SIBEC North America is one of the fitness industry's most concentrated gatherings of decision-makers — a forum where the people who run fitness businesses at scale come together not for a passive conference experience, but for structured, substantive conversations with the suppliers and partners who shape what their facilities can offer.
Matthew Januszek was on the ground in Coronado, California, sitting down with founders and senior executives across a range of fitness formats for the second of two episodes recorded at the event. The conversations in this episode go deep on three forces reshaping the industry: the rise of recovery as a standalone business category, the continued growth of functional training, and why the social dimension of fitness has become a retention variable that operators can no longer afford to treat as secondary.
About SIBEC North America 2022
SIBEC creates a structured environment that is distinct from standard trade shows. Rather than passive attendance, the format centers on pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings between suppliers and fitness club operators, layered with networking activities designed to build genuine working relationships. The result is a more concentrated and actionable form of professional exchange than most industry events offer.
The Coronado event drew leaders from across the fitness landscape — from wellness-focused recovery concepts to large-scale gym operations — reflecting the breadth of formats that now make up the modern fitness industry. For Matthew Januszek and Escape Fitness, attending SIBEC represents a direct investment in understanding what the operators building the next generation of fitness businesses actually need.
This second episode from the event features Edward Navan, Chief Strategy Officer of REGYMEN FITNESS and Co-Founder of The Covery Wellness Spa; Bryan Murphy, President, CEO, and Founder of Fitness Project; Jon Baraglia, Senior Director of Fitness of Fitness Formula Clubs; and Jarrod Saracco, Chief Operating Officer at World Gym International.
Key Insights from the Conversation
- Recovery centers are gaining measurable traction as a standalone category and as an embedded feature within traditional gym formats. Edward Navan's dual role spanning REGYMEN FITNESS and The Covery Wellness Spa reflects the growing conviction that recovery is not an add-on but a core service offering with its own demand curve.
- Functional training has moved well beyond a programming trend into a structural expectation. Multiple operators at SIBEC pointed to sustained and growing interest in functional training modalities as a driver of equipment decisions, floor plan design, and programming investment.
- The social experience of gym membership has become a meaningful retention variable. Operators increasingly recognize that people stay not just because of results but because of belonging — and that designing for community is a legitimate business strategy, not a soft priority.
- Bryan Murphy's Fitness Project model reflects a broader shift toward fitness concepts that integrate multiple service layers — training, community, and identity — rather than competing purely on price or equipment breadth.
- Jon Baraglia's perspective from Fitness Formula Clubs highlights how larger multi-location operators are rethinking the role of fitness directors in creating programming consistency and culture at scale across diverse membership bases.
- Jarrod Saracco brought the vantage point of World Gym International — a brand with global reach — to questions about how legacy fitness brands stay relevant by evolving their value proposition without abandoning the brand equity that defines them.
- Across all four conversations, a consistent theme emerged: the fitness businesses growing most confidently right now are those that have clarity on what they stand for and are designing every element of the member experience around that clarity.
Why This Conversation Matters
Matthew Januszek's presence at SIBEC is rooted in a straightforward belief: understanding the operators who put fitness equipment to work every day makes Escape Fitness a better partner and a more useful resource for the industry. These conversations are not background research — they are the ongoing dialogue that shapes how he and his team think about what the market actually needs.
That operator-first orientation carries directly into his work with Escape Fitness USA and the LIFTS Podcast, where the questions he raises about recovery integration, functional training investment, and community-driven retention are exactly the topics his network of gym owners and fitness directors are navigating in real time.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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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.
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