Retention: The Difference Between Dying and Thriving Gyms

What’s the difference between a 3% and a 5% churn rate?

It could be the difference between life and death for your gym.

Retention has been my obsession for two decades, and I’m going to share what I’ve learned about it over 20 years—what to track, what works and why most gyms fail because they don’t keep people long enough.

Why Retention Matters More Than Leads

Here’s the reality: Most gyms don’t fail because of poor marketing.

They fail because clients walk out the back door.

Think about every client who’s ever come through your doors—dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands. Now imagine if each one of those clients had stayed just six months longer.

That’s six more months of revenue for your business, dramatically increased lifetime value (LTV), and greatly reduced pressure on your marketing, sales and onboarding systems.

That’s also six more months of results for each client—another half year spent investing time and effort to improve lifespan and healthspan.

Improving retention isn’t just good business.

It’s our duty as coaches to keep clients as long as possible to help them build the fitness habits that will allow them to live long, healthy lives.

The Math of Retention

Let’s get specific because there’s some dangerous industry BS going around. Here are two damaging suggestions:

There’s no value in pulling your churn below 3%.Your target should be 3% to 5% churn.

I have to tell you there’s a massive difference between 3% and 5% churn, and I’ll break it down with data.

Our 2024 “State of the Industry” report showed that the average coaching gym has 122 members.

At 3% churn, the average gym needs four new clients each month just to maintain its numbers. At 5% churn, it needs six new clients a month just to stand still.

More hard data: The average big group gym adds five clients a month but loses three, for a net gain of two clients.

So at 3% churn, an average 122-member gym is essentially treading water—and struggling to do so. If it has a bad month for retention or sales, it’s underwater.

At 5% churn, the average gym is shrinking every month unless its owner can find a way to close a lot of sales every single month. But even if that happens, people are leaving too fast, so the owner is chained to the hamster wheel as they burn through the market. Every client who leaves after three or six months tells 10 people, “That gym didn’t work for me.”

That 2% difference isn’t small. It’s the line between life and death for your business.

Gyms with churn rates above 5%? They’re in grave danger, and our data show that too many gyms are in this position (see below).

Accepting high churn rates will lead to the collapse of your business—and marketing can’t save you.

What would happen to these gyms and their clients if their retention rates reached 98% or better? (Source: Two-Brain’s 2024 “State of the Industry” report)
Why Marketing Alone Fails

I saw the limited effects of marketing firsthand back in the “challenge” days. Programs such as New You or Gym Launch promised a tidal wave of clients. And they delivered—at first.

Thirty people would sign up for a six-week challenge. They’d pay a premium. They’d sweat, they’d finish, and then nine out of 10 would vanish within three months.

Sure, you could rinse and repeat. But each round brought fewer sign-ups, worse leads, more defaults.

Worst of all, the constant flood of short-term clients washed away your best long-term members because your coaching attention shifted to newbies and you were always thinking about onboarding, not serving existing clients.

Your veterans left because they felt ignored, and your community eroded.

Within a year or two, a once-strong business could be in real danger of collapse because its long-term members were gone and the hamster-wheel marketing plan was producing quickly diminishing returns.

That’s what happens when you chase marketing and ignore retention.

Retention Is Sales Over Time

Here’s the mindset shift: Retention is daily sales.

Every day, you’re reselling each client on showing up tomorrow. They haven’t built the default fitness habit until they’ve trained for two years. Until that point, you must put in focused work to keep them coming back.

After that point, people are likely to keep training because fitness has become part of their lives. That’s a massive victory for you as a coach: Each person who hits 24-month length of engagement (LEG) is going to be healthier for life. For your business, 24-month LEG reduces pressure on your marketing and sales systems and increases lifetime value (LTV).

You simply cannot reach 24+ month LEG without great systems. Let’s break down what works at each stage.

Source: Two-Brain’s 2024 “State of the Industry” report
How to Keep Clients Longer
Months 0-3: Onboarding and Mapping

If clients leave early, it’s usually because buyer’s remorse kicks in before they feel part of your community.

Solution: Build a strong on-ramp system. Book one-on-one sessions. Text between visits. Introduce them to the group. Schedule a goal review at the end of their on-ramp. Don’t leave space for doubt.

Joey Coleman, in his book “Never Lose a Customer Again,” calls these the “admit” and “affirm” phases.

Admit—You’re getting them into your gym and you’re teaching them your system and the philosophy behind it.Affirm—You’re not giving them time to second-guess their decision and have buyer’s remorse.
Months 2-5: Map the Client Journey

This is where many “New Year’s Resolution” clients quit. Why? They haven’t built relationships or seen measurable results.

Solution: Map the client journey. Insert touch points—calls, texts, videos, emails. Do an early goal review. Introduce them to at least three other people in your gym.

Months 5–9: Deepening Connection

At this point, clients need a stronger sense of belonging. One of the best ways to do that? Ask for a referral.

When clients bring in friends, they advocate for your gym. They brag about the programming. They sell the community. They double down on their own commitment because now it’s tied to their social circle.

This is Coleman’s “advocate” phase.

Solution: Start doing goal reviews and ensure you know exactly when and how to ask for a referral during your meeting.

Months 9–12: Critical Year 1

If a client stays 12 months, they’re likely to stay 16. If they make it to 16, they’re likely to stay for two years.

Solution: Appoint a client success manager (CSM). This is a part-time role—maybe five hours a week. The CSM’s job is to check attendance, text missing members, send birthday cards, highlight bright spots and generate client engagement.

Remember this: Retention isn’t “everybody’s job.” That vague approach doesn’t produce results. Someone must be responsible for retention.

Year 1–2: Building the Future

Clients leave when they run out of future. They’ve hit PRs, they’ve lost weight—but now what?

Solution: Create gamification and ascension models. Martial-arts belt systems work because they create a clear next step. Functional fitness can borrow this: milestones, levels, challenges.

This isn’t about rewarding past success. That doesn’t stick. It’s about showing clients how close they are to their next achievement. That’s Lowenstein’s gap theory in action. And it works.

At this stage, it’s all about hope. You must show them a vision of the future and then provide a clear next step toward that vision.

Your Action Plan

Don’t address retention by trying to fix everything at once.

Here’s the order:

1. Build a strong on-ramp.
2. Map the 90-day client journey.
3. Add regular goal reviews.
4. Hire a CSM.
5. Build a belt or ascension system.

The big picture:

Systemize—Track LEG and identify weak spots.Optimize—Refine onboarding, 90-day plans, goal reviews and referrals, CSM duties, ascension paths.Automate—Only use software solutions and AI once the human systems are dialed in.
Retention Is Hope

Here’s the bottom line:

Retention isn’t about contracts. It’s about relationships and systems.

Retention, when you really boil it down, is habits plus hope, delivered consistently.

And improving retention is critical work.

If you can keep clients for at least two years, you’ll change their lives forever. And as a side effect, you’ll add tens of thousands of dollars in net income to your gym.

Anybody who tells you to accept 5% churn or to focus only on marketing is putting your business and your clients at risk.

To talk about a step-by-step tactical plan to improve retention at your gym, book a call here.

The post Retention: The Difference Between Dying and Thriving Gyms appeared first on Two-Brain Business.