Matthew Januszek, co-founder of Escape Fitness and partner in Escape Fitness USA, and Mo Iqbal, Founder and CEO of SweatWorks, sit down with John Ford — Chief Product Officer at EGYM and board member of the Fitness Industry Technology Council — to unpack the technology forces reshaping how gyms attract, serve, and retain members.

The conversation opens with a timely news hook: Planet Fitness raising its membership fees for the first time in 26 years. From there, Matthew, Mo, and John work through what that decision signals for the wider market, how gyms are turning to technology to differentiate their services, and where personalized fitness plans and assessments fit into the member experience of the future.

What This Episode Covers

John Ford serves as Chief Product Officer at EGYM, a fitness technology company building connected solutions for gym operators and their members. In that role he sits at the intersection of equipment, software, and member data, helping operators understand how technology can move from a nice-to-have into a core business driver.

Beyond his work at EGYM, Ford brings an industry-wide perspective as a board member of the Fitness Industry Technology Council, a body focused on aligning standards and accelerating technology adoption across the sector. His depth of knowledge on both the product and policy sides of fitness technology makes him a credible voice on where the industry is actually headed versus where it says it is headed.

On this LIFTS episode, Ford offers a practitioner's view on the growing importance of personalized assessments, the role of executive leadership in driving innovation inside gym brands, and the strategic logic behind wearable companies pushing into new geographies such as the Middle East.

Key Moments from the Conversation

• Planet Fitness raising its membership fee for the first time in 26 years signals a broader industry shift away from the race-to-the-bottom pricing model that defined budget fitness for a generation.
• Technology is moving from a peripheral feature to a central differentiator for gym operators, with members increasingly expecting digital touchpoints that enhance their in-club experience rather than simply existing alongside it.
• Personalized fitness plans and assessments are becoming a key tool for gyms looking to improve member retention and justify higher membership price points.
• Professional management and deliberate executive changes inside fitness companies play a measurable role in an organization's ability to innovate and adapt as market conditions shift.
• Wearable brands expanding into the Middle East illustrate how the category is pursuing geographic diversification as a growth strategy, and raise questions about how data collection norms translate across cultural contexts.
• The growing convergence of fitness and healthcare — including telehealth partnerships — reflects a wider trend of brands exploring integrations that connect physical activity to clinical outcomes.
• Long-term, the fitness brands that will lead are likely those that treat technology as a means to a health outcome rather than as a product feature to be marketed in isolation.

Why This Conversation Matters

For Matthew Januszek, building Escape Fitness USA means staying ahead of the technology curve that is redrawing the gym floor. The questions John Ford raises on LIFTS — how operators use data, how they personalize at scale, how they justify premium pricing — are the same questions every equipment and software provider has to answer right now.

The LIFTS Podcast exists precisely to surface those conversations at the industry level rather than the brand level, and this episode is a strong example of why that format works: a product leader with council-level visibility helping operators and founders think through decisions that will shape member experience for the next decade.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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