Matthew Januszek and Mohammed Iqbal sit down with Michael Ramsey, co-founder of Strong Pilates, to explore what happens when an operator combines Pilates with strength and cardio into a format that has spread to 14 countries in a remarkably short time.
The conversation covers how Ramsey moved from F45 franchise success into boutique fitness innovation, what it takes to build trust in local markets, and why Pilates has shifted from a niche discipline into one of the most commercially significant formats in the global fitness industry today.
What This Episode Covers
Michael Ramsey came to Pilates through a personal injury, a path that gave him both a user's understanding of the method and an entrepreneur's eye for what was missing from the existing market. His prior experience with F45 gave him a working knowledge of the franchise model before he co-founded Strong Pilates.
Strong Pilates fuses traditional Pilates with strength training and cardio elements, creating a format that appeals to a broad demographic while remaining distinct from both conventional Pilates studios and mainstream strength gyms. The brand has expanded from Australia into the US and across 14 countries, navigating the particular challenges of entering competitive markets with an established domestic identity.
Ramsey's approach to building Strong Pilates reflects a clear belief in product innovation and franchise support as the twin pillars of boutique fitness success — and his willingness to engage openly with the controversies around ClassPass and customer acquisition underlines how seriously he takes the business side of the format.
Key Moments from the Conversation
- Ramsey's path into Pilates began with a personal injury, which gave him firsthand experience of Pilates as a recovery and conditioning tool before he ever considered it a business opportunity.
- Strong Pilates differentiates itself by fusing Pilates movements with strength training and cardio, creating a format that sits between traditional studios and conventional gyms.
- The brand's expansion from Australia to the US and 14 countries required careful navigation of local market dynamics, including the challenge of building community trust from scratch in competitive regions.
- Boutique studios continue to outperform big-box gyms in member loyalty and experience quality, and Ramsey's model is designed specifically to leverage that advantage.
- Innovation in fitness is not optional — operators who treat their format as fixed eventually lose ground to concepts willing to evolve their product and marketing in response to what members actually want.
- ClassPass is a contested channel for boutique studios, offering both discovery value and risks to pricing integrity, and Ramsey discusses both sides of that equation directly.
- Wearables and stress-related data are beginning to influence how studios think about programming and class intensity, adding a wellness dimension to what was previously a purely performance-focused conversation.
Why This Conversation Matters
The rise of Pilates is one of the defining fitness market stories of recent years, and Michael Ramsey's experience building a franchise concept around a modernized version of the format puts him at the center of that shift. For Matthew Januszek and the LIFTS Podcast, conversations like this one illuminate the mechanics behind category growth — not just what is popular, but why it works and how to build a business around it.
From the perspective of Escape Fitness USA, understanding boutique fitness success stories is directly relevant to equipment strategy and partnership conversations. Strong Pilates is a clear case study in how format clarity, franchise discipline, and genuine product innovation combine to create something the market actually wants.
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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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