2024 State of Industry Report: Client Retention Up, Membership Rates Still Too Low

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

• Two-Brain Business recently released its State of the Industry Report for 2024 based on data from nearly 9,000 gyms. We break down three takeaways from the report below.

• The Dubai CrossFit Championship is coming this weekend, so stay tuned for our full preview tomorrow! Before that, we are looking back at some of the unique events and programming in the DFC’s recent past.

• A few weeks ago, we profiled Emily Cairns, the Australian Adaptive athlete who took first place in the Upper 1-Point of Contact Division at the 2024 Adaptive CrossFit Games. Well, she showed up and showed out at Australia’s biggest off-season competition, the Down Under Championship. Get the details today.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You can’t make a career for somebody else until your career is secure.” - Chris Cooper, Two-Brain Business, on some key advice he gives to affiliate owners.

INDUSTRY

Client Retention Up, Coach Pay and Membership Rates Still Need Work, Says 2024 State of the Industry Report

For the fifth straight year, gym business mentorship company Two-Brain Business has released its annual State of the Industry Report, a comprehensive look at all things related to running a gym. 

This year’s report, which included data from software companies Wodify and Kilo, covered 8,800 gyms worldwide. Of these, 67% were “big group” gyms, meaning largely CrossFit and functional fitness gyms. 

Three Key Takeaways

1. Client Retention Has Improved

In 2023, the average length of client engagements [client retention] was 7.8 months worldwide. This year, this number jumped to 18.6 months in the United States and 23.7 months in Europe.

This is particularly notable because, according to the report, the average gym owner can earn an extra $45,000 a year simply by increasing their length of client engagement by two months. 

Two-Brain owner Chris Cooper thinks this jump is a testament to gym owners making a conscious effort to actively work to improve their client retention. 

• “People are finally coming around to the fact that they’re not going to get 300 members…that’s just not how a coaching gym is going to work,” Cooper said. 

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SPEED READS

🥦📈CrossFit Nutrition Course Offer Extended: If you missed it on Black Friday/Cyber Monday, the opportunity to grab a free CrossFit Nutrition Course registration when you sign up for an in-person L1 or L2 seminar has been extended through the end of the year. Take advantage now.

🥇🥇A Legend Retires: Two-time CrossFit Games champ Katrin Davidsdottir announced her retirement over the weekend. We will have a full career retrospective later this week, but first, check out this breakdown of Davidsdottir’s career achievements from B.Friendly Fitness.

💪 🙌 Working with Larger Bodies Seminar: Athena Perez and Scaled Nation Training will be delivering the Working with Larger Bodies seminar at CrossFit ELM Turnberry in Commerce City, CO, on Saturday, February 15, 2025. Register now.

🏋️🐐 Rich Froning’s Basement Gym: Check out the first part of this video series touring Rich Froning’s Cookeville, TN, fitness compound from our friends over at Garage Gym Reviews.

😎🌴 2024 TYR WZA Miami Beach Wave 2 Ticket Sales: In case you’ve missed it, tickets for TYR WZA Miami Beach are currently in Wave 2 pricing. Get yours soon and save some $$$.

• So far, the elite athlete roster includes team “PJ’s” (Jeff Adler, Jayson Hopper, and Pat Vellner), “the Boys” (Noah Ohlsen, Chandler Smith, and Travis Mayer), “the Broadway Girls” (Haley Adams, Brooke Wells, and Sydney Wells), Alexis Raptis, Ricky Garard, Pat Vellner, Dani Speegle, James Sprague, and Arielle Loewen. Many more to come.

ICYMI: FitFest UK kicks off its second annual fitness celebration this week and features an elite CrossFit team-style throwdown between Team Europe and Team Rest of World. Get the details here.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

A Look Back: The Dubai Fitness Championship’s Unique Events

The Dubai Fitness Championship (DFC) has a history of creating unique experiences for athletes by using unique local features and venues, combined with elements of history in some of their events. 

• By layering events typically found in a CrossFit arena with those showcasing local landscapes and buildings, DFC organizers craft a memorable competition each season.

With the 2024 Dubai Fitness Championship coming this week, it’s a good time to look back and remember some of the unique events in previous years.

Offsite Events

2023

In 2023, the first event brought an obstacle course to the competition. 

It was the first time we had seen an obstacle course in a major competition since the 2018 CrossFit Games. 

• However, it wasn’t just any obstacle course; it was the proving ground of the U.A.E SWAT Teams. 

The course featured several obstacles, including cargo nets, up-and-overs, and rope swings. 

Athleticism shined, with Claudia Gluck and Roman Khrennikov taking the event win.

PROFILE

ICYMI: Australian Adaptive Athlete Emily Cairns Went Rx+ at the Down Under Championship

All eyes were on adaptive athlete Emily Cairns when she went “Rx+” on the workouts at the Down Under Championship (DUC) in Wollongong, Australia, from October 18 to 20.

• We profiled Cairns’ and her 2024 Adaptive CrossFit Games experience here.

Cairns, a former dancer, is not afraid of the limelight. Determined to make an impact when the Adaptive athletes took to the main arena, she was ready to showcase the athleticism that earned her the 2024 Fittest on Earth title in the Women’s Upper 1-Point of Contact Division. 

However, disappointment struck when the Adaptive workouts were released.

• “I absolutely love that they brought the Adaptive divisions back…however, [I was] disappointed with the Adaptive programming,” Cairns explained in an interview with the Morning Chalk Up. 

“In my opinion,” Cairns continued, “it was way too easy, and we were given very basic movements.” 

Anxious to make the most of the exposure the Adaptive athletes were offered at DUC, Cairns asked the organizers if she could swap the movement standards for more challenging progressions.

HIGHLIGHTS

Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.

• 🎂Happy birthday to EC Synkowski.

• Congratulations to Joshua Hong, who took first place at the Asia Fitness Championships in the Elite Male Division. 

• Congratulations to Hattie Kanyo, who won Battle in the Barracks last weekend.

• Congratulations to Victoria Campos, who took first place at the Asia Fitness Championship in the Elite Female Division.

• 🎉Happy belated birthday to little Rogue, son of Josh and Hayley Murillo.