Quick answer: F45 Training keeps members coming back with community, gamification, and its FIT Rewards program — launched in 2025. Members earn "Loyals" points for class check-ins, heart rate tracking, social sharing, and challenges. They can spend those points on 155+ rewards. Any gym or fitness studio can copy the core thinking without a franchise budget.
What is a gym loyalty program? A gym loyalty program rewards members for showing up, hitting goals, and engaging with your community. It turns a simple membership into a journey. Done well, it cuts churn and builds a member base that markets itself.
This playbook draws on public data about F45's FIT Rewards program, boutique fitness industry research, and our work with gym and studio owners building loyalty programs that drive real retention.
What is F45 Training?
F45 Training is a global group fitness franchise. It was founded in Sydney in 2011 and started franchising in 2013. Today it runs approximately 1,600 studios across more than 60 countries. Around 1,000 of those studios are in North America.
The "F" stands for functional training. The "45" is the class length in minutes. Every session is a team workout. No two days are the same. The program rotates through cardio, resistance, and hybrid workouts drawn from a library of thousands of movements.
What makes F45 different is not the workout. It is the community. Members train together, compete together, and hold each other accountable. That community is the loyalty engine — and FIT Rewards is the fuel.
The timing matters. The global boutique fitness studio market was valued at USD 47.94 billion in 2023 and is forecast to reach USD 85.90 billion by 2030. In a market that crowded, keeping the members you already have is everything.
F45's 45-minute group sessions are built around community — the same foundation that makes their loyalty program work.
How F45 builds loyalty: FIT Rewards explained
F45 launched FIT Rewards in September 2025 in partnership with UK-based Endurance Zone. The program gives members a currency called "Loyals" points. You earn them by doing the things F45 already asks of you.
Here is how you earn Loyals:
- Class check-ins — show up to an in-studio or at-home session and earn points
- Lionheart heart rate tracking — wear the Lionheart monitor during class to earn bonus points automatically
- Consistency bonus — attend 3+ classes per week to unlock escalating bonus points
- F45 Challenge registration — signing up for the 8-week challenge earns 500 points
- Challenge check-ins — each challenge session earns 100 points
- Missions — special time-limited tasks that pay out big bonus points
- In-app assessments — completing fitness check-ins inside the app earns points
- Social sharing — sharing your Lionheart heart rate report to social media earns points
The FIT Rewards store has over 155 rewards across apparel, supplements, food and drink, tech, and more. Partners include GNC, Red Bull, Hyperice, and Sunlighten. Members can also spend points to unlock extra Passport visits beyond the standard monthly allowance.
The Passport Program is a separate but connected loyalty play. It gives members access to over 1,400 F45 studios globally. Travel somewhere new? Your membership travels with you. That removes one of the biggest reasons people cancel.
Individual studios can also offer hyper-local perks — from a nearby smoothie bar to a local event — making the program feel personal to each community.
The 5 loyalty levers F45 gets right
Lever 1: Community is the product, not just the backdrop
F45 does not sell a workout. It sells belonging. Members train in groups, track performance together, and celebrate each other's results. That social bond is the hardest thing a competitor can copy.
The data backs this up. Group fitness participants have a 56% higher gym retention rate than those who train alone. F45 bakes that into every single class. The loyalty program then layers rewards on top of a habit that is already forming.
Lever 2: Gamification that rewards effort, not just money spent
Most loyalty programs reward spend. F45 rewards effort. You earn more Loyals by training more often, tracking your heart rate, and hitting consistency streaks. The Lionheart monitor turns your workout into a live leaderboard. Effort becomes visible. Visible effort becomes motivating.
Members who take part in gym challenges or loyalty programs have a 30% lower dropout rate than those who do not. F45 gives members multiple ways to earn every single week. There is always a reason to come back.
Lever 3: Multi-behaviour earning keeps members engaged all week
Most gym programs reward one thing: showing up. FIT Rewards rewards six or seven things. Check in. Track your heart rate. Share your results. Sign up for the Challenge. Complete a Mission. Every touchpoint is a chance to earn.
This matters because engagement between visits is where churn starts. If a member goes quiet for a week, most gyms have no way to bring them back. FIT Rewards gives F45 a reason to send a personal push notification: "You are 50 points away from your next reward." That message brings people in.
Lever 4: The F45 Challenge as a seasonal retention engine
The F45 Challenge is an 8-week nutrition and training program. It runs several times a year. Members who join the Challenge check in more, eat better, and build stronger habits. They also earn more Loyals. Crucially, they commit to F45 for 8 weeks at a time.
It is one of the smartest loyalty moves in fitness. The Challenge does not feel like a loyalty mechanic. It feels like a personal goal. But the outcome is the same: a member who signs up in January is far more likely to still be there in March.
Lever 5: Hyper-local perks plus global access
FIT Rewards works on two levels at once. At the local level, individual studios can offer community-specific perks. At the global level, the Passport Program gives members access to 1,400+ studios worldwide. It makes the membership feel much bigger than one studio.
Boutique and high-end gyms already have retention rates of up to 75%, compared to 50-60% for traditional gyms. F45's dual approach — intimate local community plus global scale — is a big part of why boutique fitness holds members longer.
What gyms and studios can steal from F45
You do not need F45's franchise infrastructure to think like F45. Here are five tactics any gym or studio can act on today.
Tactic 1: Reward check-ins, not just payments
Set up a digital check-in system that awards points every time a member walks through the door. Make the streak visible. A member who can see they have attended 18 classes this month will not cancel before they hit 20. Members who hit a milestone like 50 workouts and receive recognition are 90% more likely to stay.
Tactic 2: Run a seasonal challenge
Pick one 4 to 8 week challenge per quarter. Make it free to join for members. Give bonus points for completing it. The challenge builds a habit loop, creates a shared goal, and gives your whole community something to talk about. It is the cheapest re-engagement campaign you will ever run.
Tactic 3: Add a social sharing earn trigger
Give members a reason to share their workout on social media. A post earns points. A story earns points. This costs you nothing. It turns your most engaged members into your best marketers. Every post is an organic ad for your studio.
Tactic 4: Create a micro-Passport with two or three partner businesses
Find two or three local partners — a healthy cafe, a physio, a sports retailer — and offer members a small perk at each one. It does not have to be complex. A 10% discount at the cafe for showing your membership card is enough. It makes your loyalty program feel bigger than your four walls.
Tactic 5: Send milestone messages, not promotions
When a member hits 10 classes, send them a personal message. When they hit 50, make a bigger deal of it. These moments cost almost nothing. But they make a member feel seen in a way that a bulk email never will. A digital loyalty card via LoyaltyPass lets you automate these messages through Apple Wallet and Google Wallet push notifications — straight to the lock screen, with a 90% open rate.
The Sweat-Stake-Stay Framework
We call this the Sweat-Stake-Stay model. It is the three steps that make F45's loyalty approach work — and that any fitness business can use.
| Sweat | Stake | Stay |
|---|---|---|
| What F45 does: Rewards effort directly — check-ins, heart rate, consistency streaks | What F45 does: The 8-week Challenge creates an emotional commitment to the program | What F45 does: Hyper-local perks and global Passport access remove reasons to cancel |
| What you can do: Award points for every visit, not just every payment | What you can do: Run a seasonal challenge that gives members a goal to chase | What you can do: Use digital wallet passes and partner perks to make membership feel bigger |
The idea behind the model is simple. First, reward the sweat — make showing up feel worth it from day one. Then create a stake — give members something personal to finish. Then remove every reason to leave. F45 does all three at once. So can you.
