Planet Fitness sheds its stigma and wins back members

Once mocked as the gym for “casual” workouts, Planet Fitness is now drawing a steadier wave of members—supported by pricing that still undercuts many competitors, a shift toward more strength-focused equipment, and the steady appeal of a no-pressure atmosphere

In 2017, a lot of people didn’t bat an eye when she said she was signing up for Planet Fitness.. Back then, she was in grad school, living like a broke college student.. Planet Fitness wasn’t flashy—no bells and whistles.. But it was cheap. open 24 hours a day. and it fit her life: she could go during lunch or at 2 a.m.. after lab.

She also remembered one monthly perk that made the deal feel almost too good: free pizza every first Monday of the month.

Nine years later, she’s still going. She’s long since graduated, and she’s even upgraded—now paying extra for the Black Card tier, at an additional $10 a month. A friend, Mario, jokes that she’s a “broke bitch” whenever she heads to Planet Fitness.

But the real question she can’t shake isn’t about cost.. It’s about tone.. She never asked for a “wellness spa lifestyle center” with a hair salon, massage appointments, or a sauna.. She doesn’t want overpriced juices or blood tests.. And—based on what she’s seeing on social media—she isn’t the only one noticing that Planet Fitness isn’t being talked about the way it used to.

A shift is showing up across videos.. One says. “Maturing is realizing Planet Fitness is a good gym.” Another insists. “Say what you want but Planet Fitness is stepping it up.. This is a fucking amazing gym to have.” The “purple palace” is still the name people use. but the attitude around it has changed—from punchline to recommendation.

The numbers, too, keep moving. Planet Fitness ended 2025 with membership rising to 20.8 million members, up from 19.7 million the year before. The franchise opened 181 new locations in the past year, and she says two of those are near her.

So what’s going on? She decided to find out.

She started by asking men at a Planet Fitness in Westbury, New York—simple answers, repeated often.. Price came first.. David, 42, said it’s close to where he lives and cheaper than other gyms.. Luis, 19, said that for the price it covers everything he needs for a good workout.. Michael. 35. added that he works all over the States and. with the Black Card. can access a lot of Planet Fitness locations.

As gym prices rise, mid-budget options can feel like they’re disappearing. Planet Fitness has raised its prices too—going from $10 to $15 for a basic membership—but the story she tells is that it still isn’t breaking the bank. In her case, the Black Card went from $21.99 to $24.99.

Price isn’t the only change people point to online.. She hears another theme: improved machine selection. and a shift toward being a place where you can get a decent workout at different experience levels—without the “performative” influencer culture that crowds more expensive commercial gyms.. One commenter put it plainly: “Planet Fitness played the long game.. Planet Fitness saw this coming.” Now. they said. it feels like they’re “getting tired of the standard commercial gym influencer stuff. ” and that Planet Fitness “might not be that bad.”

When she asked what the company thinks about the direction it’s taking. Planet Fitness Chief Marketing Officer Brian Povinelli said. “Our focus has been on meeting people where they are and creating a space where anyone can feel comfortable getting started or staying consistent.” He added. “We are always working to evolve our member experience to best reflect changing consumer needs.”

The purple and yellow space she walked into nearly a decade ago, she says, isn’t the same Planet Fitness she sees today.

Back then, a good two-thirds of the floor in her local gym was cardio. It was loud, sweaty—an obstacle course you had to walk through to reach dumbbells or a Smith machine. Now, her Planet Fitness has cut back on cardio and decreased the number of treadmills and ellipticals.

In line with a changing gym culture, the floor feels reshuffled.. The space is expanded for muscle-building equipment and free weights.. She lists new strength machines she’s seen or heard about. including hack squat machines. incline presses. and glute drive machines.. At the front desk, members can also sign out accessories like barbell pads and resistance bands.

She hasn’t personally seen it, but people online have mentioned seeing actual squat racks at their local Planet Fitness—rather than only the fixed-track Smith machines.

Steve, 55, told her he used to be a member at LA Fitness until a month and a half ago. He said every piece of equipment was broken and that it cost more for fewer amenities. Planet Fitness, he said, gave him everything he needed. He also said he uses the massage and tanning beds.

Still, the shift that many people remember—and argue about—has always been the culture signal Planet Fitness sent with the “Lunk Alarm.”

In the past, Planet Fitness positioned itself as a “Judgment-Free Zone,” aimed at keeping the space unintimidating for casual beginners.. The “Lunk Alarm” was part of that branding.. Each location had a blue siren above the free weights or Smith machines that would—allegedly—go off if someone was ego lifting: grunting or disrupting the space by throwing weights around.

She learned online that the sirens didn’t automatically trigger. An employee had to manually turn them on.

But the effect wasn’t exactly what the brand promised. Instead of deterring showoffs, she says the Lunk Alarm may have ostracized experienced lifters. Comments online described lifters trying to set it off out of spite, and others saying they felt targeted.

Under the alarm, she points to the sign defining “lunk”—“Ricky is slamming his weights, wearing a bodybuilding tank top, and drinking out of a gallon water jug…What a lunk!” Her takeaway from that: it was pretty judgmental for a judgment-free zone.

She also offers her own memory of the alarm’s reality: she never heard it go off. There never really were heavy weights to throw around. The maximum dumbbell weight is 75 pounds.

She remembers once throwing weights on the floor and preparing for the sirens. Nothing happened.

When the lunk alarms were removed around two years ago, she says she noticed an uptick in super muscular guys in the gym and more people pumping iron in ways that previously weren’t allowed.

Planet Fitness, she says, also tweaked how it treated the beginner—even down to the calendar.

When it first felt like Planet Fitness was targeting people who didn’t want to upend their whole lives, there were Pizza Mondays and Bagel Tuesdays. There was a bucket of Tootsie Rolls you could swipe at the front desk. The message, she felt, was that a small treat wouldn’t undo weeks of exercise.

For her, she participated. But she argues the promotions made the gym look unserious, and she says she watched it play out: friends who started working out there eventually moved on to Life Time and LA Fitness once they “locked in” on exercising.

During the pandemic, Planet Fitness discontinued free pizzas and bagels. Those perks never came back, though the Tootsie Rolls remain.

There’s also a design change she says she appreciates.. Planet Fitness got rid of its express 30-minute area.. It had been a full-body circuit corner with a mix of strength machines and cardio step stations for jumping jacks and step ups.. She says there was a timer for 60 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest as stations switched.

In her view, the mustard-colored machines took up too much space and using them made you feel like you were “screaming” that you didn’t know what you were doing. She says she never saw anyone follow the circuit. “Good riddance,” is how she puts it.

Yet even as Planet Fitness looks more muscular and less restricted, she insists the culture people come for still exists.

“It’s a friendly place to come work out and the machines aren’t always being used. They’re always open,” Luis, 26, told her. Kevin, 24, said he feels he can work out without people looking or judging him.

She says she doesn’t see influencers recording themselves at the gym. She doesn’t see people throwing gym bags around or hogging machines by leaving a rude water bottle on a seat. She says people are good about wiping down machines.

And above all, she describes a vibe where nobody will mock people for trying.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. She points to stale air. She says the free weights area reeks of hot man sweat. She says at least one machine is broken at all times. Dumbbells still only go up to 75 pounds, kettlebells to 30. She still doesn’t have a squat rack.

For her—and for others—that isn’t a dealbreaker.

Even her younger brother, she says, came back after switching to LA Fitness years ago. She asked if he returned because Planet Fitness is “cool now.” His answer was blunt: “It’s not that serious. I just need a cheap place to work out.”

In a gym world where attention can feel like currency, the renewed conversation around Planet Fitness seems to be less about trends—and more about what people actually want when life is busy: a place that’s accessible, affordable, and not going to turn a workout into a test of who belongs.

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