Gym Niche: 5 Powerful Lessons From a Sold-Out Studio

What’s up, Gym World?

Most gym owners hear “pick a niche” and think “fewer customers.”

Haylin Alpert saw a chance to stand out.

His gym, Core Principles Personal Training in Stamford, Connecticut, serves only adults 50 and older. It’s sold out at about 130 members and expects roughly $750K in revenue this year.

Mateo caught up with him to learn how he found his niche and what keeps members coming back.

1. Your Members Might Be Showing You Your Gym Niche

Haylin opened Core Principles in 2014 inside a corporate office building’s fitness center.

Zero curb appeal. You wouldn’t know it was there unless someone told you.

The original plan was to sell training to people working upstairs, but it didn’t pan out.

Employees wanted to leave when the workday ended. And sharing a locker room with coworkers wasn’t much of a selling point.

Fortunately, below-market rent gave Haylin time to make mistakes without going broke.

He learned marketing, started running Meta ads, and found customers outside the building. Meta has remained his main lead source for about a decade.

About four years in, members started telling him something:

They liked training with people like them.

Most were in their 50s, and enough people mentioned it that Haylin decided to make the business exclusively for adults 50 and older.

People he trusted pushed back. Why exclude everyone else?

But competing with every other gym in Stamford wasn’t going particularly well, either.

So he committed, and some prospects reached out specifically because of the age cutoff.

He wasn’t just asking someone to switch gyms. He was giving someone who had avoided gyms a reason to try one.

2. Make the Experience Match the Marketing

Picking a gym niche gives you a clearer message.

Haylin’s members are now mostly 65 to 75. Many have little exercise experience, feel intimidated by gyms, and have orthopedic issues to work around.

His answer isn’t a secret training system.

It’s fundamental strength training, adapted to the person, with an emphasis on communication.

The studio keeps things intimate.

• No more than six clients training at once

• Booked appointments rather than drop-in traffic

• A quiet, controlled atmosphere

• Other members with similar concerns and experience levels

Some prospects arrive with memories of a trainer who pushed too hard and left them sore for days. Haylin talks about those experiences directly, then explains how Core Principles is different.

3. Use Onboarding to Build Confidence

A new client who’s nervous about exercise doesn’t need to be impressed by how much you know.

They need to know they can do this.

Haylin starts people with a 14-day Forever Strong Kickstart:

• Two one-on-one onboarding sessions

• Two small-group sessions

• $149 total

Those private appointments give the coach two full hours with the new client.

They discuss injuries, build a relationship, and teach the basic movement patterns used throughout the program.

Then clients move into small-group training with some familiarity, rather than starting from scratch.

After the trial, membership continues automatically unless the client opts out.

Haylin calls it a “Netflix close,” but says the team checks in with everyone first to confirm they want to continue.

The most common membership is $114 per week for twice-weekly training. About 85% of members train at that frequency.

4. Protect What Works When You Expand

At about 130 members, Stamford is full.

The gym runs 50 sessions a week and operates on a one-in, one-out basis.

Haylin also built a business that gave him plenty of freedom, with only 10 hours a week in the studio, leaving plenty of time for his wife and two young sons.

But after years of solving problems, he missed the challenge. After many conversations with his family, he decided to open another location.

The new Norwalk location is 3,800 square feet, compared with roughly 1,500 at Stamford.

That creates an unusual challenge:

How do you make a bigger gym feel small?

Members repeatedly tell Haylin they value the intimate environment. So he isn’t planning to fill every square foot with more people.

He’ll run the same model with more breathing room and a hangout area. More space can improve business without adding more equipment to fill it.

5. Build Your Pre-Sale List Before You Start Selling

Haylin borrowed $150K against his brokerage account to cover the buildout and provide operating runway until break-even.

For four weeks before pre-sales, he and his general manager focused on building a list.

They ran Meta ads, put up window clings, and visited businesses serving similar customers:

• Salons

• Cafes

• Physical therapy clinics

The goal was 450 names, and they got just over 200.

Below target, but enough, in Haylin’s view, to start selling.

They also invited prospects to tour the Stamford location.

Rather than asking people to imagine the new gym from an ad, they could show them the existing model.

Physical therapy outreach also looked promising. Haylin secured two opportunities to present to entire clinic teams.

He sees an opportunity to serve people who have finished PT but still feel uncomfortable entering a traditional gym.

The founding offer is different from Stamford’s usual trial:

• 28-day Forever Strong Kickstart

• One private onboarding session

• Seven small-group sessions

• $159 total

Clients who complete all eight sessions unlock two free weeks of membership and 20% off for 12 months.

Whether the offer works remains to be seen. At the time of the interview, selling had just started.

TL;DR: A Gym Niche Is More Than an Ad Headline

Haylin didn’t stop at putting “50 plus” on the Core Principles Personal Training website.

He built the business around the people he wanted to serve:

• Clear messaging for adults who feel uncomfortable in traditional gyms

• Quiet sessions with small groups and booked appointments

• Private onboarding before group training

• Results that matter outside the gym

• An expansion plan that preserves the intimate experience.

The niche gets attention, and the experience gives people a reason to stay.

cheers,

j

P.S. Send this episode to a gym owner who might be on the fence about niching down.