The luxury club operator is diverging from competitors like Equinox by looking to democratize access to on-demand fitness content
Life Time, the luxury athletic country club operator that’s in expansion mode, has made its app free to non-members, so anyone can access Life Time’s premium wellness offerings, including on-demand fitness classes.
Life Time app users can access barre, boxing, cardio, cycle, dance, strength and yoga classes, training videos, nutrition and exercise coaching programs, meditation experiences, articles and podcasts. There is also an opportunity to shop for health and wellness products across apparel, nutrition and beauty products with exclusive in-app pricing.
“Since our founding nearly 32 years ago, we have remained unrelenting in our commitment to improve the health of our communities by delivering the best healthy way of life athletic country clubs, programs and performers,” Life Time’s chief digital officer RJ Singh said. “We focus on all elements of health and wellness and are very excited to extend this to millions more by making our comprehensive digital app complimentary to all.”
Life Time’s move to democratize its app comes as Equinox – a competitor in the high-priced health club space – takes a different direction, rolling out an exclusive new $40,000-a-year longevity-focused membership, Optimize by Equinox. In partnership with Function Health, the white-glove program includes biomarker testing, a personalized training program and a dedicated team of health and wellness experts.
While Peloton experimented with a free app tier in the hopes of converting users to paid subscribers (a short trial that the connected fitness brand quietly killed last month) — Life Time isn’t hurting on the paid membership front. The luxury athletic country club operator’s average monthly membership is around $190 (locations in major cities can run significantly higher) with waitlists a common occurrence amid historic member retention and engagement levels.
Still, exposing new consumers to Life Time’s signature programming can’t hurt, especially as new Life Time centers are in the pipeline — including two locations expected to open in Brooklyn.
The luxury club operator has also gone to great lengths to deliver the best member experience, including investing heavily in pickleball, which has paid off. In Q1 of 2024, Life Time reported a 16.8% revenue increase to $596.7 million, driven by increased membership dues and in-center revenue.
“Access membership at the end of Q1 2024 was 802,000, which is substantially above our expectations,” Life Time founder and CEO Bahram Akradi told investors on Q1’s earnings call. He added that the “over-performance” directly resulted from Life Time’s investment in pickleball, Arora, its group fitness program for active seniors, and dynamic personal training.
