gains for fitness stocks slowed. The Houlihan Lokey Fitness Index was up 3.3 percent for the three months, trailing the 10.2 percent S&P 500 increase in the same period.

Favorable Fitness Trends
Houlihan Lokey’s study also highlighted news in the fitness space, showcasing innovation and favorable developments, including membership growth and double-digit revenue growth in the first quarter for Planet Fitness, the largest gym chain by member count and system sales worldwide.

On the innovation front, the study cited the partnership of Nike and Hyperice to launch the Hyperboot, a $899 recovery shoe featuring heated massage and air-compression technology; Life Time’s launch of its LT Games fitness competition; and a capital raise by Nutrition David, a protein bar brand co-founded by RXBar’s Peter Rahal.

Houlihan Lokey also cited a McKinsey’s Future of Wellness survey showing that while Gen-Z and Millennials make up just over a third (36 percent) of the adult population in the U.S., they drive over 41 percent of annual wellness spend.

Key growth areas for fitness, as cited in McKinsey’s study, include functional nutrition, beauty-wellness integration, healthy aging, immersive experiences, weight management, and mental health. Houlihan Lokey said, “These generations prioritize holistic approaches, blending physical and emotional wellness.”

Other trends highlighted in Houlihan Lokey’s study include a shift toward consumers embracing “stackable wellness,” or creating personalized health ecosystems that span fitness, nutrition, sleep, and other areas.

The report also noted that consumers are increasingly diversifying their fitness routines to create challenges and fresh opportunities. In 2024, for instance, uploads of Strava weight-training activities by women increased 25 percent, uploads of Strava yoga or Pilates activities by men climbed 15 percent and free weight use by women vaulted 150 percent between 2011 and 2021.

“As consumers continue to diversify their fitness routines, boutique fitness’ struggles have been well documented as the market continues to try to reach pre-COVID-19 membership levels,” stated Houlihan Lokey. “However, certain boutique-centric modalities are well-positioned to fill in the gaps. Consumer preferences continue to shift from cardio to strength, not only impacting the layout of big-box gyms but also positioning low-impact concepts, such as Pilates, to thrive. Pilates accounted for 23 percent of class bookings in 2023, and, while the data lags, anecdotal evidence suggests that trend is poised to continue as consumers emphasize movement functionality over intensity.”

Image courtesy EoS Fitness