Live from HFA 2026 in San Diego, Matthew Januszek and Mohammed (Mo) Iqbal assembled one of the most consequential guest lineups in LIFTS Podcast history: Mark S. Mastrov, the entrepreneur behind 24 Hour Fitness; Adam Sedlack, CEO of UFC Gyms; and Bill Davis of ABC Fitness. In a single episode, the conversation spans membership model evolution, technology investment, the rise of longevity services, and the behavioral shifts driving an entire generation of gym-goers to use fitness facilities in fundamentally new ways.

The episode, recorded on the show floor at the Health & Fitness Association's annual summit, covers territory that matters to every operator from independent studio owner to global franchise: where the traditional gym model needs to evolve, how AI and data are reshaping the member experience, and why the intersection of fitness, healthcare, and longevity is no longer a niche segment but a mainstream competitive frontier.

What This Episode Covers

Mark S. Mastrov built 24 Hour Fitness into one of the largest gym chains in North America and has remained one of the industry's most influential strategic voices since. Adam Sedlack leads UFC Gyms, a brand that has built its identity around combat sports, functional training, and high-energy community — and is now expanding into new modalities including jiu jitsu. Bill Davis brings the technology operator's perspective through ABC Fitness, one of the leading software platforms powering gym operations at scale. Together the three guests represent decades of combined experience running fitness businesses through multiple cycles of disruption.

LIFTS — the Latest Industry Fitness Trends and Stories — is the weekly industry podcast Matthew Januszek co-hosts with Mo Iqbal of SweatWorks, broadcasting from liftspodcast.com. Matthew's background building Escape Fitness into a global equipment brand informs his line of questioning: he is consistently interested in the strategic decisions that separate operators who thrive through change from those who struggle to adapt. Recording this episode live at HFA 2026 placed the conversation in the context of the industry's own annual gathering, where the ideas being debated on the podcast floor were the same ones being implemented back in gyms worldwide.

The Health & Fitness Association conference is one of the fitness industry's premier annual events, drawing operators, suppliers, and investors to connect on the trends and challenges shaping the business. HFA 2026 in San Diego brought a particularly sharp focus on technology adoption, membership model innovation, and the growing relationship between fitness and healthcare — all themes this LIFTS episode addresses directly.

Key Moments from the Conversation

• The traditional membership model is under pressure to evolve, with the panel examining what comes after the monthly-fee structure as consumer expectations shift toward more personalized, outcome-driven engagement.
• Technology and AI are actively reshaping the modern gym experience, and the discussion from Mastrov, Sedlack, and Davis illustrates how different operators at different scales are approaching that transformation.
• Recovery, longevity, and performance-driven services have moved from premium add-ons to mainstream expectations, and the episode explores how leading brands are building those capabilities into their core offering.
• The conversation addresses GLP-1s, peptides, and medical wellness as forces already influencing gym usage, with operators needing to think carefully about how to position facilities as complementary to — rather than in competition with — healthcare interventions.
• Personal training emerges as one of the most important retention levers available to operators, with the panel reinforcing that the human relationship between coach and member is still the most reliable driver of long-term membership tenure.
• Younger generations are entering fitness earlier and using gyms differently than prior cohorts, and the episode examines what that demographic shift means for facility design, programming, and the multi-gym membership behavior now visible in member data.
• Adam Sedlack's discussion of UFC Gyms expanding into jiu jitsu reflects a broader industry pattern where brands built on one training modality are extending into adjacent communities to deepen engagement and capture new audiences.
• Bill Davis frames the opportunity ahead as one defined by personalization, data, and AI working together — and the panel agrees that what separates top-performing gyms from the rest is increasingly how well they use information to anticipate and serve what members actually want.

Why This Conversation Matters

For Matthew Januszek, conversations with executives at this level are part of the strategic intelligence that informs Escape Fitness USA's approach to the North American market. Understanding how the biggest gym operators are rethinking their models — and what equipment, programming, and technology decisions follow from that — is exactly what LIFTS was built to surface.

The fitness industry is moving faster than at any point in the last decade, and the executives in this episode are among the people determining its direction. An hour spent understanding how Mastrov, Sedlack, and Davis think about the next five years is an hour well spent for anyone building or operating a fitness business today.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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