Opening a new gym or studio can be a stressful but rewarding time in your entrepreneurial career. Building out a fitness center equipment list can be extremely satisfying, especially if fitness is your passion.

Deciding what you need can be challenging though; there are so many different types of fitness plans, classes, and exercises that you can do. You’ll have to be selective and intelligent, as you might not be able to have everything you want.

While there are certain things that are standard for any fitness center equipment list, we wanted to show you different trends happening right now that you can look at, to help spice up your offerings. Whether you’re opening a new gym or just adding equipment to your existing gym, here are some things to look at, if you want to build out an interesting fitness center equipment list for your membership-based business and to help you be a successful hearth club owner.

Bodyweight Training

Using your own bodyweight to train is becoming increasingly popular as an effective workout that eschews weight training. With a movement away from lifting heavy weights and bulking up, bodyweight training allows you to build strength and definition, without the intensity and bulk of weight training.

There are many ways you can do it but one of the more popular options at the moment that trendier gyms are using is TRX. While they have packages for gyms, you can also find many non-branded options online, with some simple searching around. Look around for bodyweight training exercises that are aligned with your fitness principles. The best part is that most of the equipment you’d get can serve multiple purposes, while also being much less costly than more traditional gym equipment.

Martial Arts

Incorporating martial arts for fitness isn’t super new but there is a boost in the practice happening right now. While cheesy martial arts aerobics workouts like Tae Bo aren't in vogue anymore, utilizing fighting arts such as kickboxing, boxing, and even elements of mixed martial arts is becoming increasingly popular. The necessary fitness center equipment list for this is dependent on the style you’ll be teaching. The usual hardware includes kicking and punching pads and bags, tape, and gloves; easily mobile equipment that is easy to move and simple to set up.

Functional Fitness

This buzzword isn’t new but it’s still gaining strength. Functional fitness takes a look at the applicability of your strength training to your real life. While it can be impressive to be able to bench-press over 250 lbs, does that directly benefit you in everyday life? This style of training is meant to improve strength, coordination, and balance for things you normally do in life, as well as special events such as a fitness obstacle courses or special runs. Cross-training classes that integrate functional movements and cardio are incredibly popular. In this case, your fitness center equipment list will require various things such as kettle bells, heavy ropes, pull-up racks, and medicine balls. Find a curriculum you want to teach and see what hardware you will need.

Future Trends

With fitness trends always evolving at a blazing speed, there will always be the hot new thing that everyone participates in that will affect your fitness center equipment list. The best ones to capitalize on are those that are relatively inexpensive and adaptable to more than one fitness trend or things you can sell at a high resale value. This won’t always be the case but doing a cost-benefit analysis should help you determine whether cashing in on a fitness trend is going to be profitable enough. Another thing to consider is doing the research to make sure this trend is healthy and a good option to provide your clients. Classic and timeless equipment is a must, to create a long shelf life. Supplementing this with intelligent investments will make your recreation facility an innovative one.

When you’re ready, a membership-based business management software can help alleviate your day-to-day operations tasks and make your business a bit more manageable. Xplor Recreation’s gym management software will help you do that.