10 Lagree studio growth strategies by studio owners

In celebration of Lagree’s first ever summit in March 2024—where you can also meet our TeamUp team in person—10 Lagree studio owners shared why this method is so effective, what you can expect from this space in the year ahead, and how to grow your studio, community, and business.

Not only are these studios making waves in their own local communities, but they are exemplary standouts of businesses already ahead of top fitness trends anticipated for 2024. Whether incorporating recovery, expanding their footprint, solving the staff retention crisis, or engaging in strategic partnerships across fitness and medical fitness, if you’re looking for strategies and ideas to inspire your business growth journey, this article is for you.

So, how can you grow your Lagree studio in 2024? Here’s what 10 Lagree studios had to say.

Grow your team through teacher trainings

Over the past few years, the fitness industry has seen a growing crisis not just in the retention of members, but in the retention of staff as well. Finding qualified fitness instructors is now harder than ever, however the Lagree community has seemingly found a solution. Thanks to their Certification programs led by Master Trainers, studio owners can certify and qualify new teachers and in doing so, find new candidates for their teams.

Ellen Olson, owner of Scorch Fitness, has successfully enlisted this strategy to grow a community of teachers and instructors from her client base that have helped her business thrive:

“When we opened Scorch in 2017, we were the only studio in Asheville offering Lagree. In the fitness world, people get really excited about new things and are always wanting to try them out. We advertised on Instagram and went through the community, meeting new people, and we made our first Lagree training free since nobody knew what it was. We knew people weren’t going to pay thousands of dollars to get certified in something they knew nothing about, so we offered the training for free, and it worked out really well. Five of my original teachers from that training are still with me.”

Empower your clients to explore their own teacher journey

Ellen has also found that some of her best teachers have come from former clients.

“Some of my teachers are clients who had fallen in love with the method, went through the teacher training and certification process, and now teach at the studio. I also make sure when I hire someone that they really love Lagree. You’re going to really enjoy teaching Lagree if you’re obsessed with the method like we all are.”

Introduce wellness services into your offering

While cold plunges, infrared saunas, and lymphatic therapy aren’t new kids on the block, consumers are now keyed into the benefits these services offer and are embedding them into their everyday health and wellness routines. But they’re not just looking to enjoy a 30-minute sweat sesh and then hop in the car to hit their local cryo center; they’re looking for a place where they can enjoy it all under one roof, and for a price that doesn’t break the bank.

Hannah Rogers, owner of Haus of Wellness in Laguna Beach, found that combining her love of Lagree, nutrition certification, and hormone specialty, allowed her not only to educate her members on the benefits of a holistic blend of fitness and wellness, but also to bring these services into her studio.

“I just wanted to bring everything together into one space. I have taken classes all over the country, and I felt there was something missing. I wanted to create a space where people could really lean into the whole self-care aspect and actually take time for themselves. Even if it’s just taking a class, it’s about being in a space where I feel I’ve created an environment that’s very zen and calming. I thought, ‘I’ve been seeing all these trends with cold plunges and infrared saunas, and I had great experiences using them, so why not bring them all into one space?’”

Celebrate member milestones

Acknowledging member milestones is one of the best ways to build a loyal community of members committed to achieving their health and fitness goals. Through loyalty and reward programs, studios can track their members’ progress through class and session attendances, and in doing so, celebrate their achievements and longevity at the studio.

To Deborah Miner, owner of Wicked Core, milestone celebrations and recognition are essential to her customer experience and rewarding her members has encouraged them to maintain their membership and ultimately, their fitness goals long term.

“We have a 100-class club. We celebrate when someone takes 50 classes and then every 100 classes after that. We have a big wall in the back of the studio with everyone’s name on it. We have a big celebration when they hit those milestones and, when they hit the next milestone, they get a star next to their name. We have a bunch of people on the wall with lots of stars because they’ve taken classes over and over again. In seven-plus years, we’ve had people who have taken 2000 classes.”

She even has a special private Facebook group for her 100-class club so that members can interact in a safe space with other members who too have reached this tremendous goal. It also incentivizes her other members to inch closer and closer to the 100 club.

“We have a Facebook group, a closed group that you’re added to once you’ve taken your hundredth class. Anyone might request to join but you can’t, you have to earn your way into it. When you’re posting in this group, it’s just the people that are in the higher class clubs. It’s a little bit more controlled in terms of the group and audience. When we have any new merchandise, I can post about it there and ask the members of the 100 club if there’s anything they want me to hold for them. It’s definitely more of an active engaged audience.”

Invest in new equipment and apparatus

Lagree offers some of the best equipment and apparatus in fitness. With its variety of Megaformers, Microformers, EVOs, Minis, and more, it’s important to consider the types of equipment that best fits your studio, offering, and client requirements. Thanks to Lagree’s helpful equations, studio owners can even estimate how much revenue they can earn depending on the types of equipment they stock their studios with.

This is a consideration Sara Fusco, owner of COREFIRE, is very familiar with, especially as she is expanding her second studio into a larger space to accommodate new machines and more clients and boost her revenue.

“We have two studios in New Jersey, one in Montclair and one in Ridgewood. Ridgewood is seven years old and Montclair is ten years old. At Montclair we have 13 machines and at Ridgewood, nine. We’re looking to grow to a bigger space to accommodate more of our members because we’re bursting at the seams, which is a great problem to have.

“I’m super excited to learn more about the new machines, they’re going to be a big change for everyone. We have all been teaching on M2s forever, so growing to that capacity is going to be awesome and with the new machines, we’re going to be capable of so much more. We’re going to be incorporating more strength changing, and I’m very excited about this growth.”

Expand your footprint and studio locations

Adding new studio locations is an excellent way to get new members to flock to your business. If you’re noticing it may be time to expand your footprint, either nearby to accommodate more local members or have recognized an opportunity to bring your brand to a new market, there are several steps you should start taking now.

Abbie Rosser and Katie Hayes, Co-Founders of Austin, Texas’s Urban Lagree, are here to share the different factors to consider when planning an expansion and why they’re opening their newest Urban Lagree location in San Antonio, Texas.

1. Demand in your local area: “Lagree has gotten so much more popular that if we don’t start expanding our brand, someone else will. We recognize the appetite for Lagree and that there is enough to go around.”
2. Areas of opportunity: “In Austin there are other Lagree studios and there are knockoff studios, but there are more areas south of Austin that don’t have as big a fitness offering. Cities are very dense. We want to open it up to more people.”
3. Reasons for churn: “We’ve had lots of different clients leave our studio because they live in different areas. The density and population are changing.”
4. Accessibility and reach: “People work out in micro-communities and want to work out near where they live. They like to walk, and they don’t necessarily want to drive super far.”
5. Location selection: “We’re going to open our newest Urban Lagree studio in San Antonio, Texas. This is our first test. It’s a new market, it’s growing quite a bit, and it’s still only 90 minutes from Austin. If we knock it out of the park there, we can confidently go to Houston and Dallas, and other places throughout Texas.”
6. Future strategic planning: “We want to grow throughout Texas. Katie and I have corporate backgrounds and we’re always trying to think strategically and have a detailed five-year plan of our goals and where and how we want to grow.”

Educate your clients on the benefits of the method…

…so you can empower them to be your best advocates. As a newer method, there is a lot to be learned and valued from this modality. Taking the time to educate on the value and benefits of the services you’re offering can convert new members into lifelong clients. Elia Covino, owner of Body Politik, says educating clients plays a very valuable role in the success of her studio.

“Lagree is a name people recognize, but what they don’t immediately recognize is the differentiation between Lagree and Pilates. What we’ve been doing over the last year and will continue to do is educate our members on the differences between Lagree and Pilates workouts. We educate our clients on what they’re participating in and why they’re doing this over that and what the benefits are. This has attributed to our success because people do realize that this is a different workout to something they’ve been doing elsewhere.”

Amy Peace, studio manager at ENDO50, shares how differentiating from Pilates is key to their messaging—they educate members on the values of Lagree and how it differs from other methods. “We have it on our swag, and even at the end of our voicemail message, ‘We are not Pilates’”.

Expand your class offering across complementary modalities

Lagree enthusiasts not only love that there is nothing quite like the method, but that there are so many modalities that do complement it. One of the top fitness trends in 2024 is the diversifying of boutique methods, with studios that formerly offered one class type or modality considering expanding their methods to incorporate more of what consumers and their members are looking for.

But the team at CORE Cycle. Fitness. Lagree. is ahead of the game. Since opening their doors in 2006, they have embarked on bringing their community’s favorite workouts under one 7000 sq ft boutique studio space.

“We’re bringing people a high-end experience and Lagree is an important part of that experience,” says owner Denise Chakoian. “Imagine all your favorite studios under one umbrella: bootcamps, strength, Lagree, tread, personal training. We have one of the largest group fitness offerings in Rhode Island.”

Collaborate with other local gyms and the community

Fostering great relationships with your clients is very valuable for keeping retention high and delivering an unbeatable customer experience. The same can be said about fostering relationships with the other fitness businesses and communities within your local community.

Sara, owner of COREFIRE, shares:

“We have great relationships with our clients, but we also have great relationships with a lot of the other gyms in our area. We love collaborating with them to do community events because we’re all driven by the same goals and being around likeminded people is so nice. There is nothing like our Lagree method, so it’s easy to collaborate with other strength training or HIIT training classes because what we do is so different.”

At END50 in Vero Beach, Florida, collaborating with the community is essential to building the ultimate health and wellness ecosystem for members and for growing the business. According to studio manager Amy Peace:

“Word of mouth and us being out there in public has been the best way to make our business grow. We’ve collaborated with massage studios, neurologists, and influencers. We’ve also hosted client appreciation dinners at the studio, and every three months we have a cocktail hour at a local restaurant right next to the studio.”

Invest in women’s health and care

Expanding your offering doesn’t just have to be across different modalities, though. It can also include expanding to new demographics and clients experiencing life changes. More and more women are taking an active role in their care and women’s health, which includes making activities for new mothers more accessible and bringing awareness to women’s health and wellness throughout every stage of life.

As Elia from Body Politik begins her own journey into motherhood, she shares how this will impact the studio and the new services they’ll soon offer to support mothers.

“I’m about to have my first baby, and it’s very exciting because so many teachers in our studio are also pregnant. We’ve had the idea that after our babies arrive, mothers can bring their babies and have their carriers alongside their machine. As a new mom it isn’t always easy to get to a workout class unless you can bring your child or daycare is offered, so that’s definitely something we’ll consider doing.”

Partner with physicians and medical fitness to boost client longevity

Consumer behavior is shifting, with more people focusing their attention on boosting their physical and mental health and wellness in 2024 than ever before. With the ability to access content online at the click of a button, they’re taking matters into their own hands. This has motivated medical and fitness professionals to foster partnerships to ensure their patients and clients receive the best professional advice and guidance before doing something that could result in injury or prolonging improvements to their health and fitness.

Dr. Kristin Bierle, owner of Body Restoration, blends Lagree and her chiropractic practice to ensure her clients are treated with the utmost care for their body and requirements. Marrying physical strengthening and toning with physical rehabilitation, Dr. Kristin and her team can achieve “full wellness” for their clients focused on balance and a holistic approach.

“I find creating stronger brain-body connection helps empower people. Not only do they gain physical strength and better coordination (proprioception is essential as we age), you can’t help but also feel mentally empowered when you leave a Lagree class. Combining this with chiropractic care brings in treatment for the entire musculoskeletal system and improves psychosomatic storing of stress in the physical body.”

Abbigayle and Katie at Urban Lagree, who both discovered Lagree following injuries, have also hired a physical therapist on their staff to ensure clients who find their studios after incurring injuries are treated with the proper care they need to recover. Abbigayle shares Lagree is the perfect post-injury method,

“It’s such an accessible workout and it really is for everyone, from incredibly fit people all the way down to those who are getting into fitness for the first time or who are trying to find something that’s incredibly low impact that will help them pull through an injury for longevity.”

Unblock your booking software pain points

Reliable technology and software performance is an integral part of business growth. Without a system you can depend on to deliver your members a seamless customer experience, you’re bound to find challenges as you start growing. When asked what some of the key pain points Lagree studios need to be aware of and unblock to successfully scale, here’s what our Lagree friends had to share:

1. Make sure your software system can track member activity, capture valuable metrics, and allow you to easily digest the data.
2. The ability to host classes and appointments is a game changer, and it’s even better when those two schedules are separate. Offering classes and private sessions will give your members more flexibility in their memberships and allow you to create a more personalized service for their specific requirements and goals.
3. Check payment processing fees. There’s nothing worse than collecting payments from members only to realize your processing fees are higher than expected. It is even more helpful when your system allows you to accept different forms of payment and still track those payments within the system.
4. Ensure your software partner offers customer service support. A solution is only as strong as the humans behind the scenes ready to support you every step of the way.
5. Don’t discount integrations and APIs. Connecting your favorite software platforms will ensure your member experience is enjoyed beyond class time.

Thank you to our studio friends for sharing your insight and successful growth strategies ahead of the inaugural Lagree Fitness Summit in Las Vegas on March 1–3. Come stop by booth 118 to grab a gift. We look forward to seeing you there.

Stay tuned for more news in the Lagree space! To learn more about how to get started with TeamUp for your studio, schedule a call with our team.