Although the later half of the 20th century was dominated by bodybuilding the 2000’s have been all about functional fitness and high intensity interval training (HIIT).
The most popular functional fitness program in the world right now is Crossfit and perhaps not surprisingly it was also the first to get in the game.
Below we will be looking at 5 of the current most popular circuit training/HIIT programs currently in the United States, in chronological order by established date.
Crossfit
Established: 2000
Average monthly membership cost: $150 USD
Crossfit focuses on “constantly varied, high intensity, functional movements” in the form of bodyweight exercises, gymnastics, and weightlifting.
Not only is CrossFit the largest fitness chain in the world, comparatively speaking, it’s also one of the largest and fastest growing corporate chains.
1. Subway – 42,998
2. Mcdonalds – 37,200
3. Starbucks – 28,720
4. KFC – 20,404
5. Burger King – 16,859
6. Pizza Hut – 16,796
7. Crossfit – 15,500 (2018 approximate data)
8. Domino’s – 15,000
*Numbers are from 2017, the most recent year with reliable data.
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The Crossfit Games, Crossfit’s signature competition is a huge annual PR boost for the Crossfit brand, and has even turned some athletes into mini-celebrities.
Crossfit has become so popular that big companies have taken notice and past winners have scored sponsorships with brands such as Nike, Reebok, and Oakley.
For now and the near future Crossfit remains the dominant brand in the functional fitness realm.
9Round Fitness
Established: 2007
Average monthly membership cost: $109 USD
9Round is primarily a 30 minute kickboxing class with the main emphasis being fat burning and weight loss.
Their style of workouts run as followed: You do one exercise at a time for a consistent 3 minutes and you do that for a total of 9 rounds, switching exercises every 3 minutes. After your 9th round the workout is over.
There are currently 800 locations with a 9Round gym in 18 total countries. That equals about 5.3% of what Crossfit currently has in place.
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UFC Gym
Established: 2009
Average monthly membership cost: $80 USD
UFC gym is of course the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s play on the functional fitness trend, and because they already have the established brand name and high financial backing it is one of the fastest growing fitness programs in the world.
Where UFC gym separates itself from the others is that it gives you so many options. In a typical UFC gym there are areas for sparring, kickboxing classes, free weight areas, and circuit training classes.
Since the first UFC Gym opened in 2009, the company has expanded rapidly, to the point where there are now UFC Gyms under development all over the globe and the company has earned a place in the 2018 Entrepreneur Franchise 500, ranking No. 397.
Entrepreneur
There are currently only 150+ UFC gyms around the world but as the sport continues to grow so should the fitness franchise.
Orange Theory Fitness
Established: 2010
Average monthly membership cost: $159 USD
Orangetheory Fitness is an interval-based workout that uses heart rate monitors to encourage you to push yourself (based on your own fitness level) and includes three different components – interval training on the treadmill, indoor rowing and weight room floor exercises.
Orange Theory
With that description you can probably already tell that Orange Theory is targeted towards people that want to lose weight but rather avoid high intensity exercises.
An Orange Theory gym typically a bit of an older member base as the treadmill, rower, and floor exercises are low-impact and have a low probability of injury.
As of December 2019 there are currently 1,200 studios in over 23 countries.
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F45 (Functional 45)
Established: 2012
Average monthly membership cost: $200 USD
F45 is basically a Crossfit gym with a different name.
The average class takes about 45 minutes compared to the average hour that is used in Crossfit. The only other differences are that they don’t use any sort of highly technical movements such as the olympic lifts (clean & jerk, snatch, push jerk, etc.) and the overall weights used in workouts tend to be a lot lighter.
Because the cost of F45 is actually a bit higher than the average monthly Crossfit membership it seems to be that the primary reason why someone might prefer F45 is purely because they don’t like the connotations that come with the Crossfit brand.
From the latest report of October 2018 there are about 1,300 F45 studios in 33 countries.
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