Matthew Januszek, co-founder of Escape Fitness and partner in Escape Fitness USA, took to the show floor at FIBO 2024 — the world's biggest fitness expo — and brought the LIFTS audience along for a tour of the products and people pushing the boundaries of what fitness equipment and training technology can do.
In a series of conversations recorded live at the event, Matthew speaks with founders and directors representing brands working across strength training, hyperbaric recovery, perturbation training, balance technology, digital resistance, and more — offering a ground-level look at the innovations competing for attention at the industry's most prominent global stage.
What This Episode Covers
FIBO is the world's largest fitness trade show, drawing brands, buyers, operators, and media from across the global fitness industry to Cologne, Germany. For equipment manufacturers and technology companies, it is one of the most important stages of the year — the place where new products are launched, partnerships are announced, and the direction of the sector becomes visible in physical form.
The 2024 edition gave Matthew Januszek an opportunity to speak directly with the people behind the products — including the founder of BODYBASE, the team behind a connected all-in-one training system, equipment developed specifically for HYROX athletes, and a portable resistance and velocity training system. Escape Fitness's own EMEA distribution leadership was also present, offering a view from inside the Escape ecosystem.
The episode captures a cross-section of where product innovation is landing in 2024: digital coaching fused with physical hardware, recovery technology including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, perturbation training for instability-based conditioning, and connected balance training. The breadth of the show floor reflects an industry that is simultaneously specializing and integrating.
Key Moments from the Conversation
- BODYBASE presented a strength training system that extends well beyond its Reformer Pilates origins, positioning the brand as a broader force in precision strength rather than a single-modality product.
- A connected all-in-one training system represents a bid for the integrated training category, combining digital coaching with a unified hardware platform designed to reduce the equipment footprint while expanding training variety.
- Equipment developed specifically for HYROX athletes reflects the growing commercial weight of obstacle and hybrid race formats as a driver of training product demand.
- A portable resistance and velocity training system addresses the need for high-performance training equipment that is not anchored to a fixed facility.
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy technology represents the recovery sector's push into club environments, bringing a modality previously associated with elite sport into broader fitness settings.
- Perturbation training innovation delivers high-performance instability-based training, a category with strong physiological support that is gaining visibility at the operator level.
- Connected balance training that fuses digital coaching with deep muscle stimulation targets a category that goes well beyond traditional balance boards.
- The overall picture from FIBO 2024 is of an industry where the line between equipment and technology is dissolving — most of the standout products on the show floor combined physical hardware with digital coaching, data capture, or connected programming.
Why This Conversation Matters
For Matthew Januszek, FIBO is more than a trade show — it is a reading of where the industry's product imagination is focused, and what operators and consumers are likely to encounter over the next two to three years. Walking that floor with LIFTS listeners is a way to make that intelligence available to a wider audience than the buyers and executives who typically attend.
For anyone building, buying, or operating fitness facilities, this episode functions as a curated survey of the product categories gaining momentum — and a reminder that the gym floor of the future will look meaningfully different from the one most operators are running today.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
Related Episodes & Interviews
About Matthew Januszek
Matthew Januszek is the co-founder of Escape Fitness, the functional-training equipment brand he built from a UK startup into a global name supplying many of the world’s leading gyms, studios, and hotel fitness spaces. Following the separation of the UK and US businesses, Matthew’s focus today is Escape Fitness USA and the next chapter of the brand in North America. He hosted more than 300 episodes of the Escape Your Limits podcast and now co-hosts the LIFTS Podcast with SweatWorks founder Mohammed Iqbal, covering the business, science, and technology shaping the fitness industry. Explore more interviews and episodes on MatthewJanuszek.com.
About The Author
