When Matthew Januszek and Mohammed (Mo) Iqbal recorded this LIFTS Podcast episode live at PerformX, they brought together four of the most active builders in competition fitness to answer a question that is landing on more and more operators' desks: is competition-based training — HYROX, DEKA, ATHX, and the formats multiplying around them — a trend that will level off, or a permanent reshaping of what it means to be a gym member in 2026 and beyond?

Featuring Mark Hartnett-Morgan of ATHX Games, Emily Leroux of DEKA International, George Crook of HYROX Training Zones, and Nicolas Denby of GymSync, the conversation examines how fitness racing has moved from niche enthusiasm to a mainstream consumer behavior that is rewriting the acquisition, retention, and design logic of modern fitness facilities — and what operators who are not yet engaged with this movement need to understand before they fall behind.

What This Episode Covers

The HYROX effect — the episode's central metaphor — describes a broader phenomenon: the rise of structured competition formats that give everyday gym-goers a measurable goal, a community of peers, and an event-driven motivation cycle that traditional gym memberships rarely supply on their own. HYROX has grown from a few hundred competitors to tens of thousands in recent years; DEKA International and ATHX Games are expanding rapidly alongside it; and GymSync is building the technology infrastructure that connects operators to these competition communities. Together they represent a movement that is changing what consumers want from a fitness facility and, consequently, what operators need to build.

LIFTS — the Latest Industry Fitness Trends and Stories — is Matthew Januszek and Mo Iqbal's weekly industry pulse check, published at liftspodcast.com. PerformX is one of the UK fitness industry's leading professional development events, and recording this episode live on its floor put the conversation directly inside the community that is most actively shaping how competition fitness grows. Matthew brings the perspective of someone who built Escape Fitness into a global equipment brand by staying ahead of how consumers use gyms — and now, through Escape Fitness USA's North American chapter, he is watching competition fitness create significant new demand for functional training equipment and purpose-built spaces.

The panel in this episode covers the full competition fitness ecosystem: operators building dedicated training zones, event organizations growing global participation, technology companies connecting the data layer, and practitioners working with the athletes who train year-round around event calendars. The breadth of the conversation makes it one of the most comprehensive overviews of where this movement is heading and what operators at every scale need to consider.

Key Moments from the Conversation

• The episode's panel rejects the fad framing: competition fitness is described as a structural change in consumer behavior driven by the demand for measurable goals, community belonging, and experiences that go beyond a standard workout — all of which are durable motivations, not passing trends.
• HYROX's growth trajectory — discussed in the context of moving from roughly 600 to 40,000 competitors — is used to illustrate how quickly a competition format can move from niche event to mainstream fitness identity, with meaningful implications for gyms that partner with the movement versus those that ignore it.
• The episode explores whether gyms need to build their business around competition fitness or simply need a coherent strategy for it: the panel's view is that most operators need the latter — a thoughtful approach to how they serve the competition-oriented member — rather than a full pivot to event-focused programming.
• Gym design is being actively influenced by competition fitness demand, with dedicated training zones, functional floor layouts, and equipment selections increasingly shaped by what HYROX, DEKA, and ATHX training requires from a facility.
• Events are identified as powerful drivers of member acquisition and retention because they give members a concrete reason to train consistently, show up in community with others, and renew their engagement with the facility long after the novelty of a new membership has worn off.
• Fitness tourism — members traveling to compete in events and choosing gyms in unfamiliar cities based on competition credentials — is presented as an emerging revenue and visibility opportunity for operators with strong competition fitness identities.
• Nicolas Denby's perspective from GymSync highlights the role of technology and data in connecting operators to the competition fitness ecosystem: operators who can surface and track member participation in events gain a retention intelligence advantage over those who treat competition training as invisible activity.

Why This Conversation Matters

Matthew Januszek has watched multiple fitness formats move from fringe enthusiasm to mainstream infrastructure — functional training, boutique studios, HIIT — and the HYROX episode reflects his conviction that competition fitness is following the same arc. At Escape Fitness USA, the equipment and programming decisions being made today are informed by where consumer demand is heading, not where it currently sits, and competition fitness is a clear part of that trajectory.

The operators who develop a genuine competition fitness strategy now — who invest in training zones, build event partnerships, and attract coaches with competition credentials — will find themselves owning a relationship with a highly motivated, highly engaged member demographic. Those who wait until the category is fully saturated will find the window has closed. LIFTS is Matthew and Mo's way of making sure their audience does not miss that window.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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