The BJ Gaddour Podcast | Men's Health Fitness Workout Nutrition Lifestyle Business · BJ Gaddour

Ep. 275: The Dying Fitness Industry

·43 min·3 clips

BJ says the fitness space now has 10,000 voices and corporate noise, making it harder for anyone to convert attention.

1. The BJ Gaddour Podcast episode centers on “The Dying Fitness Industry” and uses Peloton, Equinox, and online fitness as the main examples. 2. BJ Gaddour, the former fitness director for Men's Health, hosts the conversation with Jeremy Scott, who runs the Jeremy Scott Fitness podcast and has spent 20-plus years in the field. 3. The episode asks whether fitness is still a viable career path when equipment, subscriptions, and content all face weaker demand. 4. BJ says Peloton news only feels notable now because it has been “always bad news,” and he treats the company as a bellwether for the sector. 5. Jeremy and BJ point to an Equinox membership that was described as about $4,000 a month, or roughly $50,000 a year, as a sign of luxury pricing. 6. They argue that the middle is getting squeezed between discounted mass-market offers and expensive premium packages. 7. BJ criticizes the way fitness marketing leans on “science,” biometrics, and influencer packaging to make programs look more advanced than they are. 8. He says a single research study can be used to sell a video or a program as if it were fully science-based. 9. The conversation returns to the problem of beginner confusion, with BJ saying someone who starts training today faces too many voices and too much information. 10. He compares the old setup of reading Muscle & Fitness and watching Pumping Iron with today’s environment of thousands of creators and corporate messaging. 11. BJ says Instagram now pushes suggested content instead of the people he follows, and he complains that the feed is filled with “nonsense.” 12. He says a tracker can tell him he slept well even when he wakes up feeling bad, which shows how tools can start using the user instead of helping. 13. The hosts argue that Peloton’s technology matters less than the personalities and instructors who kept people engaged. 14. BJ says the stock went from about $160 to under $2, which he uses to illustrate how quickly the company’s appeal and valuation changed. 15. He also says fitness equipment is no longer moving the way it did in 2018 and 2019, and that sales now are only a fraction of earlier levels. 16. BJ describes his own business history in the desert, including seven and a half years in a building with no air conditioning and 150 to 200 recurring members. 17. The episode has a frustrated, candid tone, with both hosts talking like operators who have watched the market change in real time. 18. The format is loose and conversational, with long stretches of business analysis, personal examples, and offhand jokes about food, credit cards, and remote work. 19. People in fitness, coaching, or creator businesses will get the most out of it. 20. Anyone wanting a light, purely motivational fitness conversation may skip it.

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