On the LIFTS Podcast — Matthew Januszek and Mo Iqbal's bite-size industry show — the conversation with Yves Preissler gets into the physical spaces where fitness actually happens. Preissler is CEO of YP Fitness Consulting and brings over 40 combined years of experience creating high-end, tailor-made gym environments for investors, developers, and business owners across the fitness, sport, wellness, and recovery sectors worldwide. His work is not about trends; it is about building spaces that remain relevant and effective for the long term.

The episode explores what is genuinely changing in how gyms get designed: the shift toward customer-centric experiences, the integration of wellness and luxury into training environments, the industry's growing responsibility around sustainability, and the emergence of AI-driven fitness concepts. Preissler and the hosts also examine where technology ends and human interaction must begin — a boundary the fitness industry is actively working out in real time.

What This Episode Covers

Yves Preissler and the YP Fitness Consulting team operate at the premium end of gym design — creating turnkey and modular solutions for clients who need both the physical environment and the operational concept to perform from day one. With 40-plus combined years of global expertise, the firm has built a track record across fitness, sport, wellness, and recovery, with a particular focus on high-end finishes and bespoke concepts that translate investor and developer briefs into functioning, profitable spaces.

Preissler's perspective on gym design is shaped by the view that the member experience must be the design's starting point rather than an afterthought — a philosophy he describes as customer-centric design. He has watched the industry move from purely functional training spaces toward environments where wellness, recovery, and luxury coexist with performance, and he has built his consulting practice to serve that evolved market.

His interest in Fred Fitness — discussed in this episode as the first truly AI-powered gym — reflects his broader belief that the next generation of fitness facilities will integrate technology not as a gimmick but as a structural feature of how they deliver personalized experiences at scale. The question for Preissler is always what role technology should play versus where human interaction remains irreplaceable.

Key Moments from the Conversation

• Preissler argues that customer-centric design must be the foundation of any new gym concept, meaning the member experience — how the space feels, flows, and functions across different demographics and goals — drives every design decision before aesthetics or operational convenience.
• The convergence of wellness and luxury is actively reshaping what premium gym members expect, with Preissler observing that facilities combining recovery, hospitality-grade environments, and performance training are capturing market share that conventional gyms are losing.
• Sustainability is presented not as a marketing position but as a practical design imperative: Preissler examines how materials, energy systems, and equipment choices affect both a facility's environmental footprint and its long-term operating costs.
• Equipment price versus quality and sustainability is addressed directly — Preissler challenges the assumption that cheaper initial equipment choices represent savings, arguing that durability and sustainability credentials affect the total cost of ownership and the member experience.
• Fred Fitness is introduced as the clearest current example of a fully AI-powered gym: Preissler discusses what it means for a facility to integrate AI at the structural level rather than as an add-on, and what that model implies for the broader industry.
• The evolution of group fitness and personalized fitness are examined together — Preissler sees them as complementary rather than competing, with AI enabling personalization at a scale that makes both approaches more effective.
• The tension between technology and human interaction receives careful treatment: Preissler's position is that technology should solve meaningful problems in fitness, not replace the relational dimension of coaching and community that makes gyms valuable.
• Matthew and Mo bring their own travel and health habits into the opening of the episode, and Preissler's responses ground the abstract design conversation in the actual habits and expectations of the kind of members high-end fitness facilities are trying to serve.

Why This Conversation Matters

The physical environment of a gym is as much a product as the equipment inside it — and for Matthew Januszek, who has spent his career building Escape Fitness around the idea that equipment design shapes human performance, this conversation with Yves Preissler connects directly to the business he knows best. Escape Fitness USA's approach to the North American market involves understanding not just what equipment operators want but what spaces operators are trying to create.

The LIFTS Podcast returns to gym design questions regularly because they reflect the industry's largest capital decisions. Where Preissler's perspective is especially useful is in connecting sustainability, AI integration, and customer experience not as separate topics but as a single design challenge — one that the most ambitious operators in the world are actively working through.

▶  Watch the full episode on YouTube

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