Why fitness brands are winning the lifestyle battle with better bones than yours

I walked into an Equinox last month and had to pause. This wasn't the musty gym I remembered - it felt like a boutique hotel lobby. Exceptional coffee behind marble counters, members working on laptops in alcoved seating, and not a whiff of that old chlorine-and-sweat cocktail.

They're charging £200+ monthly. And they're fully booked.

Meanwhile, golf clubs with outdoor terraces, professional kitchens, and centuries of hospitality heritage struggle to justify similar fees.

The uncomfortable truth

Here's what struck me: Equinox has essentially recreated what golf clubs perfected decades ago, just with modern execution.

Private membership spaces? Golf clubs pioneered this. Exceptional service? Club hospitality teams wrote the playbook. Premium F&B? Most clubs have full commercial kitchens. Social spaces for lingering? Clubhouses were the original third space.

Yet fitness brands are winning whilst golf clubs debate dress codes.

The difference isn't infrastructure - it's integration. Equinox doesn't just provide gym access; they've created an ecosystem where members want to spend time beyond their primary activity.

What fitness brands actually borrowed

Let's be honest. Brands like Equinox, Lifespan and Barry's Bootcamp didn't invent premium membership experiences - they studied them.

Morning coffee ritual? Clubs have served exceptional coffee in elegant surroundings for generations.

Co-working spaces? Club libraries fulfilled this function before laptops existed.

Wellness programming? Many clubs pioneered holistic member wellbeing.

Social connectivity? Golf has always been about relationships over shared experience.

Fitness brands took these timeless concepts and executed them with ruthless focus on modern member behaviour.

The question every GM should ask

Why are members happy to pay £200+ monthly for a repurposed warehouse when your club offers manicured grounds, established hospitality infrastructure, and decades of service expertise?

It's not golf versus fitness. It's daily relevance versus weekend recreation.

Equinox succeeded by making themselves indispensable to members' daily routines. The workout anchors the experience, but coffee, co-working space, and social environment create multiple weekly touchpoints.

Your club already has superior infrastructure for this integration.

F&B as the bridge

Exceptional F&B can transform occasional golf into regular lifestyle integration.

Picture your dining room at 10am Tuesday: instead of empty tables waiting for weekend rush, members settling in with laptops, exceptional coffee, and light breakfast. Same elegant surroundings, same attentive service, serving modern needs.

Golf remains the hero. But great coffee, reliable Wi-Fi, and welcoming atmosphere for non-golf activities become the supporting cast justifying membership between rounds.

Honouring tradition whilst embracing modernity

This isn't about abandoning heritage or turning dining rooms into startup offices. It's about applying timeless hospitality principles to contemporary expectations.

The Victorian gentleman's club concept remains sound - exclusive membership, exceptional service, premium environment. The execution needs updating for members who work flexibly, prioritise wellness, and expect daily lifestyle enhancement.

Great clubs have always been third spaces. We're just expanding the definition.

The fitness industry studied what clubs do best and applied it to modern lifestyles. There's no reason the originators can't reclaim the advantage.

On Friday: The demographic shifts driving this transformation and why millennials spend £200+ monthly on lifestyle infrastructure - just not at golf clubs.

Quick one — if you’ve not done this yet, my scorecard helps you spot gaps across guest experience, costs, and day-to-day ops. Takes a few minutes and you’ll get a proper report at the end.