The rise and fall of Planet Fitness

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Planet Fitness built one of the most successful gym businesses in America by making fitness affordable, approachable, and profitable even when members rarely showed up. But changes to pricing, customer behavior, gym equipment, and membership cancellations threatened the model that made it work. In this business breakdown, I explain the rise and fall of Planet Fitness’s original strategy, why its stock plunged 31% in one day, and what founders and operators can learn from a company that changed too many things at once.

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Planet Fitness started with a counterintuitive idea: build a gym for people who don’t particularly like going to gyms. The Grondahl brothers stripped away expensive amenities, introduced a $10 monthly membership, and positioned the brand as a judgment-free alternative to traditional fitness clubs. The strategy worked because the company understood something important about consumer behavior: many people will continue paying for a gym membership long after they stop using it. Combined with a franchise model that generated recurring royalties and equipment revenue, Planet Fitness became an extraordinarily profitable business.

The company survived the COVID-19 shutdowns while competitors such as Gold’s Gym and 24 Hour Fitness went through bankruptcy. But the post-pandemic fitness market brought a different set of challenges. Higher interest rates made it more expensive for franchisees to open locations. Inflation weakened the economics of the original $10 membership. Meanwhile, Gen Z consumers increasingly embraced strength training, creating demand for squat racks, free weights, and equipment that Planet Fitness had historically avoided. The market was growing, but the customers entering it weren’t necessarily the same customers Planet Fitness had built its business around.

Management responded with changes that each made sense individually. Planet Fitness increased its basic membership price from $10 to $15 for new members, expanded strength-training equipment, and made online membership cancellation easier amid regulatory pressure. But these decisions also affected the underlying economics of the business. Higher prices weakened the original affordability advantage. Easier cancellations reduced friction that had helped retain inactive members. And a greater emphasis on serious strength training risked intimidating the beginners who had historically been the brand’s most valuable customers.

The consequences became apparent when Planet Fitness reported record revenue but weaker net membership growth. Despite revenue increasing 20%, net new members fell from roughly 900,000 to 700,000, same-store sales disappointed, and management withdrew its guidance. The stock fell 31% in a single day. The company had also been spending heavily on share repurchases while analysts questioned whether management was adequately addressing the problems inside the core business. What happened to Planet Fitness wasn’t simply a story about competition or rising costs. It was a story about how several reasonable strategic decisions could collectively undermine a successful operating model.

I’m a Planet Fitness Black Card member myself, and I’ve seen the changes in the gyms firsthand. In this Planet Fitness documentary-style breakdown, I examine why the company is trying to return to its beginner-friendly positioning and whether it can restore what made the brand different in the first place. The larger lesson applies far beyond gyms. A great business isn’t just a collection of individually good decisions. It’s a system in which pricing, positioning, customers, and operations reinforce one another. Change too many of those elements at once, and even a highly profitable business can lose the advantages that made it successful.

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