Upgrade a gym · Should you add Pilates, recovery or wellness?
The questions that decide it (there is no revenue promise on this page)
Recovery lounges, reformer rows and wellness add-ons are the most talked-about gym upgrades going. Plenty of suppliers will tell you they “pay for themselves”. We will not, because whether one pays for itself in your gym depends on four things no supplier knows: your floor, your power, your instructors and your prices.
This page is a worksheet of the questions that actually determine the answer. Work through all four sections before you request a single quote. If any section fails, the idea is not dead, but the plan changes shape, and it is far cheaper to learn that on paper.
1. Floor: the m² question
- How many square metres does the offer genuinely need, including circulation, storage and (for recovery) plant space? Ask the equipment supplier for a dimensioned layout drawing, not a number in an email.
- Which existing zone gives up that floor, and what does that zone earn you today in usage terms? An “empty” studio that hosts your three best-attended classes is not empty.
- Does the space work operationally: separate enough for a calm modality (Pilates next to a deadlift platform fails on atmosphere, not m²), wet-area drainage for recovery, sightlines for unstaffed hours?
Test-fit before quoting: draw the candidate zone at real dimensions in the free gym designer. If the reformers do not fit with circulation space on screen, they will not fit on the floor.
2. Power and water: the services question
This is where recovery projects die quietly. Saunas, cold plunges with chillers, and laundry loads draw serious power, and many gym tenancies are already near their supply limit after the original fit-out. Operator experience the pattern we see repeatedly in refurb scoping, as at August 2026.
Hand this to a professional — not a website question
- Get an electrician to confirm your spare capacity at the switchboard before you fall in love with a sauna. Ask the equipment supplier for the exact electrical requirements per unit, in writing, and hand that document to the electrician.
- Ask whether three-phase is required, whether it is present, and what an upgrade to supply would cost at your site. Only your electrician and your network distributor can answer this; any figure a website gives you is noise.
- Water in and drainage out for plunge and shower loads: plumber's question, same drill.
- Ventilation and moisture management for hot rooms: this affects the building fabric and can affect landlord consent. Flag it early, in writing.
3. Instructors: the supply question (Pilates especially)
Reformer equipment is easy to buy. Timetables are hard to fill. Before pricing a room:
- How many qualified reformer instructors are within commuting distance, and what do they charge per class in your area? Ring two and ask; it takes twenty minutes and reshapes the whole model.
- Can you fill a launch timetable from existing staff, or are you hiring into a market you have not tested?
- What happens to the room when your one instructor leaves? Single-instructor dependence is the most common failure mode of studio add-ons. Operator experience our observation across studio add-ons; no published dataset exists.
4. Prices: the architecture question
- Is the offer inside the base membership (a retention play), a paid add-on (a revenue play), or casual-bookable (a marketing play)? Pick one deliberately; drifting between them confuses members and muddies your measurement.
- What would your members actually pay? Ask them: the member-demand survey has willingness-to-pay questions and, more importantly, guidance on reading the answers without flattering yourself.
- What utilisation, at that price, covers the quoted cost inside your chosen timeframe? Write the equation with your numbers in it. If you cannot fill in the price and utilisation cells with evidence, the project is not ready to quote.
The embedded tool: the go/no-go worksheet
Fill it in on screen or print it — nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere. The evidence column says who supplies the answer; your keyboard never does.
| Question (evidence source) | Your answer |
|---|---|
| 1. m² required incl. circulation and plant — Supplier layout drawing | |
| 2. Zone surrendered, and its current usage — Your peak-hour counts | |
| 3. Spare electrical capacity confirmed? — Electrician, in writing | |
| 4. Supply upgrade cost if needed — Electrician + distributor | |
| 5. Water/drainage/ventilation confirmed? — Plumber; landlord notified | |
| 6. Instructors available, rate per class — Two phone calls | |
| 7. Price model (included/add-on/casual) — Your decision, in writing | |
| 8. Member willingness to pay — Survey results | |
| 9. Utilisation needed to cover the quote — Your arithmetic on 7+8 |
Reading it: any blank cell means “not ready to quote”. Rows 3–5 blank means stop spending time on equipment browsing entirely; services feasibility comes first. All nine filled with evidence means you are ready for the manufacturer directory and the designer's RFQ flow, and your quotes will be sharper because the spec is real.
Take the worksheet with you
This worksheet as a printable one-pager plus the electrician's requirements checklist to hand to your sparky. That is the whole exchange.